AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 9, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
First, welcome to our new members. We have passed the 400-member mark this week with 401 members in our group.
This week, I have no new news to report concerning our case. I anticipate that some action will be taken by later this month. I have calls in to the US Attorney in Indiana, and I hope to hear from him by next week for an update.
This week, I am asking you to help me get our case organized because I believe that we will see some results in the near future from all of our efforts. I have attached a profile sheet for each of you to fill out so I can compile the data for all of us, the government agencies who will be bringing charges against Carl Lau, and the media. All information will be kept confidential from the public unless I personally ask you individually to allow me to share it with an agency or news source. I would never compromise anyone's integrity by giving out information without your permission.
I am trying to pinpoint when the fraudulence started to escalate at Airleaf and who the employees were who knowingly participated in it. I am also trying to differentiate between the publishing services versus the promotional services. Some of you paid for books to be published by Airleaf, some of you paid for your own books to be promoted by Airleaf, and some people paid for publishing and promotion by Airleaf. From our 400 members, I want to get a significant sampling to make comparisons.
For example, I went to Airleaf to publish my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. I paid $1,895.00 for publishing, 50 copies, and placement in 15 book stores. That price also included a return policy so I could have books signings. My book was published quickly, and I did receive the 50 copies. However, my book copies did not show up to my first book signing (problems with the printer was the excuse), it never appeared in 15 bookstores (I checked), and when I requested a book signing to be set up in Southern California last summer, I was told that there were no bookstores interested in this in Southern California. Since my book was publicized on national news stories, I found this amazing. I also was promised quarterly royalties, but we all are familiar with that story.
In my early days with Airleaf while I was still in the "honeymoon phase," I bought a promotional package for a book I published through iUniverse called ManReaders: A Woman's Guide to Dysfunctional Men. I paid $350.00 to have the press release for the book sent to "important decision makers" in the television market. Of course, there were no responses, but as my Airleaf consultant told me, "Lots of interest." So in my case, I paid for publishing and promotion of an Airleaf book, and promotion of my own book published elsewhere. On the survey form, please check all of the services that you paid for.
Some of you may need reminders to jog your memories, so I have gone back to some of my old emails and looked at some of the promotions that were sent to me. These include:
You have until November 30, 2006 to save on selected bookselling
services!
Reach 2000 bookstore owners for just $239.40! You save $160!
Reach 1000 Filmmakers for just 210! You save $140!
Reach 400 Traditional Publishers for just $270! You save $180!
Sell your book on 10 websites for $299.40! You save $200!
Reach 10,000 bookstore owners with our Maximum Impact Service which
includes direct telephone calls to bookstores for just $990. You save
$660!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
NEW BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
While we have sold thousands of books to hundreds of book stores, we have
never focused on selling books directly to individual readers--Until now!
With Airleaf's new Book of the Month Club we will be tapping into this
multi-billion dollar consumer market for the first time.
Book clubs like Oprah Winfrey's and The Today Show's generate millions of
dollars in book sales every month. We hope our book club will do the same.
We have selected a few of our best titles for club members, but we believe
the Book of the Month Club will benefit ALL Airleaf authors.
Please take a look!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
And my personal favorite lure to author fame from 3/28/07
Is your book the next to appear on the big screen?
Check out www.airleaf.com to see the trailer for our first film, Jessie’s Girl.
We are making another trip to Hollywood in April to present all new books to all new Producers and Directors! We will present your book in face to face meetings for just $650.
So, hopefully some of these campaigns will help you remember which ones you bought. And for sure—they all sounded so, so good—and legitimate!
I would like to share two links with you today. One is from our friend Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, a website that gives excellent advice to writers and warms them about possible scams. I told Victoria that I am working on some helpful links to help our writers with their book promotions in a meaningful way. I believe that most POD companies that offer package deals are misleading and/or ineffective. All of us want our books to sell, but there are many things that we can do on our own for little or no money rather than pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to promoters.
Victoria welcomed me to share her link about services for writers, and I know you'll find some excellent ideas there.
Link to Writer Beware: Writers' Services
The second link I would like to share with you is the link to help find a literary agent. I have found this link to be extremely helpful when trying to find an agent. It was sent to me by an agent friend, and I have been using it to test it out. There is no cost for using this link, Agent Query. Some of you have written to me that you would like to go through a "traditional" publishing route, so here is the way to start.
