Airleaf,
LLC / Bookman Marketing
Founded by a former AuthorHouse employee, Bookman
Marketing started out as a provider of junk-mail-style marketing
services for authors. Later, it added POD-based publishing services (a
polite term for vanity publishing or a long-winded one for
self-publishing, depending on your bias). Upon the departure of its
founder, it changed its name to Airleaf, LLC. By both names, it was
notable for its extremely energetic spamming of potential clients, and
for the equally spammish nature of most of its marketing services.
Airleaf/Bookman was also notable, it turns out, for not providing the
services authors paid for.
On Thursday, May 8, 2008, in Morgan County court in Indiana, Indiana
Attorney General Steve Carter filed suit against Airleaf, LLC and its
CEO, Carl Lau, for taking money without providing services in return.
120 authors are named in the suit (there are actually more than 400
victims, but the Indiana AG's office has a only two-year window for
filing suit, so many of the victims couldn't be included). Carl Lau is
accused of violating Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, of using
company assets to cover expenses not related to the business, and of
continuing to solicit authors, promise services, and accept payment for
months after Airleaf became insolvent. The suit seeks restitution for
Airleaf authors, civil penalties of up to $5,500 per violation, and
reimbursement for the cost of the investigation.
There's a
more detailed discussion of the suit, and of Airleaf and its
shenanigans, at Writer Beware's blog.
Amazon
and BookSurge
Amazon.com, the online bookselling giant, announced
on March 31, 2008, that it would be requiring all print-on-demand books
it sells to be printed by BookSurge, the print-on-demand service it
owns. Publishers that don't want to use BookSurge may still sell their
books through Amazon's Advantage program, but Amazon will no longer
carry POD books it doesn't print itself.
This story was originally broken by Angela
Hoy of WritersWeekly and BookLocker, a POD self-publishing service. On
May 19, BookLocker filed
a class action lawsuit "in response to Amazon’s recent attempts to
force all publishers using Print on Demand (POD) technology to pay
Amazon to print their books."
Writer Beware has blogged
about the situation. The Authors Guild has weighed
in, as has the
ASJA.
American
Book
Publishing / C. Lee Nunn / Nathan Fitzgearl
Writer Beware has received numerous complaints
about American Book
Publishing. ABP, which presents itself as a "traditional"
publisher, requires its authors to pay a sizable "setup" fee, and
pressures them to buy large quantities of their own books (500-1,000
copies is the number most often suggested).
Complaints include non-standard contract terms (including royalties
paid on net
profit), non-production of promised e-book
editions, non-fulfillment of marketing and publicity promises,
repeatedly delayed
publication schedules, finished books full of errors, difficulty with
orders and order fulfillment, non-payment of
royalties, attempted blackmail (some authors wanting to get out of
their contracts have been told that they must pay $500, or ABP would
pull their books from circulation and hold the rights forever), and
harassment of those who question or complain. American Book Publishing
has been
the focus of at least one police investigation.
ABP's founder, C. Lee Nunn, may be using the alias Nathan Fitzgearl.
Authors with complaints about American Book Publishing are urged to
contact Writer Beware: beware@sfwa.org.
Creative
Arts Book
Company
Since Writer Beware's
establishment in 1998,
we've received a steady stream
of complaints about Creative Arts Book Company, a once well-regarded
small press publisher that in the mid- or late 1990's took a sharp left
turn into "co-operative" (read
"vanity") publishing. Even after vanity publishing became its sole
endeavor, CAB continued to present itself
as a reputable small press. Writers typically did not discover until
after they received an offer of publication that they were expected to
pay.
The publishing fee, supposedly 50% of CAB's production expense, was
actually far more than the real cost of producing and printing the
book--even if
CAB had printed the agreed-upon number of copies, which by all
indications it did not always do.
In 2003, CAB began contacting contracted authors who'd
already paid the full publishing fee but whose books hadn't yet been
published, claiming impending bankruptcy and cash shortfalls.
The author's book was ready to go to the printer, the letter said; what
did the author want to do about this? Those who received this letter
interpreted it
(correctly, in our opinion) as a not-so-subtle hint to hand over more
money.
In a Dec. 30, 2003 article in the San Francisco Chronicle,
CAB's owner, Don Ellis, again indicated
the company's intent to file for bankruptcy. As yet, there's no
evidence that
it has done so. Claims of impending bankruptcy (like claims of
death--see the Melanie Mills warning below) have been used before by
disreputable
publishers and literary agents as a way of dodging creditors and/or
dissatisfied
customers.
Angry CAB authors were looking to bring some sort of mass civil
or criminal action, but this effort seems to be on hiatus. Individual
authors have sought (and won) judgments
in Small Claims Court. We'll post more information as we receive it.
We'd like to hear from dissatisfied CAB authors: beware@sfwa.org.
