BANKRUPTCY IN INDIANA--BRIEN JONES

Dear Friends, This is an update about Brien Jones of Jones Harvest Publishing. On October 13, 2012, I received a letter from the bankruptcy court in Indiana stating that Brien and Brandy Jones have filed for bankruptcy. On the day that I received this notice, Brien Jones a picture on his Facebook page with his family taken from brighter days--the days when he had a "brick and mortar" bookstore opened on the monies he swindled out of two of his authors. Well, at least he named the store after them. I find it ironic that Brien Jones would post this picture of his family on the day that Jones knew that people would be receiving this notice from the Indiana bankruptcy court. I think this takes a lot of audacity to post a family group picture and smile--obviously with contempt. I say contempt because numerous ex-employees have told me how they would sit and laugh at the misfortunes of those who put their trust--and money--in the hands of this unscrupulous family. And I say family because his wife Brandy participated in the scam, and his mother defended it. I have his mother's email asking me why I was picking on her son. I went on to inform her about each of the authors and former employees who had put in their complaints to me and how her son wasn't being "picked on" but rather "exposed." Jones, who masterminded most of the thievery of Airleaf Publishing, went on to start his own company where he learned he could out-steal even himself. For instance, under the guise of Christian books, he found a Christian author, Linda Ockels, to collaborate with him to mislead unsuspecting Christian authors into a publishing scam by creating a division of Jones Harvest called "My Perfect Heart." I mention that because I think that it is a double disgrace to rob people in the name of "Christianity." Ockels disappeared several years ago before Jones closed up shop. I suppose her authors were angry when they realized there were no sales--or in some cases--any books published after contributing their hard-saved money. Brien Jones robbed people who were elderly, disabled, limited in their English speaking/writing ability, and people overseas who could do little to fight for justice while here in America there was no justice against his fraudulence. Here's something that I'll never understand. If a man robs a convenience store for $300.00, he can go away to jail for years. But if a crook robs hundreds or even thousands of people through fraudulence, the State of Indiana doesn't view this as a crime. There is something very sad here with this twisted logic. This week, I spoke to several representatives of the bankruptcy court in Indiana including the case manager for the case. Since they weren't very sympathetic or helpful telling me that we should all hire an attorney, I sent a letter to the Bankruptcy Court Trustee, Ann M. DeLaney. I want to let her know that what Brien Jones has done to authors is not "bad business" worthy of bankruptcy. Here is what I wrote: October 17, 2012 Ms. Ann M. DeLaney P.O. Box 441285, Indianapolis, IN 46244 Dear Ms. DeLaney, My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of a large group of victims of a predatory publishing scam carried out by Brien Arthur Jones who is applying for bankruptcy in your court. The case number is: 12-11565-JKC-13. You can find my websites that were developed to keep our members informed and to warn new unsuspecting victims of this scam at www.Jonesharvestfraudvictims.com and www.Airleafvictims.com. To date, over 600 authors have come to me after being defrauded by Airleaf Publishing while Brien Jones served as the Executive Vice President of Sales, working in collaboration with his boss Carl Lau. Incidentally, I was successful in getting the General Attorney's office to issue a judgment to Carl Lau on behalf of 122 authors within a certain cohort of time (they couldn't handle the whole group). Like Brien Jones, Carl Lau declared bankruptcy and therefore, none of us were ever awarded the money owed to us. Over 130 authors have come to me after being defrauded by Brien and Brandy Jones trading as Jones Harvest Publishing, and now the same is about to happen letting them off the hook as well. The State of Indiana has done very little to stop this fraudulence over the past seven years in spite of hundreds of complaints that were filed by authors to the government agencies supposedly set up for the protection of the people. In fact, the U.S. Attorney's office, who received comprehensive evidence compiled and presented by the FBI and U.S. Post Office of this fraudulence, concluded these actions were "bad business" and not criminal activity. Ms. DeLaney, the Jones family is not a family that came on hard times due to the economy. On the contrary, some of our authors lost their entire savings due to the deceit and fake promises of Brien Jones. They were promised books that would be made into movies, turned into best sellers, and having their names live forever in the annals of great literature. The preyed on the most vulnerable of vulnerable people--the elderly including people in nursing homes, people in poverty who were hoping to find an avenue to feed their families, immigrants to our country who had limited English knowledge, devout Christians who were sold book packages under the guise of "Christianity," and people with disabilities. They bilked some people out of hundreds of dolalrs--and others out of thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. You can read some of these testimonies on my websites, or I can send you some of their anguished letters they sent to me for help in their desperation. I have a list of the monies they brought in over some of those years to give you an idea of how massive this predatory scheme was. I would be happy to turn that over to your office upon request. On the day that I and others received the bankruptcy notice, Brien Jones posted a picture of his family smiling on Facebook as if they had no cares in the world. That's because they don't. If you allow this bankruptcy to go through, then once again, they have reason to laugh with contempt because they will once again get away with everything illegal they have done resulting in hurting so many people. According to the notice that your office sent to me and others, you are having a meeting with the creditors on October 31. In all fairness, so many of these creditors will be unable to find their way into your courtroom on that date due distance, age, and medical conditions. I am sure that many of them haven't even been notified. Is there a way that their voices can be heard and represented by giving them more time to be notified and prepared? Please see my blogs at http://jonesharvestfraudvictims.blogspot.com/. This will give you many of the details that have come about over the past few years. In fact, by the time you do read the blog, this letter will be posted on there for our members to read. Ms. DeLaney, I am letting our members know about this situation. I will wait for your response. If I don't hear from you, I will advise them to get in touch with you on their own. Thank you for your help and consideration. Sincerely, Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed. Organizer, JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com If you have been a victim of Brien Jones, Brandy Jones, and/or Jones Harvest Publishing, now is the time to be heard. Write to the bankruptcy court in Indiana and let them know how you have been robbed by one of the most grand publishing schemes in history. You can write to: Ms. Ann M. DeLaney P.O. Box 441285, Indianapolis, IN 46244 Write to Ms. DeLaney and let her know that you want justice! Write to me if you have any questions at Bonkaye@aol.com. Love, Bonnie