Link to Agent Query:
AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Some words of advice when seeking a literary agent: Expect rejection and don't personalize it. I have gone through the traditional route twice. I have found two excellent agents, one who was able to sell my first book, and a second one who believed in my book but was unable to sell it. I sent out 60 targeted inquiry letters both times and only received three people who were interested the first time and two people interested the second time. And although I was able to sell my first book, there was a long turn-around time between throughout this journey. So if you are expecting a quick fix—forget it. Make sure that if you choose this route that you have a strong query letter done in the proper format. There are lots of websites that give great advice in how to prepare one, and I am always happy to look it over for you and give suggestions. Also keep in mind if you are lucky enough to find an agent, there is usually a back up time in publishing once they find a publisher of between 12 and 18 months.
Last week, I sent you to our Airleaf Victims blog site. If you looked there, you saw my books were listed on the right hand side and available on Amazon. If you are selling your books on Amazon, my blog-keeper will be glad to have your book or books listed on our Airleaf Victims site. Just drop me a note, and I'll tell you what I need.
Here is a link to the Airleaf Victims blog site so you can see my books listed:
Airleaf Victims
In the upcoming weeks, I will share some excellent ideas and links with you to help you with your book promotion. These links and ideas are mostly free ideas that you can do yourself.
Please remember to fill out your survey and get it back to me with any documentation you have. If you want to send it to me by mail, my home address is listed on the bottom of the form. In three weeks, I will take a few days off from my job so I can compile all of the information that you are sending in and give you the results. If you do not have a printer and you would like me to send you the form as an email, just let me know.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2008
February 2, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 391 members in our Airleaf Victims group. Each week, more people are finding us as they try to call Airleaf or check their website only to find they have vanished.
Earlier in the week, I spoke to Detective Buskirk. He is moving along with the case, and as of the time of our conversation, he had 256 official complaints from our group. He is preparing his case to present to the federal agencies which can bring criminal charges against the people from Airleaf who have victimized us. I am hoping that we will see some concrete results this month. He is also trying to arrange times when authors who want to pick up their files and books can do so and hopes that will happen shortly. Hang in, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I spoke with Tom Irons from the Attorney General’s office. Tom is a very nice man who took over the case from Terry Tolliver after Tolliver left several months ago. Until that point, the incoming complaint files were just being compiled by paralegal Raven Bobbio, but it appears nothing more than that happened in the interim. After having my second in-depth conversation with Tom, I realized that regardless of how strong of a case we currently have (he told me new complaints are still coming in each week from our group), there is nothing very meaningful that his office can do at this time. In as much as the AG’s office can only bring civil charges, and in view of the fact that Airleaf is now shut down thanks to our efforts, his office is somewhat at a loss of taking meaningful action. He went through all of the steps that their office would have to go through to get to get to court with Carl Lau, and it sounds very overwhelming as far as getting us real results.
And so we will have to put our faith in the federal agencies such as the FBI, Postal Inspector, and US Attorney in Indiana for getting meaningful resolve. I did explain to him that I hold the AG’s office responsible for allowing things to get to this point since they were aware of our situation and sat on it for so long. The AG’s office was aware of Airleaf last year when they made settlement with two other authors, issued them a warning as I’ve mentioned in an earlier update, and sat on it when our complaints started coming in to them. Since the AG’s office is responsible for consumer fraud, I contend that it was their responsibility to protect us. If they could have put an injunction against Airleaf until our issues were resolved, many of our victims who were taken after August when our complaints started flowing in could have been saved. In the days ahead, I will be asking for accountability of that agency with other government officials who oversee that office.
I’m sure if Tom were there during our tribulations, he would have been very responsive, but he started in this job too late. However, he is going to pursue whatever action he can for us, and he is working to organize a case from the complaints that have been filed to see if he can put together a civil complaint for restitution for us. I will check back with him next month to see how he is progressing.
I recently asked the group if you have documentation about the “Hollywood Pitches” that Airleaf charge you for to take your books to Hollywood. Seven of you saved the information that was sent to you with the report and mailed me copies to compare. It was no surprise that they were the standard printed letters that I expected to find. I’d like to share this with you.
First—here was the confirmation to authors:
Dear _______________
This agreement is for the “Face to Face Hollywood” program, where your book will be discussed in meetings set with Hollywood producers.
Per our agreement we will create a “Film Treatment” of your book and have at least 5 face to face meetings with different producers, promoting it for feature film, direct to video, or TV.
Also per our agreement you will receive updates after the interviews with the producer’s company name, and dates of the presentations.
Thank you for your business,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf Publishing
Well, it didn’t look like the “5 face to face meetings” ever happened, but here are the results of the “Face to Face Hollywood” program sent out to the authors.
All of the form letters were dated either June 7 or June 8, 2007.