Desert
Rose
Literary Agency / Leann Murphy
A former employee of convicted
fraudsters George
and Janet Titsworth, Leann Murphy of San Angelo, TX, established
Desert
Rose Literary Agency
in early 2004, just after the demise of her bosses' literary agency
scheme. Dozens of reports received by Writer Beware documented that
Desert Rose charged upfront fees of $250-350, and made no sales to
commercial publishers.
The Tom Green County Sheriff's Department opened an
investigation
into Desert Rose. On April 9th, 2009, a Search and Arrest Warrant was
executed on Leann Murphy at her residence. Numerous boxes of files,
manuscripts, computers and other items were taken as evidence, and
Murphy was charged with Theft by Deception, a felony in Texas.
The Sheriff's Department is still looking to hear from Desert Rose
victims. Contact:
Sgt. John Walker
Tom Green County Sheriff's Department
222 West Harris
San Angelo, TX 76901
johnny.walker@co.tom-green.tx.us
Be prepared to provide an account of your experience plus documentation.
Interminable
Agency Clause
SFWA has posted an alert
regarding the so-called "interminable agency clauses" that are
beginning
to appear in some publishers' contracts and in the author-agent
agreements of certain agencies. Such clauses give the agency the right
to represent a book not just for the duration of the book contract, but
for the duration of copyright. The Authors Guild provides a
similar warning.
For a detailed discussion of the interminable agency clause and its
dangers, including sample contract language, see the Writer
Beware blog.
Oak
Tree Press / Johnson-Warren Agency / Billie Johnson
Writer Beware has received
complaints about Oak Tree Press of Springfield
IL, run by Billie Johnson, who also ran the fee-charging Johnson-Warren
Literary Agency. Complaints include non-payment of royalties and
charging authors hundreds of dollars for "additional" print runs that
are never
produced. Formerly located in California, the company has recently
moved to Illinois. In 2003, one author won a summary civil judgment
against the
company for copyright violation. (Note: Ms. Johnson's company is not to
be
confused with Oak Tree Press of Cork, Ireland.)
Authors with complaints about Oak Tree Press are urged to contact
Writer Beware: beware@sfwa.org.
Poetry.com
/ International
Library of Poetry
The
International Library of Poetry or ILP (a.k.a the National Library
of Poetry and many others), was a vanity
anthology scheme that drew in
poets through free contests, then solicited them to purchase the
anthology in which they would be published, plus a variety of other
merchandise
and services. The contests, in which all entrants were declared
"semi-finalists", were
bogus; and while the company portrayed itself as a viable and even
prestigious poetry market, the lack of editorial gatekeeping
and the
resulting poor quality of most of the poems meant that publication in
one of its
anthologies was not considered a professional credit.
In early 2009, the ILP went out of business. In April 2009, the ILP's
notorious URL, Poetry.com, was purchased by self-publishing service
Lulu. Lulu has kept much of the existing Poetry.com content, and will
still conduct free contests, but has announced that it plans to
discontinue the anthologies and all contest-related vanity activities.
A fuller account can be found at Writer
Beware's blog.
Professional
Alerts
The National Writers' Union
maintains a regularly updated page
of alerts for professional writers.
The
Great PublishAmerica Hoax
A number of SFWA members
(including me) have perpetrated a diabolical
hoax upon PublishAmerica, an author mill that presents itself as a
"traditional" publisher and targets first-time writers.
Many of the writers' advocates providing warnings about this company
are speculative fiction writers. After PublishAmerica posted a venomous
screed against science fiction and fantasy writers at its AuthorsMarket.net website
("...writers who erroneously believe that SciFi, because it is set in a
distant future, does not require believable storylines, or that
Fantasy, because it is set in conditions that have never existed, does
not need believable every-day characters"), a bunch of us wretched
hacks decided to see how high a bar the supposedly selective
PublishAmerica sets for its own books. Over the course of a weekend,
thirty professional science fiction and fantasy writers and editors sat
down and each banged out a chapter of a deliberately unpublishable opus
entitled Atlanta Nights. Guess what: PublishAmerica
accepted it.
The press release and other information (including links to a
downloadable version) are here.
Sample a snippet of Atlanta Nights' immortal prose here.
Atlanta Nights is just one of several similar hoaxes:
- Painful
Poetry by Alphabet, a "potpourri of putrid poems"
- Crack
of Death by
Sharla Tann, "deathful prose so bad, it's good!"
Writer Beware has received well over 100 complaints about
PublishAmerica, and hundreds more can be found online. The company
has> been
the subject of at least one successful arbitration
proceeding, resulting in a substantial
award for a PA author.