BUYING BACK YOUR BOOKS

Dear Victims of Brien Jones/Jones Harvest Publishing/My Perfect Heart/My Cheating Heart, etc., I had six authors contact me in the past few weeks about sending Brien Jones money (made out to Brien Jones--not to his bankrupt company) to have their left over books sent to them for just the cost of shipping. I guess when authors got tired of listening to his offers to buy back their books at a discount--books they had already paid for--he took the next step of having them send just the postage. Funny thing--weeks went by and no one received their books which is why they wrote to me--until yesterday. I gave these authors the name and phone number of the Detective at the Bloomington Police Force that I made a complaint to several months ago on behalf of defrauded authors after Jones Harvest went out of business with a...well...never mind. So here's some good news. One author notified me that she received her books yesterday on June 30 after paying on April 24. So it looks as though there is a 7 - 10 week wait for books to be returned to you. So if you have sent Brien money--be patient, be hopeful, and maybe they will come your way. By the way, have any of you had contact with linda Ockels recently? With love, Bonnie Kaye

JONES HARVEST AND ACCURANCE SCAM

A special message from Bonnie Kaye

How is it when the con-men in the book selling business like Brien Jones goes out of business, he can still continue to cheat his authors even further? Unbelievable, isn’t it? Well, it seems like con men always find partners, especially in the state of Indiana where government views “fraudulence” as “bad business practices” rather than a crime.

Authors first were sent a letter by Brien Jones several weeks ago bemoaning his “hard luck” in the publishing industry. To special “friends,” he sent this letter, making each of them think they were getting some special personalized letter—which they weren’t. Almost everyone I know has received this with the name and the book title being the only thing that is different. Here it goes:

Dear _________________,

Enclosed is the letter we sent to all of Jones Harvest Publishing authors and vendors. Unlike some of those folks you were always a friend and supporter, and you deserve an explanation as well as my advice on where to go from here.

Six months before we closed I sent a long letter explaining the huge challenges we faced selling books and asking for suggestions.

The short version is bookstores didn’t pay when they ordered our books. JHP had to pay to ship books with an invoice. That was after we paid to print the books. If a store ordered a copy of _________________, they paid nothing. But I had to pay to print and ship the book.

If the bookstore ever paid they sent a check of 50%, but didn’t send that check to us. They sent that check to Baker & Taylor. Later B&T would send us a check for 40%. That was the best case scenario. More often we just received the front cover (stripped off to prove the book was unsold) often over a year later. I didn’t receive any suggestions.

That was with a Jones Harvest Publishing book. Getting even that far with a book from Authorhouse, Infinity or Vantage Press was impossible. When I said Xlibris I heard ‘click.’ Yet even against those odds, I tried to sell __________________ and the rest every way possible—more ways than you ever heard about. As with 99% of our titles I failed. It’s hard. And if you ever try selling somebody else’s book (or even your own) to bookstores you’ll find it’s also unpleasant.

By 2010 I spent half my day listening to bookstores hang up on me and the other half listening to authors that paid $950 to publish (usually less than we spent on the print run) complain about lack of sales. I have to admit I don’t feel very bad about giving up on some of those clients.