Dear _________
The producers that I met with this time in the representation of your books are as follows:
Al Smith – Lite-stone Entertainment
Brad Hong – Cinemagic Entertainment
Cliff Miracle – Capstone Productions
I met with these people privately so I had plenty of time to thoroughly discuss, the overview of your film idea. I have received commitments for 6 different children’s books for “direct to video” production, as a direct result from those meetings. This is very exciting, and as of yet I have not been told of any rejections, which is also good news!
If you look on our website, you will see over 20 books that we have movie commitments for. When I present to other producers and tell them that we have “X” amount of said commitments, they take us seriously and pay attention to what we have.
I have already seen this and use it to our advantage. For the last 2 years we have worked very hard to get a movie made. We knew that once we did, each one after that would be easier to get done.
We do see that happening and hopefully yours too will soon find itself in that mix. These producers and filmmakers know of your books. If we hear anything, you’ll be the second to know.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pitch your film idea. I will be going back for follow up in a little over a month. Feel free to let me know if you need anything.
Best regards,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf LLC
(I have reprinted the letters exactly—not cleaning up the poor grammar skills of Carl Lau)
Now, if I were one of the victims who paid for this service, I would have felt very excited—as you all did. There was no way for you to know that this was a fraudulent set-up. This is where Lite Stone Entertainment falls into my conspiracy theory because they put up their website listing 20 Airleaf books in production or pre-production. Those were the 20 of you who believed you really had a chance after getting your books made into a movie. This gave more false hope for those of you who started investing in the Hollywood promotions. You were seeing actual Airleaf authors whose books were in production or pre-production—and you believed with the excellent marketing of Airleaf’s sales team that yours could be the next big hit. You were told that Jessie’s Girl was an Airleaf book being made into a major film—and the trailer for the film was at the top of the Airleaf website to make you believe that this could happen to you. You were duped by the best.
We all know the Lite Stone story. And the Cinemagic Story is well…magic—here today, gone tomorrow. Carl Lau hooked up with Brad Hung from Japan’s Cinemagic at one of these gatherings. The “magic” about Brad Hung is that he disappeared, never to be seen again except on the Airleaf website sitting with a few of our authors. That was the most visible he was in this country.
Then there was Cliff Miracle of Capstone Productions. I’ve tried researching this with no luck at all. I did find a Capstone Productions on the Internet and explained our situation. Their representative was kind enough to write back:
Bonnie,
Good morning. There are a number of Capstone production companies out there, but we’ve never been involved with any movie making. We specialize in TV and radio commercials and corporate videos. Feel free to call or write if you have any further questions.
Jeff Hayes
COO, Capstone Production Group
So if any of you have a clue how to find Cliff Miracle at Capstone, please let me know because I’d like to have a chat with him--if he really does exist. And that would truly be a “miracle.”
Each week, I send a copy of this update to various government officials. It has been brought to my attention that others also check this weekly update in our blog. It is important for us to keep telling the stories to pressure the authorities to take action. When you have a chance, please check out our blog. Here is the link:
BLOG LINK: Airleaf Victims
At the bottom of the blog there is a place for you to post comments. These comments are read by the people following our case—government officials, former Airleaf employees, and of course, Carl Lau. It’s important to start voicing your feelings when you have a chance. If you are willing to share your stories in this update, this is important as well to let others know they are not alone in being taken by Airleaf.
Next week, I’ll be sending you a questionnaire to fill out so I can systematically put all of this together to help the legal authorities in an organized manner. It is important for us to keep up the momentum as we move along. We don’t want the Airleaf fraudulence to be an issue that is overlooked or underrated as far as a priority. We must keep up our pressure on the federal agencies so that we can seek justice for the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims that are out there. And when this does get to trial, I look forward to meeting some of you as we celebrate our success.
Please feel free to write to me with any questions or concerns.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 391 members in our Airleaf Victims group. Each week, more people are finding us as they try to call Airleaf or check their website only to find they have vanished.
Earlier in the week, I spoke to Detective Buskirk. He is moving along with the case, and as of the time of our conversation, he had 256 official complaints from our group. He is preparing his case to present to the federal agencies which can bring criminal charges against the people from Airleaf who have victimized us. I am hoping that we will see some concrete results this month. He is also trying to arrange times when authors who want to pick up their files and books can do so and hopes that will happen shortly. Hang in, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I spoke with Tom Irons from the Attorney General’s office. Tom is a very nice man who took over the case from Terry Tolliver after Tolliver left several months ago. Until that point, the incoming complaint files were just being compiled by paralegal Raven Bobbio, but it appears nothing more than that happened in the interim. After having my second in-depth conversation with Tom, I realized that regardless of how strong of a case we currently have (he told me new complaints are still coming in each week from our group), there is nothing very meaningful that his office can do at this time. In as much as the AG’s office can only bring civil charges, and in view of the fact that Airleaf is now shut down thanks to our efforts, his office is somewhat at a loss of taking meaningful action. He went through all of the steps that their office would have to go through to get to get to court with Carl Lau, and it sounds very overwhelming as far as getting us real results.
