WHEN A RAT IS GETTING TRAPPED IN A MAZE...

Brien Jones is a desperate man. His new attacks on me and the other truth sayers show he is trapped like a rat in a maze. His distortions and lies are typical of his methods of operating in life. So let me set the record straight about his latest attack.

Jones states:
I thought I understood Bonnie Kaye’s lies completely. (I have BOXES of her hateful books, after all.) With Bonnie Kaye it’s all about the money and always has been. It’s also came as no surprise that Bonnie Kaye prefers the women that worked at Airleaf when it closed to the man that left 18 months earlier. Now I’m the mastermind of Airleaf? You decided that two years later?

I have no idea what he is referring to in this paragraph. Since I have not had to lie about anything, I’m not sure which lies he can understand. If Brien has boxes of my hateful books, he must be secretly reprinting them because I have no idea why he would have them. I’m not sure which “women” he is referring to at Airleaf when it closed. And as far as leaving 18 months earlier, Jones is on record of leaving on January 19, 2007, less than a year before the close of Airleaf. In a letter sent to me and many of the other authors on January 30, 2007, he states: Despite what you may have heard, Friday, January 19th, 2007 I resigned my position at Airleaf Publishing. As far as being the mastermind of Airleaf, well, he was. He was the one who thought of all the grand schemes to make people “celebrities” if they were willing to depart with their money. If you look at the promotions printed by Airleaf and the promotions printed by Jones Harvest, the only real difference is the logo.

I really thought I had Bonnie Kaye figured out. For example, the day she shook me and my company down I reserved the domain name Jonesharvestvictims.com. I saw THAT coming a mile away. That’s why her attack site is jonesharvestfraudvictims.com—quite a mouth-full. When Bonnie Kaye ordered me to publish her and her friend’s books for free I already knew how it would end. Bonnie Kaye would eventually figure out how to make even more money.

Brien Jones keeps saying I shook him down or blackmailed him into printing books for 30 people for free. How could I have “ordered” Brien Jones to do anything? What kind of power did I have to “blackmail” him? He asked me in May of 2007 if he could take my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives and republish it for free and leave Airleaf. I accepted his offer as did some of his other friends and disillusioned Airleaf authors whom he republished. In return, I allowed him to showcase me in his Author Celebrities and other bogus sites for 3 months until I asked him to stop publishing my books because I went with a different publisher whom I preferred to pay for publishing services because I saw the handwriting on the wall, and I didn’t want to be associated with it. I did ask him to do a good deed and republish the book of a young dying man who had been scammed by Airleaf for eight thousand dollars. I told him it would be good karma to do something to show he was trying to help authors. Short of that, anyone printed for free was his way of stealing Airleaf authors to start his own business. I have no doubt that he published some of his friends’ books for free because I know who they are. But they were his friends—not mine. The one friend I referred to Jones Harvest in June of 2007 paid for her publishing services like everyone else.

However I underestimated just how nasty Bonnie Kaye could be. I never would have guessed she’d confront my wife at the Brooklyn book show, or insult my Mother in a letter to all my clients - my Mother for God’s sake! Both women were genuinely hurt. I thought Bonnie Kaye championed all women. I hope Bonnie Kaye understands why I don’t tell her which school my daughter attends.

Now as far as confronting his wife Brandie at the Brooklyn show, that is not the case. In fact, a free-lance reporter who was there will verify that for you. Luckily I have his contact information and called him to “relive” the moment when Brandy walked up to me as I was viewing the booths at the Brooklyn book show and handing out information about my Jones Harvest victims group to help divert new victims from being sucked in. I had several interviews that day, and this reporter was following me to do a story when Brandie came up to me and asked if I was Bonnie Kaye. She said she recognized me from television. I told her I recognized her from the Jones Harvest website. She confronted me and asked me why I was trying to destroy her and her husband’s business. I told her the truth—I was only trying to get what they promised people. I explained to Brandie that people were paying for services they never received. She seemed quite surprised. She said that if I have authors who have complaints she would personally take care of them and refund their money. However, when I gave the authors that information and they called her, it was a run-around as usual or Brandie justifying all the work Jones Harvest did for them even if they didn’t do anything for them. At the end of our lengthy conversation, I offered to be there for Brandie on a personal level, and we both hugged goodbye. If you need verification of that, the reporter will be happy to provide it. He even has a picture of it. As far as attacking Brien’s mother, I just state that she works at Jones Harvest. That is not an attack.