I do feel bad about you. You were one of the few that even acknowledged our website was free of vanity publishing information or that we had a bookstore. Most of our clients never noticed. I kept on trying anyway. The in 2011Borders closed 275 stores. Limping along and hoping was no longer possible.

To be a success in the self-publishing industry I would have to change everything. To survive I would have to be like all the rest and focus on selling authors their own books. That’s when I made an important discovery. I don’t want to be a success in vanity publishing.

I wish I could suggest another publisher that’s selling books, has a bookstore or even a website designed for that purpose. There aren’t any. The only subsidy, self or print-on-demand publishing companies with any promotion services are the same ones we’ve all known for years. They’re now offering “publicity” and “promotions” at appalling prices.

However, in my own search for a publisher, I concluded the best choice for you is Accurance, a company I’ve known about for a long time. I sent my books to them because:

1. They aren’t going out of business. They’ve been around since 1999 and growing.

2. Amost all books they produce are for other publishing companies—you’ve heard of most of them. It’s likely the publisher you choose uses Accurance for their production work (editing, book covers, typesetting/formatting, and conversion to eBook). Therefore you can cut out the middle man which takes us to price.

3. JHP could not survive charging $950 to publish because we were never POD. We always did print runs. Yet Accurance offers everything (for publishers) for $899. This is possible because of volume. They actually have a program for authors left in a lurch, because their publisher closed. (It’s not just JHP, there are many more with others to follow.) They have agreed to publish our books for $850.

4. They also answer the phone, or call you back quickly. They answer emails usually within minutes, at most hours. Most of the other companies I called answered electronically and sent me to someone’s voicemail.

There are plenty of companies out there promising the moon for $999 (but calling you from overseas.) I wanted the whole package including Kindle and REAL BOOKS with no surprises. My recommendation is Accurance. THE JHP bookselling plan didn’t work. But I would feel much better knowing you are receiving real books with good pricing, integrity, and stability.

To your books as fast as possible and at wholesale prices call Bill Earle, Author Partner Project Manager at Accurance at 1-727-550-6258. I have already transferred files for my books to them and can do the same for you.

I hope you have no hard feelings. I’m not walking away with a boat or an airplane (or even our house) and I truly tried. I hope you keep writing and trying to.

Sincerely,

Brien Jones

Let me say I found this letter—well—hysterical and pathetic and somewhat sociopathic as Brien Jones truly is. It was filled with lies and gross exaggerations for sure. But I will discuss that in my next update in the near future. For now, this is a WARNING to anyone who actually might be foolish enough to get burned one more time by this master of deceit.

But first, let me share with you the follow up letter that most of you have received by now from Accurance, the only company that Brien Jones trusts which has “republished” his books about the scary pumpkin and the crooked Vanity Publisher based on his own life story.

Accurance’s Bill Earle sent this letter to the list of Jones authors:

Hello! I wanted to touch base and introduce myself, Bill Earle if Accurance, Inc., since I was mentioned in the letter you should have received from Brien Jones. We are happy to be able to step in and offer our years of expertise to you for your current book that was published and future books. We have been around a long time and we aren't going anywhere.

Right now, we are concentrating everything on the Jones authors who were published with Jones. Those ISBNs are dead now so those books are no longer for sale. Even if sales were poor in the past for whatever reason, you don't have a chance at even one now.

Our Jones Publishing Package, is fast, high quality, as affordable as is possible, and most importantly - complete. Right now, the book you had published with Jones is no longer valid. The ISBN from Jones for your book is a dead account. We are honored to be able to offer you the fastest way back to the market for just $849 as Brien's letter stated:

1. We will revise your cover and interior - and that means as many revisions as you want or as few as changing the "Published by"
2. set up a new publishing account with Lulu.com
3. purchase your new ISBN
4. upload your new files
5. order and ship a proof copy to you
6. purchase and set up your new GlobalReach distribution to the Ingram database of all titles for sale - fresh to the market with a new ISBN and a new look in some cases.

We will also purchase and ship to you 9 more copies of your book at the end of the process before we turn over your new POD publishing account to you to monitor future sales and always order as few or as many copies of your own book at cost. It also all comes with expanded free revision cycles and unlimited email and phone support.

This package is not available on our website for obvious reasons. To purchase now simply go to our Misc. Services web page at :
http://accurance.com/index.php?go=services&goto=author&gotogo=authmiscservice and add to cart 849 units - they will be billed to your credit card of PayPal at $1 per unit. As soon as the purchase (always completely guaranteed) is made you will receive an introductory email from me with everything you need to know. Then, you can sit back and let us get you back in the book selling business the best way in the world we know how, at a price only available to you.

I will of course get back to calling you back as well.

Thanks!