And so we will have to put our faith in the federal agencies such as the FBI, Postal Inspector, and US Attorney in Indiana for getting meaningful resolve. I did explain to him that I hold the AG’s office responsible for allowing things to get to this point since they were aware of our situation and sat on it for so long. The AG’s office was aware of Airleaf last year when they made settlement with two other authors, issued them a warning as I’ve mentioned in an earlier update, and sat on it when our complaints started coming in to them. Since the AG’s office is responsible for consumer fraud, I contend that it was their responsibility to protect us. If they could have put an injunction against Airleaf until our issues were resolved, many of our victims who were taken after August when our complaints started flowing in could have been saved. In the days ahead, I will be asking for accountability of that agency with other government officials who oversee that office.
I’m sure if Tom were there during our tribulations, he would have been very responsive, but he started in this job too late. However, he is going to pursue whatever action he can for us, and he is working to organize a case from the complaints that have been filed to see if he can put together a civil complaint for restitution for us. I will check back with him next month to see how he is progressing.
I recently asked the group if you have documentation about the “Hollywood Pitches” that Airleaf charge you for to take your books to Hollywood. Seven of you saved the information that was sent to you with the report and mailed me copies to compare. It was no surprise that they were the standard printed letters that I expected to find. I’d like to share this with you.
First—here was the confirmation to authors:
Dear _______________
This agreement is for the “Face to Face Hollywood” program, where your book will be discussed in meetings set with Hollywood producers.
Per our agreement we will create a “Film Treatment” of your book and have at least 5 face to face meetings with different producers, promoting it for feature film, direct to video, or TV.
Also per our agreement you will receive updates after the interviews with the producer’s company name, and dates of the presentations.
Thank you for your business,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf Publishing
Well, it didn’t look like the “5 face to face meetings” ever happened, but here are the results of the “Face to Face Hollywood” program sent out to the authors.
All of the form letters were dated either June 7 or June 8, 2007.
Dear _________
The producers that I met with this time in the representation of your books are as follows:
Al Smith – Lite-stone Entertainment
Brad Hong – Cinemagic Entertainment
Cliff Miracle – Capstone Productions
I met with these people privately so I had plenty of time to thoroughly discuss, the overview of your film idea. I have received commitments for 6 different children’s books for “direct to video” production, as a direct result from those meetings. This is very exciting, and as of yet I have not been told of any rejections, which is also good news!
If you look on our website, you will see over 20 books that we have movie commitments for. When I present to other producers and tell them that we have “X” amount of said commitments, they take us seriously and pay attention to what we have.
I have already seen this and use it to our advantage. For the last 2 years we have worked very hard to get a movie made. We knew that once we did, each one after that would be easier to get done.
We do see that happening and hopefully yours too will soon find itself in that mix. These producers and filmmakers know of your books. If we hear anything, you’ll be the second to know.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pitch your film idea. I will be going back for follow up in a little over a month. Feel free to let me know if you need anything.
Best regards,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf LLC
(I have reprinted the letters exactly—not cleaning up the poor grammar skills of Carl Lau)
Now, if I were one of the victims who paid for this service, I would have felt very excited—as you all did. There was no way for you to know that this was a fraudulent set-up. This is where Lite Stone Entertainment falls into my conspiracy theory because they put up their website listing 20 Airleaf books in production or pre-production. Those were the 20 of you who believed you really had a chance after getting your books made into a movie. This gave more false hope for those of you who started investing in the Hollywood promotions. You were seeing actual Airleaf authors whose books were in production or pre-production—and you believed with the excellent marketing of Airleaf’s sales team that yours could be the next big hit. You were told that Jessie’s Girl was an Airleaf book being made into a major film—and the trailer for the film was at the top of the Airleaf website to make you believe that this could happen to you. You were duped by the best.
We all know the Lite Stone story. And the Cinemagic Story is well…magic—here today, gone tomorrow. Carl Lau hooked up with Brad Hung from Japan’s Cinemagic at one of these gatherings. The “magic” about Brad Hung is that he disappeared, never to be seen again except on the Airleaf website sitting with a few of our authors. That was the most visible he was in this country.