I also understand cowardly women like Victoria Strauss, Julie Neidlinger and Lee Goldberg and their lies. After all they’re not saying anything bad — just repeating what they were told. And what do you know! They all have their own publishing companies too! I won’t say which publishing companies (here’s another new word for the idiot Ken Pullen, “Actionable”) but you can figure it out in less than 30 seconds yourself.

I’m not sure what publishing companies Victoria, Julie, and Lee have. By the way, Lee is a man, not a woman. And as far as Ken Pullen being an idiot—well, Jones is just upset because it’s hard to fight the truth and the facts. Victoria, Julie, and Lee have been instrumental in exposing predatory publishing and publicity scams to warn writers about scam artists—like Jones Harvest. Victoria is my predatory publishing guru. I am in awe of her and her work to stop publishing fraudulence. What can any of their motivations be other than warning authors? No one is making money from telling the truth about Jones Harvest—especially me.

The people I don’t understand are the people that used to work for me. Those betrayals don’t make any sense at all. I wonder what kind of mental acrobatics those people have to do to somehow turn me into a villain. What, I didn’t pay you enough? I didn’t loan you enough? I didn’t take you on enough trips? I didn’t bail you out enough? What? Are you telling me that you had an inalienable right to get paid to sit at home?

The key word here is people that “used” to work for Jones Harvest. If all of his employees except one have left, what does that tell you? Very simply they were sick of the fraudulence and lies they were put in a position to keep telling authors.
Well I have news for my former employees, Bonnie Kaye, Victoria Strauss, Julie Neidlinger and Lee Goldberg. We’re not going anywhere. Nobody is investigating us. Bonnie Kaye has contacted all of our clients and her 50 “victims” actually total 3. The Better Business Bureau has already ruled in our favor in all three cases.
As far as nobody investigating Jones Harvest, that is not the case at all. I tell people not to bother with the Better Business Bureau because they are totally ineffective. Even when Airleaf was getting ready to close and over 100 complaints were filed, they still gave Airleaf a positive rating. This was six months after the Attorney General had filed an order against Airleaf. If you pay dues to the Better Business Bureau, it takes a mountain to move their molehill. However, I am having the authors file complaints with the appropriate government officials who will take the necessary steps to stop the fraudulence. It takes time, but it does happen. Just like Airleaf had a judgment filed against it by the State of Indiana, no doubt Jones Harvest is moving in the same direction.

Sure Bonnie Kaye, it shouldn’t take more than 90 days to publish a book. That is unless you don’t read it, charge for corrections, use print-on-demand and take on one new client per month. Otherwise it can take longer.

Actually, most reputable publishing companies complete books in less time than 90 days. According to your former staff, you never read the books. How many of your authors have received repeated galleys that were incorrect time after time? Plenty of them. I’ve had authors tell me that they just signed the galleys after three and four rounds because they needed to get their books out. I’m not sure which company you are referring to that has one new client per month, but that’s typical of not knowing what you are referring to in most of your attacks.

Here’s something I have that you never will. Last week we received more than $600 from a large bookstore chain that starts with a “B”. (The only reason I don’t say which bookstore chain is I know that Bonnie Kaye would call them instantly as she has our other bookstore clients.) Do you people ever get those? I didn’t think so.

It's true I did call the one book store that Jones Harvest advertises on their site showing a rack of books from their company to verify that books were actually in a store. The store, Books 'N More told me that the books had been removed in July of 2008. As far as receiving $600.00 from a large bookstore chain, that’s great. That can pay someone’s salary for the week. I am sure your family will be happy.

Brien Jones has blamed me for all of his failures. And now he has a convenient scapegoat. He plays on authors’ sympathies for his non-completion of their work by blaming me. He claims it’s due to me that he doesn’t have workers, printers, money, and business. He might be able to blame me for business, but he needs to be honest with himself about his workers, printers, and money. He bemoans to his authors that he is almost bankrupt which is why he can't return their money for bogus promotions like a catalogue that was supposed to go to the book fairs but was never published. So while it's true that he may be staying in business, it doesn't change the fact that authors are paying for something that doesn't happen and won't happen.