Bill Earle
your author partner
Accurance, Inc.
(727) 550-6268

With the directions from Bill Earle, I did go to the link in his letter which led me to the Accurance website page where you can purchase the 849 units for $849.00. But then I took a moment to explore the rest of the website which led me to the page called “Author Services.” It was quite interesting seeing the pricing for authors who weren’t getting the special Jones Harvest deal. Of course he couldn't "list" this package on his website for obvious reasons--namely because you may have actually studied his prices for other authors. Well, I did it for you.

Here’s the irony of the special “Jones Harvest” pack.

Here are the the prices for the non-Jones Harvest author services:

Publishing Set Up Package $249
For the author who has viable, print-ready PDF files who needs set up with a POD publisher for worldwide print distribution (includes ISBN & Proof Copy). Your files will be uploaded, your ISBN will be purchased, you will receive a proof copy for final approval, and be distributed on the worldwide database serving potential buyers at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and many others.

Book Cover Creation $199
For the author who needs just the book cover (front/back/spin) designed. You will receive a print-ready PDF cover file. Package includes three (3) revision cycles until your cover is perfect for you.
There’s even this deluxe package:

The Whole Nine Yards Package - $799
Mechanical Editing/Interior Formatting/Custom Cover Design/Print Publishing/Distribution

Wow—editing your book and the rest of the whole nine yards. And it’s still less than the deal for Jones authors.

So let me see if I understand this. Accurance is getting the “viable, print-ready PDF files” from Brien Jones. According to their website, this is the Publishing Set-up Package they are offering for $249.00. If you decide to use them to redesign your book cover, the Book Cover Creation would cost $199.00. And that’s only if you want to have your cover redesigned. Otherwise, you can take off that charge. Okay—even if you want the book cover, that adds up to $448.00. Now, add in 9 additional copies at print cost—that’s approximately $36.00. So now we’re looking at less than $500.00 for the same services that Jones customers are charged $849.00. Hmmmm….

It gets even better. If you want the Ready-to-Sell Package & eCombo Package, according to their website, this will cost $799.00. And that includes all the wonderful services of the Publishing Set-Up Package, the Cover Design Package, and the eBook Package—all for less than the Jones Harvest Package. And even if you throw in the 9 extra books for $36.00, you’re still spending less than that special rate for the Jones Harvest package.

And guess what—if you take this route, you don’t even have a publisher. Accurance isn’t a publisher—it’s a set-up company that brokers you out to companies like Lulu where you are your own publisher.

Anyway, even before I did the math when I first learned of this new alliance between Accurance and King Con, I wrote Bill Earle a note:

wearle@accurance.com

Dear Mr. Earle,

Since we haven't met before, I did want to let you know that if you have developed any type of positive reputation for your company, you should think about how it will be affected now that you are working with Brien Jones. In case you’re not aware, Mr. Jones is under criminal investigation by various government agencies for fraudulent practices against authors. Since it didn’t faze him about screwing hundreds of people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, I’m not quite sure why you would want your name tarnished by being associated with him, but that’s your decision.

Please be aware that when I send out my update this week to over 600 Airleaf Victims and over 100 Jones Harvest victims, I will be mentioning your connection. Don’t expect great things to happen for you or your company because of that. I would really reconsider your relationship with him because it will really be a losing one for you and your company.

Best regards,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
www.Jonesharvestfraudvictims.com
www.Airleafvictims.com

To date, no response. Now I understand why. I wasn’t even aware of the “special Jones Harvest prices” when I wrote that letter to Mr. Earle.

I do have an extensive letter going out next week to all of our members of our Airleaf/Jones Harvest victim groups giving you updates of what is going on with the criminals who stole our money. However, in the meantime, I’m posting this on my blog to alert as many people as possible about this newest scam. Do not allow yourselves to become a victim one more time. For some of you, it’s happened more than once. Remember—anything associated with Brien Jones will take bring you to a dark place where you don’t want to go. Don’t fall into this pit hole again.

It looks like the end is here....

Dear Friends and Victims of JH Publishing,
I have been receiving letters from people who are customers of Jones Harvest stating that there is no way to contact them. So I did some of my own investigating and found out they were right--the website has been down for at least a week. The emails are being returned. No one is answering the phone.
As sad as it is for the authors who invested into the Brien Jones fraudulence, at least people will hopefully not be taken again and cheated.
If you hear anything, please write to me at Bonkaye@aol.com and let me know what you learn.
Hugs,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
www.Jonesharvestfraudvictims.com

ANIMAL FARM REVISITED

ANIMAL FARM REVISITED

When I was in high school, one of the books that left its profoundly affected me was Animal Farm by George Orwell. This was an expose of communism and how proclaimed “equality” led to slavery. It’s a story where the animals took over the farm seeking justice and equal rights for all animals, but in the end, the pigs outsmarted the rest of the animals and treated them worse than their human masters.