Then there was Cliff Miracle of Capstone Productions. I’ve tried researching this with no luck at all. I did find a Capstone Productions on the Internet and explained our situation. Their representative was kind enough to write back:
Bonnie,
Good morning. There are a number of Capstone production companies out there, but we’ve never been involved with any movie making. We specialize in TV and radio commercials and corporate videos. Feel free to call or write if you have any further questions.
Jeff Hayes
COO, Capstone Production Group
So if any of you have a clue how to find Cliff Miracle at Capstone, please let me know because I’d like to have a chat with him--if he really does exist. And that would truly be a “miracle.”
Each week, I send a copy of this update to various government officials. It has been brought to my attention that others also check this weekly update in our blog. It is important for us to keep telling the stories to pressure the authorities to take action. When you have a chance, please check out our blog. Here is the link:
BLOG LINK: Airleaf Victims
At the bottom of the blog there is a place for you to post comments. These comments are read by the people following our case—government officials, former Airleaf employees, and of course, Carl Lau. It’s important to start voicing your feelings when you have a chance. If you are willing to share your stories in this update, this is important as well to let others know they are not alone in being taken by Airleaf.
Next week, I’ll be sending you a questionnaire to fill out so I can systematically put all of this together to help the legal authorities in an organized manner. It is important for us to keep up the momentum as we move along. We don’t want the Airleaf fraudulence to be an issue that is overlooked or underrated as far as a priority. We must keep up our pressure on the federal agencies so that we can seek justice for the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims that are out there. And when this does get to trial, I look forward to meeting some of you as we celebrate our success.
Please feel free to write to me with any questions or concerns.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Examples of Fraud
January 26, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
I would like to welcome the new members of Airleaf Victims. Our group now numbers 384 as of today.
This week, I did not speak to any of the government agencies. I’ll be following up next week with our contacts to date.
I did have some wonderful news from one of our authors. He received back a payment of $1,600.00 to his credit card. I asked him to share with us how this happened to inspire others to keep trying:
I wrote a check to Airleaf in October 2006. It was to pay for theproduction of two books at $800 apiece. Due to the experience ofhaving several books published previously, I knew it would not takeonly five or six weeks to produce them--twelve to fourteen months isthe norm in the industry--from beginning to end.When I wrote my check, I thought it was for the production AND theprinting of the books. However, in May 2007 Airleaf said I was wrongin this assumption, that I had only been paying for the production ofthe books. They then said they wanted to use my credit card to payfor the printing of the first book ($800).Thirty days later (June) they wanted to use my credit card again forprinting the second book (another $800). I thought it highlyirregular, but I gave them permission both times.I learned of their troubles in early September through some ex-Airleafemployees whose checks had recently bounced.I immediately sent a report to the fraud department at MasterCard,along with the evidence of their brochure to give them a better ideaof what sort of business Airleaf was. MasterCard wrote me a letterand said that they would investigate the situation.On December 27, I received a letter from MasterCard that told me thatmy claim was not valid, that the transaction took place long past the60-day agreement of my MasterCard contract. I complained to the frauddepartment, which routed me to the dispute department. They gave mean address to take my complaint to; they also said that my case wouldbe greatly helped if I had some evidence to prove my case.It was then that I learned that the documentary evidence that I hadsent them in September was not in my file. I guess the personhandling my case had either thrown it out or had misfiled it--orsomething.So with some help from Bonnie Kaye, I obtained some Airleafpromotional materials to send them once again. I sent it along with aletter that made the case that the product that Airleaf sold was aservice that took several months to produce; it was not something thatyou could find purchase satisfaction or non-satisfaction within the60-days mentioned in my contract with them. I explained thatproducing a book takes months not days--and having visited Airleaf'soffices on three occasions (before and after the initial transaction),I knew that they did not have the manpower to produce very many booksat a time.I ended my argument by stating that Airleaf never did any work on mybook. They instead used $1600 of my money to pay off their creditors.They had taken my money but produced no work--and had no intention ofdoing so. Therefore, the two $800 transactions were invalid.I sent my complaint on January 14, and on January 24 MasterCard calledme and said that they were going to reimburse me for the $1600. Theysaid that the original person handling my case had misunderstood thenature of the transaction. I was satisfied with that, and they werevery nice about it.For me, half the battle has been won. Now I hope to get the rest ofthe money back (the other $1600). An Airleaf Author
I was very excited to hear this news, and I am hearing it more often for people who are willing to fight. I have been sending out letters on behalf of our authors telling credit card companies about our plight, and that seems to help. If any of you would like my assistance, please let me know, and I’m happy to provide you with a letter.