The
Robins
Agency / Cris Robins
On May 15, 2006, a default
judgment against Cris
Robins
of The Robins Agency was entered in Washington Superior Court for King
County (case no. 06-2-16530-6SEA) for breach of contract, fraudulent
business practice, and
consumer protection violations in regard to the
promised provision of paid editing services and promised representation
of the plaintiff's manuscript to publishers. Ms. Robins has been
ordered to
pay $8,320 (treble damages) plus interest and attorney fees.
Writer Beware has been receiving complaints about The Robins Agency
since our inception. Complaints include promotion of the agency's own
paid editing services, incomplete/unprofessional editing, and the
charging
of huge upfront retainers (as much as $3,200 for a one-year contract).
To our knowledge, The Robins Agency has never sold a client's
manuscript to a commercial US publisher in the whole of its time in
business.
More detail at Writer
Beware's blog.
University
Press of the South
In May 2007, an author with University Press of
the South, an academic vanity publisher, filed suit against the
publisher and its Director, Alain Saint-Saens, alleging breach of
contract, breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, and fraud.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff incurred costs of more than
$100,000 in connection with his book (a contract signing fee of $500,
an additional signing fee of $2,000, $42,000 to print 6,000 copies,
$4,500 to ship copies of the book to UNPS, more than $34,000 in costs
associated with UPNS's development, distribution, marketing, and
promotional services, and thousands of dollars for his own promotional
and marketing activities). Although UNPS did print the book, the
complaint alleged that it did not provide promised marketing,
promotion, and distribution services, and misrepresented both its
ability to provide them and the scope and functionality of its ordering
and distribution system. The complaint also alleged that UNPS did not
pay royalties due, and refused to allow the plaintiff to inspect sales
records for his book, even though he was contractually entitled to do
so.
Alain Saint-Saens and UNPS failed to answer the complaint or otherwise
appear. On October 14, 2008, a judgment in favor of the plaintiff was
entered in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York,
in the amount of $148,449.39 ($141,933.07 plus $350 in costs, plus
$7,348.49 in interest).
There's a fuller report on Writer
Beware's blog.
Writers'
Literary Agency (WLA -- formerly The Literary Agency Group) / Global
Book Agency / Strategic Book Publishing / Eloquent Books / AEG
Publishing Group
The Literary Agency Group, a business controlled
by Robert M. Fletcher of Boca Raton, Florida, changed its name in
February 2007 to Writers' Literary Agency (a.k.a. WLA or WL Writers'
Agency).
This umbrella group includes the following:
- WL Children's Agency
- WL Poet's Agency
- WL Screenplay Agency
- Writers' Literary & Publishing Services Company (the
editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)
In 2008, the business expanded to include
publishing operations under the umbrella of the AEG Publishing Group:
- Strategic Book Publishing
- Eloquent Books
- Authors' Edge
Other current businesses or
websites that Writer Beware believes are associated with Writers'
Literary Agency, based on
referrals and website content, include:
- Writers' Book Publishing Agency
- Children's Book Publishing Agency
- Poetry Book Publishing Agency
- Screenplay Writers' Agency
- Global Book Agency
- Strategic Book Marketing
- Authors' Edge
Other names the business has
used include Sydra-Techniques, ST Literary Agency, Stylus Agency,
Children's Literary Agency, Christian
Literary Agency, New York Literary Agency, Poet's
Literary Agency, The Screenplay Agency, and My Editor Is A Saint (an
editing company).
Since the business began operating in 2001 under
the name Sydra-Techniques, Writer Beware has received hundreds of
complaints and advisories of fee-charging for literary agency services,
fee-based publishing, critique and editing referrals, and other
questionable practices. We're not aware that the literary agency branch
of the business has a
significant track record of commercial book or script sales under any
of its names.
In February 2008, Robert Fletcher and The Literary Agency Group filed a
retaliatory lawsuit against Writer Beware, alleging defamation, loss of
business, and emotional distress. On March 18,
2009, the suit was dismissed with prejudice by
the Massachusetts Superior Court, due to Fletcher’s failure to respond
to discovery or otherwise prosecute the lawsuit. SFWA has issued an official press release.
The office of the Florida Attorney General has opened a public
consumer-related investigation into Writers' Literary Agency and
its associated businesses.
Writers who have had
trouble with Robert M. Fletcher or any of
the above-named businesses, and who wish to file a complaint, may
contact
the office of the Florida Attorney General, regardless of their place
or country of residence, or the date of their involvement.
Contact information:
Randi Shapiro, Financial Investigator
Economic Crimes Division
Email: randi.shapiro@myfloridalegal.com
Phone: 866-966-7226 (toll free hotline) or 850-414-3990
Or visit the Consumer Protection
section of the Florida AG's website.
Except for
graphics, and where specifically indicated, all
Writer Beware contents copyright © 1998-2009 Victoria Strauss
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