At this stage of my life, I can finally identify with one of the main characters of the book named Snowball. Snowball was one of the revolutionaries who believed in justice for the animals. He helped teach the other animals how to read and stand up for themselves. But this didn’t work for the greedy pig Napoleon. He wanted to live with special privileges at the expense of the other animals who were doing all the work. He knew that Snowball, the voice of sanity and reason, would circumvent his efforts to lead the animals back into slavery.

Napoleon started spreading lies about Snowball blaming him for everything that went wrong on the farm. When the other animals would question this, they were put down and isolated from the group until they agreed to believe the lies. Eventually, a pack of wild dogs attacked Snowball and drove him away once and for all. From that day forth, when anything broke on the farm or the benefits weren’t trickling down to the animals, it was blamed on Snowball. He was still creating havoc to ruin everything—or so the animals were told.

Brien Jones is a fraud. He has deceived so many people that I’ve even lost count. And when he fails, rather than accept responsibility, whose fault is it? Bonnie Kaye’s. Yep, it is all my fault. I have become his modern day Snowball.

Here’s an example of what Jones wrote to several complaining authors:

"The last time I sent out bookstore contacts, the author gave the list to Bonnie Kaye and she proceeded to call each and every one of them. Many of our books were returned. Now that list is proprietary. We should have kept it confidential from the start."

That’s pretty funny. No author has ever given me a bookstore contact. The ONLY bookstore I ever called was the one that Jones has pictured on his site. It is called Books N’ More an Indianapolis bookstore. It is there for anyone to view, so I called the store to see if the books were still being displayed. The owner told me they were taken down last July. It had nothing to do with Bonnie Kaye, but rather that the books weren’t selling and it was a temporary display.

One thing that should have kept confidential was the list of authors that Brien Jones provided me with to start the Airleaf Victims campaign. On his recent blog, he states:

"Everyone exalts Bonnie Kaye for putting together 600 Airleaf clients and closing the place down. In the teeny tiny world of untalented writers turned watchdogs and their blogs she reigns supreme. (Hey Lee, I knew you were a guy! It was an insult dumbass.) I wouldn’t include any further insults that could be used against you."

"However, there is another side to the Airleaf story, one never told. At the end of 2006 and the end of my time in Martinsville there were 3000 clients. I have no idea how many authors bought services from Airleaf in 2007 and 2008, I wasn’t there. So we’ll be conservative and add ZERO new clients after I left."

"Subtract out Bonnie’s 600 victims (and I believe they were victims) and that leaves 2400 Airleaf authors.Out of those estimated 2400 Airleaf non-victim authors, how many paid just for publishing? How many received their books and didn’t sign up for anything else?"

The truth is that Brien Jones provided me with the original list of approximately 500authors and their email addresses claiming these were “angry authors” who felt they were screwed by Airleaf. That’s how I started contacting authors in the beginning—with Brien’s list. I’ll be able to produce that for court when he someday takes me there as he keeps promising. Now it may be true that Airleaf had 3,000 clients—but I didn’t have access to the rest of that list like Brien had when he stole the data base from Airleaf to open his new company. And yes, I can prove that too because now I have the list. It’s with another list of his Jones Harvest clients with little notes he writes about each person next to their name so he doesn’t forget the stories he’s making up along the way along with some derogatory notes about some of his authors. That list was given to me courtesy of several of his ex-employees who felt that by giving it to me, it would be in good hands. I’ll be showing those in court as evidence as well. And also one more lie that Brien keeps stating over and over—Airleaf closed on December 21, 2007, not 2008. Brien had been out of there just about a year.

The funniest thing is that in the beginning of my Airleaf Victims campaign when I sent my letters to authors about being cheated by Airleaf, at least 80% of them were complaining about Brien Jones and not about Airleaf. He was the salesman who made promises to take their book to fame and fortune as he happily took their money but somehow ignored them after he drained them. In those days, I defended him to the hilt because I didn’t know any better. I believed his lies that he was a victim of Airleaf just like me. But getting back to the point, I didn’t have the list of 3,000 so there was no way for me to contact the other potential victims until recently. At this time, it would serve no purpose to contact authors because Airleaf is closed.

One last thought--even if his assumption was correct that there were 2,400 happy authors, does that negate the hardship, pain, and loss of money of the 600 who were scammed? Jones's logic would think so because that's how he conducts his business. It doesn't matter if over 80 people are accusing him of taking their money--he'll have a few dozen state they love him and that makes it okay.