There was some other good news from another one of our authors. A number of you were upset when iUniverse wouldn’t publish your book at the reduced “in print” price of $299.00 unless you had a letter from Airleaf stating they are releasing your book. One author wrote to me and said:
Bonnie, I've received two letters: one is from Carl Lau, granting a release to me and my book from any contractual obligation that was between Airleaf LLC and me. The other letter is from the office of the Indiana Attorney General, saying that a copy of my complaint was sent to Airleaf, and that an investigation of my complaint would be done. Hope it works!
I went on to ask the author how he was able to obtain the letter. He stated:
I sent a Letter to Mr. Lau's Greenwood address at 846 Burwick Trce, IN 46143-1910 and he responded 5 days later.
That is very exciting news for sure. If any of you would like to get a letter releasing your book, please write to Carl Lau and ask him to send you that letter. His home address is listed above.
One of our authors shared a letter she received from the Better Business Bureau last week from Carl Lau. It was sent to Diane Dove at the BBB and stated:
Airleaf LLC, is insolvent and will be closing effective at the end of the business today, December 21st 2007. We have been in the “wind down mode” since May, 2007, and have learned that a potential investor has decided against investing in Airleaf.
We have been talking to a bankruptcy attorney about filing both business and personal bankruptcy.
Carl Lau, Airleaf LLC
I did find this part interesting: “We have been in the ‘wind down mode’ since May, 2007…” I’m not sure what this means. What wound down? Surely not the attempts to take people’s money from May until December. There were numerous advertisements after those dates that most of us have received. Just to review a few for you to jog your memory:
June 2007
Walk the Red Carpet with Airleaf on the Carnival Sensation
For a limited time only, Airleaf has made arrangements to secure an audience with film producer Al Smith of LiteStone Entertainment. This weekend will guarantee a one-on-one meeting with you and LiteStone Entertainment offering you the opportunity to see what the film industry is looking for and if your book has what it takes to make the red carpet.
September 27-30, hear world-class speakers and attend valuable workshops promoting book sales. Schedule your time with Airleaf Executives, including Carl Lau, to discuss national exposure and enjoy benefiting from other authors’ experiences while cruising to Nassau, Bahamas.
There are only 13 cabins available as of today and due to limited availability on board the ship, they must be reserved by Friday, June 29, 2007. Get your passports ready and call Dawn directly at 1-800-342-6068 or email dduncan@airleaf.com. Welcome aboard!
Of course, we all learned about the Carnival “Sensation” that was never booked even though authors paid for the cruise and never received their money back.
Here’s another classic from the “wind down time” period:
July 30, 2007
Dear Author,
For over two years Airleaf Publishing & Book Selling has been impacting the Hollywood movie scene by connecting authors directly to decision makers in film and television. We will be walking the red carpet at the Kodak Theatre made popular by American Idol located in Hollywood, California in November 2007 with our feature film currently in production, Jessie’s Girl. We recently discovered your book and we believe it has the potential to be a feature film. Here are some exciting opportunities we have available for your true Hollywood experience!
Industry Executive $599
Introduce your book to Filmmakers and Producers in Hollywood Why spend time worrying about travel expenses to Hollywood and trying to find the connections you need to get your book in front of film and television executives? Let the Airleaf professionals do it for you! We currently have several books optioned for film and we’re prepared to get your book in the hands of movie making companies. We will prepare a full color filmmaker’s treatment and present it to industry executives and give you a status report when we return.
Producer $995
Present your book to Direct to DVD video producers. Present your book to the Movie industry via Direct to DVD companies. Many films are released directly to the shelves of video rental stores and movie selling specialty stores. Airleaf can get your book in front of the people who can make that happen. AND we’ll include the Industry Executive benefits with the purchase of this package!
Director $1295
Have a Hollywood Director review your book A producer/director will review your book and send you a comprehensive review. Have you ever wondered if your book would make a good movie? These are the industry professionals that can lead you into the world of film and television. AND we’ll include the Industry Executive and Producer level benefits with the purchase of this package!
Our goal is to put your book in front of movie goers nationwide. We can make your red carpet dreams come true. We already have many books optioned for film, two are in production and yours could be next! To participate call 1-800-342-6068 or email dduncan@airleaf.com
Sincerely, Dawn Duncan-Rodgers Author Consultant
This promotion truly had a powerful impact. You remember the lie I exposed to you back in the fall about Jessie’s girl, right? There was no movie in production, and here Dawn Duncan-Rodgers was sending us promotions about walking the red carpet at the Kodak Theater in November 2007 for the opening of an unproduced movie. Just in case you think we are going to have a problem proving FRAUD with Airleaf, fear not dear authors. It doesn’t get more fraudulent than that! Well, let me correct that statement—tied for first place in the fraudulence contest is the statement, “For over two years Airleaf Publishing & Book Selling has been impacting the Hollywood movie scene by connecting authors directly to decision makers in film and television.” Hmmm..impacting the Hollywood movie scene. Mind-blowing for sure!