And now for the update on the “Sue Bonnie Kaye” case. Brien is sending this letter to authors:

"Jones Harvest Publishing along with 230 (so far) plus SIX OTHER COMPANIES is finally filing suit against Bonnie Kaye. I already paid the Miller Law Group in West Lawn PA for the whole thing, so I don't need any money from you or anyone.
I have decided to include clients like you in the suit at no charge. Please believe me when I tell you her attacks on my company have hurt you and your books. You deserve compensation too."

"You don't have to do anything, or say anything, or pay anything, or go anywhere. You'll just get a share of whatever we get back.If you want a share of the settlement, all you have to do is say "Yes" and I'll add you to the list.
I would love it if you stood with us."

This is quite interesting because Brien doesn’t have 230 authors. According to his Amazon reports, he has approximately 150 authors who have published with him. And the funny thing is I have over 80 reports from authors who have been scammed by him who came to me for help, so somehow, these numbers just don’t add up.

But let’s say that Brien could find 5000 people to join a law suit against me. What is it he is suing me for? Telling the truth? Revealing that he has been deceiving authors and taking their money without providing services? Is this a crime? Are we all living on that Animal Farm where truth becomes lies and lies become the law?

By the way, in an effort to find a new way to make some money, since selling books isn’t what Brien is good at according to Brien when he tells authors:

"I hope you have noticed that you haven't received any letters about new bookselling packages. It's not because we ran out of stamps. We decided to make it or not, with the books and authors we have. We're still trying to find a way to sell books, when I come up with something I'll call."

Now that’s finally something that IS true! They are clueless in finding ways to sell books and they refuse to do what they have authors pay them for—like contacting every media outlet and bookstore within a 100 mile area of their homes.

So now here’s the Jones Harvest new letters sent to all the former Airleaf mailing list:

You don't need to send money or books.

I'll put your book on our websites. No charge, no obligation. I'll even make a few calls. If you want to send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)

I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.
http://www.jonesharvest.com/

http://www.authorgifts.com/

http://www.bookwheat.com/

http://www.myauthorprofile.com/

http://www.myperfectheart.com/

If you don’t pay anything and you don’t have to send me books, how can you become a “victim”?

Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075

Then when you say "yes" to this free offer agreeing to let Jones sell your book, here’s the next letter you get:

We have 800 books for sale on http://www.jonesharvest.com/ including yours. However, there are only 25 spots for book covers on the home page.

I can offer you one of those powerful places for 3 months for just $400. I can put your book on the top row for just $600! No one will have to type your name or title into the search box, your book is RIGHT THERE! That means any bookstore owner that looks at our site will see your cover!

I have one spot left on the top row, two on the second row and eleven more total. Whoever gets them first gets them!

Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075

The first book on the top prime row is “The Stone” by David Welden. According to the synopsis of the book:

The author reveals firsthand accounts of people who have been aboard alien ships. He also provides a detailed timeline of the chronology of Earth from 450,000 B.C. to 2023 B.C. Welden goes on to explain the genetics behind it all, including a discussion of mitochondrial DNA and the role of the Y chromosome.

This book was published by Jones Harvest in 2008 and the ranking on Amazon is #3,894,935. So if this is the first book on the first line giving it “prime time viewing,” you can imagine how well the others are selling—NOT. And yet, people are PAYING for those SPOTS?

I don’t understand how some people are still so suckered in. I have so many letters of people feeling ashamed for throwing their money into the bargain basement of the Jones Family Home, where their publishing company is located. Lots of people are spending lots of money, but who besides Jones is making lots of money?

There is no shame in being conned. It happens to decent, hard-working people who believe in the goodness of people. The shame is to allow it to keep happening or refusing to stop it when it happens again.

You don’t have to be a victim—you can be a victor. All you have to do is “Just Say No” when you receive an offer from Jones Harvest. If you want to give money to charity, make it a worthwhile one that you can at least use as a tax write-off.
Love, Bonnie Kaye

GETTING READY FOR COURT!!

GETTING READY FOR COURT
I’m blowing the dust off of all of my legal courtroom dramas that I’ve accumulated over the years and trying to “brush up” on defense tips before I go to court. From what I’ve read from some of the Jones Harvest authors who keep me posted on this fraudster’s shenanigans, Brien Jones, owner of Jones Harvest Publishing in Bloomington, Indiana, has gathered “196 of his authors, 3 of his ex-employees, and 6 companies” to join together in a lawsuit against me.

Actually, the numbers change from day to day, but here is the basic letter to authors:

I hope you have noticed that you haven't received any letters about new bookselling packages. It's not because we ran out of stamps. We decided to make it or not, with the books and authors we have. We're still trying to find a way to sell books, when I come up with something I'll call.

In the mean time, this is free.