This week I have been investigating many of your advertisements and results of the Hollywood pitch fests. I will try to get you those results shortly. You’ll find them most interesting—and at this point, most predicable.
Although the wheels of justice are turning slowly, they are turning--trust me. It is important for us to keep up the momentum and our hopes without getting discouraged. We have to look at the big picture here and realize that all of our efforts will create a major impact not only on Airleaf, but also for other companies who are setting up with the intentions of taking money from unsuspecting authors.
Have a good week—things are looking up!
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
I would like to welcome the new members of Airleaf Victims. Our group now numbers 384 as of today.
This week, I did not speak to any of the government agencies. I’ll be following up next week with our contacts to date.
I did have some wonderful news from one of our authors. He received back a payment of $1,600.00 to his credit card. I asked him to share with us how this happened to inspire others to keep trying:
I wrote a check to Airleaf in October 2006. It was to pay for theproduction of two books at $800 apiece. Due to the experience ofhaving several books published previously, I knew it would not takeonly five or six weeks to produce them--twelve to fourteen months isthe norm in the industry--from beginning to end.When I wrote my check, I thought it was for the production AND theprinting of the books. However, in May 2007 Airleaf said I was wrongin this assumption, that I had only been paying for the production ofthe books. They then said they wanted to use my credit card to payfor the printing of the first book ($800).Thirty days later (June) they wanted to use my credit card again forprinting the second book (another $800). I thought it highlyirregular, but I gave them permission both times.I learned of their troubles in early September through some ex-Airleafemployees whose checks had recently bounced.I immediately sent a report to the fraud department at MasterCard,along with the evidence of their brochure to give them a better ideaof what sort of business Airleaf was. MasterCard wrote me a letterand said that they would investigate the situation.On December 27, I received a letter from MasterCard that told me thatmy claim was not valid, that the transaction took place long past the60-day agreement of my MasterCard contract. I complained to the frauddepartment, which routed me to the dispute department. They gave mean address to take my complaint to; they also said that my case wouldbe greatly helped if I had some evidence to prove my case.It was then that I learned that the documentary evidence that I hadsent them in September was not in my file. I guess the personhandling my case had either thrown it out or had misfiled it--orsomething.So with some help from Bonnie Kaye, I obtained some Airleafpromotional materials to send them once again. I sent it along with aletter that made the case that the product that Airleaf sold was aservice that took several months to produce; it was not something thatyou could find purchase satisfaction or non-satisfaction within the60-days mentioned in my contract with them. I explained thatproducing a book takes months not days--and having visited Airleaf'soffices on three occasions (before and after the initial transaction),I knew that they did not have the manpower to produce very many booksat a time.I ended my argument by stating that Airleaf never did any work on mybook. They instead used $1600 of my money to pay off their creditors.They had taken my money but produced no work--and had no intention ofdoing so. Therefore, the two $800 transactions were invalid.I sent my complaint on January 14, and on January 24 MasterCard calledme and said that they were going to reimburse me for the $1600. Theysaid that the original person handling my case had misunderstood thenature of the transaction. I was satisfied with that, and they werevery nice about it.For me, half the battle has been won. Now I hope to get the rest ofthe money back (the other $1600). An Airleaf Author
I was very excited to hear this news, and I am hearing it more often for people who are willing to fight. I have been sending out letters on behalf of our authors telling credit card companies about our plight, and that seems to help. If any of you would like my assistance, please let me know, and I’m happy to provide you with a letter.
There was some other good news from another one of our authors. A number of you were upset when iUniverse wouldn’t publish your book at the reduced “in print” price of $299.00 unless you had a letter from Airleaf stating they are releasing your book. One author wrote to me and said:
Bonnie, I've received two letters: one is from Carl Lau, granting a release to me and my book from any contractual obligation that was between Airleaf LLC and me. The other letter is from the office of the Indiana Attorney General, saying that a copy of my complaint was sent to Airleaf, and that an investigation of my complaint would be done. Hope it works!
I went on to ask the author how he was able to obtain the letter. He stated:
I sent a Letter to Mr. Lau's Greenwood address at 846 Burwick Trce, IN 46143-1910 and he responded 5 days later.
That is very exciting news for sure. If any of you would like to get a letter releasing your book, please write to Carl Lau and ask him to send you that letter. His home address is listed above.
One of our authors shared a letter she received from the Better Business Bureau last week from Carl Lau. It was sent to Diane Dove at the BBB and stated:
Airleaf LLC, is insolvent and will be closing effective at the end of the business today, December 21st 2007. We have been in the “wind down mode” since May, 2007, and have learned that a potential investor has decided against investing in Airleaf.
We have been talking to a bankruptcy attorney about filing both business and personal bankruptcy.
Carl Lau, Airleaf LLC
I did find this part interesting: “We have been in the ‘wind down mode’ since May, 2007…” I’m not sure what this means. What wound down? Surely not the attempts to take people’s money from May until December. There were numerous advertisements after those dates that most of us have received. Just to review a few for you to jog your memory:
June 2007
Walk the Red Carpet with Airleaf on the Carnival Sensation
For a limited time only, Airleaf has made arrangements to secure an audience with film producer Al Smith of LiteStone Entertainment. This weekend will guarantee a one-on-one meeting with you and LiteStone Entertainment offering you the opportunity to see what the film industry is looking for and if your book has what it takes to make the red carpet.
September 27-30, hear world-class speakers and attend valuable workshops promoting book sales. Schedule your time with Airleaf Executives, including Carl Lau, to discuss national exposure and enjoy benefiting from other authors’ experiences while cruising to Nassau, Bahamas.
There are only 13 cabins available as of today and due to limited availability on board the ship, they must be reserved by Friday, June 29, 2007. Get your passports ready and call Dawn directly at 1-800-342-6068 or email dduncan@airleaf.com. Welcome aboard!
Of course, we all learned about the Carnival “Sensation” that was never booked even though authors paid for the cruise and never received their money back.
Here’s another classic from the “wind down time” period:
July 30, 2007
Dear Author,
For over two years Airleaf Publishing & Book Selling has been impacting the Hollywood movie scene by connecting authors directly to decision makers in film and television. We will be walking the red carpet at the Kodak Theatre made popular by American Idol located in Hollywood, California in November 2007 with our feature film currently in production, Jessie’s Girl. We recently discovered your book and we believe it has the potential to be a feature film. Here are some exciting opportunities we have available for your true Hollywood experience!
Industry Executive $599
Introduce your book to Filmmakers and Producers in Hollywood Why spend time worrying about travel expenses to Hollywood and trying to find the connections you need to get your book in front of film and television executives? Let the Airleaf professionals do it for you! We currently have several books optioned for film and we’re prepared to get your book in the hands of movie making companies. We will prepare a full color filmmaker’s treatment and present it to industry executives and give you a status report when we return.
Producer $995
Present your book to Direct to DVD video producers. Present your book to the Movie industry via Direct to DVD companies. Many films are released directly to the shelves of video rental stores and movie selling specialty stores. Airleaf can get your book in front of the people who can make that happen. AND we’ll include the Industry Executive benefits with the purchase of this package!
Director $1295
Have a Hollywood Director review your book A producer/director will review your book and send you a comprehensive review. Have you ever wondered if your book would make a good movie? These are the industry professionals that can lead you into the world of film and television. AND we’ll include the Industry Executive and Producer level benefits with the purchase of this package!
Our goal is to put your book in front of movie goers nationwide. We can make your red carpet dreams come true. We already have many books optioned for film, two are in production and yours could be next! To participate call 1-800-342-6068 or email dduncan@airleaf.com
Sincerely, Dawn Duncan-Rodgers Author Consultant
This promotion truly had a powerful impact. You remember the lie I exposed to you back in the fall about Jessie’s girl, right? There was no movie in production, and here Dawn Duncan-Rodgers was sending us promotions about walking the red carpet at the Kodak Theater in November 2007 for the opening of an unproduced movie. Just in case you think we are going to have a problem proving FRAUD with Airleaf, fear not dear authors. It doesn’t get more fraudulent than that! Well, let me correct that statement—tied for first place in the fraudulence contest is the statement, “For over two years Airleaf Publishing & Book Selling has been impacting the Hollywood movie scene by connecting authors directly to decision makers in film and television.” Hmmm..impacting the Hollywood movie scene. Mind-blowing for sure!
This week I have been investigating many of your advertisements and results of the Hollywood pitch fests. I will try to get you those results shortly. You’ll find them most interesting—and at this point, most predicable.
Although the wheels of justice are turning slowly, they are turning--trust me. It is important for us to keep up the momentum and our hopes without getting discouraged. We have to look at the big picture here and realize that all of our efforts will create a major impact not only on Airleaf, but also for other companies who are setting up with the intentions of taking money from unsuspecting authors.
Have a good week—things are looking up!
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
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