Jones Harvest Publishing along with 190 authors (so far) plus SIX OTHER COMPANIES is finally filing suit against Bonnie Kaye. I already paid the Miller Law Group in West Lawn PA for the whole thing, so I don't need any money from you or anyone.

I have decided to include clients like you in the suit at no charge. Please believe me when I tell you her attacks on my company have hurt you and your books. You deserve compensation too.

You don't have to do anything, or say anything, or pay anything, or go anywhere. You'll just get a share of whatever we get back.

If you want a share of the settlement, all you have to do is say "Yes" and I'll add you to the list.

I would love it if you stood with us.

Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075

Since I know that Jones has written some compelling fiction in his day, such as his “The Scariest Pumpkin of Them All,” where he later took his company logo of a scary pumpkin from, I started wondering, “How do I start providing a defense against someone who can’t distinguish truth from fiction, or more to the point, from someone whose truth is fiction?”

Let’s start with 196 of his authors….or 190…or whatever the number is. As I read the Amazon quarterly sales reports that one of his authors forwarded to me, I counted 160 titles that are part of his publishing company. And guess what one of the 160 titles is? Yep, his book “The Scariest Pumpkin of Them All.” And as I examined the Amazon list further, guess what another title was? “The Year the Reindeer Went on Strike,” another Brien Jones creation. It seems like a prophetic book before it’s time when I read the synopsis: "Santa Claus searches for a new way to power his sleigh when his reindeer go on strike. First using penguins, then polar bears, Santa learns just how much he needs his reindeer. Can he work out a compromise in time?" This sounds similar to the real story of his employees all quitting due to his fraudulence and he needs to figure out how to get a book published before the legal authorities get to him. I don’t know how that book ended, but I do know from his ex-employees that they would never return. And then there is the third Jones book, his novel “The Manuscript” which according to Jones’s write up on his Starred Review website (page 4) will really make you think:

As the President of Jones Harvest Publishing, author Brien Jones draws on his experience in the industry for parodying the world of publishing in The Manuscript. Through his coruscating wit and wry observations, he takes off on subsidy publishers, aspiring writers, poetry, thrillers, and romance novels, as well as Indiana town.Lee Goodwin is an author consultant at an Indiana-based print-on-demand publisher, Myownbook.com, where by paying $1000 aspiring authors can make their dreams come true and get their manuscripts turned into books. To be published by this company, a book has to conform to three rigid standards - it cannot be pornographic, dangerous, or racially prejudiced. But this applies for just the first three pages, since they are the only ones read by the publisher during the supposedly stringent screening process! Even though Lee has to sometimes contend with eccentric writers, insufferable poets ("I am not a big fan of poetry. I figure life is tough enough, why rhyme about it?"), and strange conversations (like when an author claims, "My dog is possessed by Hitler's ghost."), it is a job the forty-one-year-old divorcee enjoys.

Like I said, his fiction is sometimes indistinguishable from his truths. But more to the point, 3 of the books listed on the Amazon list of 160 were his. And for a guy who is supposed to be such an expert on book selling, how come his books haven’t sold any? Actually, for that matter, of the 160 titles on the Amazon report for that quarter, I saw sales for 21 books.

Now let’s be logical. Am I, Bonnie Kaye, the cause for the lack of book sales for the Jones Harvest authors on Amazon? I think not. My attacks on not on Jones Harvest authors—they are on the publishing and publicity fraud of Brien Jones and Jones Harvest. What this means is that by exposing this company, new unsuspecting authors have a chance to read the truth before throwing out their money, and current victims of his fraudulence realize they have a way to fight back through my help.

I’m not sure what anyone can sue me for. I have heard from nearly 80 authors as of today who have sent me complaints about being scammed by Jones Harvest. I think it will be much easier for me to find them to testify then it is for Brien Jones to find authors who want to sue me for…..what exactly is it they are suing me for?
I know the wheels of justice turn very slowly, but in my heart, I do believe that honesty will always win out over dishonesty. Constantly trying to defend a lie is not only difficult, but exhausting as well. Remembering lie after lie is a full time job. But then again, Brien Jones has plenty of time on his hands. As he said in his letter, he’s not soliciting new authors and he doesn’t know how to sell the books of his old ones. But he has paid in full for a law suit against me. Maybe that’s why none of his authors have received their royalties this year.

I think I better start taping the Law and Order episodes I may have missed to brush up on some legal strategies. You know I'll keep you posted!

AIRLEAF/JONES HARVEST VICTIMS UPDATE

Dear Airleaf Victims,
It has been a while since you’ve heard from me. That’s because I had nothing to tell you. Allow me to explain two issues.

When we began our campaign against Airleaf, we took action on two levels. We applied for civil charges with the Attorney General’s office for restitution of our money. We also filed complaints for criminal charges with the U.S. Attorney’s office for prosecution of criminal actions. In Indiana, those are the two government agencies responsible for each of the actions.

My requests to the U.S. Attorney in Indiana regarding the criminal charges against Carl Lau and Airleaf et. al., have not resulted in any determination as of yet whether they will press charges because the case is under “investigation” by the FBI and Postal authorities as it has been for a year-and-a-half. Quite frankly, I’m stumped. I provided these agencies with all the documentation to make the case, but it’s still being investigated. I am tired of waiting for a response with no communication from Timothy Morrison as of late, the Indiana U.S. Attorney, in spite of asking twice for a decision.
In my frustration, I sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney two weeks ago. This is what it stated:

March 11, 2009

Mr. Kenneth E. Melson, Director
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2242
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Dear Mr. Melson:
My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of a group of over 600 people who are victims of a predatory publishing and publicity scam by a now out-of-business company, Airleaf Publishing, in Martinsville, Indiana owned by Carl Lau.
As a victim, in addition to being the organizer of the group, I have spent the past year and a half seeking justice for our very upset members by the Indiana U.S. Attorney’s office. The FBI and the US Postal Authorities have investigated this case for well over a year and a half. I have provided extensive documentation to prove that our case is one of fraudulence as opposed to “poor business practice.”
I was successful in getting this company closed by starting an intensive Internet campaign that shut off the cash flow of the company. At that time, I took two routes—civil charges and criminal charges. I had our authors send out complaint forms to the FBI and Postal Authorities of Indiana for criminal action, as well as the Attorney General of Indiana for civil charges. The Attorney General’s office handed down a judgment against the owner, Carl Lau, last spring, months after the company closed. Unfortunately, since he has no money left, we will not see any kind of restitution. However, we are still seeking retribution in the form of criminal charges so that con men don’t feel entitled to rob authors of thousands of dollars with false promises that will never come true.

From the information that I have been able to gather, Carl Lau stole in excess of two million dollars from unsuspecting authors who have now had their hopes, dreams, and money stolen away from them. How is it that one petty thief can go to jail, but a con man of this magnitude can go free? This makes no sense to any of us.
I have spent hundreds of hours compiling files for the FBI to make our case so that the U.S. Attorney of Indiana, Timothy Morrison, can file criminal charges against the criminal. I have had very little by way of communication in a positive way from Mr. Morrison who seems to just “blow us off.” I am writing to you as a last resort in trying to get us the help and justice we are seeking.

You can read our website at www.AirleafVictims.com. As a result of the inaction of the Indiana government, a second company, Jones Harvest Publishing, owned and operated by the former Executive Vice President of Airleaf, Brien Jones, started operating this scam all over again robbing people of thousands of dollars for fake publicity and publishing campaigns. You can see my site at www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com.

Mr. Melson, I know you are very busy, and I am only writing to you in desperation. We don’t know where to turn. Many of our victims are elderly people and disabled people who invested their life savings into this dream that became their nightmare. If action isn’t taken to punish people who do this, it sends up a red flag to other people with no conscience that this kind of fraudulence is not a punishable crime.

Please help us by asking Mr. Morrison to take action against the thieves of Indiana who are robbing people not only in this country, but in internationally as well. It certainly doesn’t make America look good when we allow this type of fraudulence to flourish. If you would like me to send you copies of my correspondence with Mr. Morrison, please let me know.

Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.

I am still waiting for a response from his office. I understand he is busy with AIG, but we have our own personal money woes to contend with due to this fraudulence.
The next step I would like to take is this: I would like to know if you will help me by signing a petition that I will personally deliver in Indiana to the U.S. Attorney’s office with our stories. I will go with Sgt. Don Meyers, Indiana’s most decorated Vietnam War Veteran, as well as an Airleaf Victim, and any other author in the area who is willing to join me. I will call the press ahead of time to announce when I am going, and I will launch my new campaign and website “Indiana Welcomes Crooks” which I am in the process of designing. I’ll send you the link in the next few weeks so you can check it out. I am hoping by taking these measures, I will drum up media interest in our case.

Regardless of the fact that we were able to get the Attorney General’s office to bring a judgment against Carl Lau, we will see nothing. Carl Lau sold his house last year, and the money from Lau’s house went to the IRS for back taxes. He is in debt up the kazoo and supposedly claiming bankruptcy. But don’t feel sorry for him—he’s been collecting unemployment insurance this year. And he and his wife have moved in with his wife’s family. His wife has an excellent job, so they are not suffering, but a lot of us sure are.

If you are willing to help me with this petition campaign, please send me an email at Bonkaye@aol.com and let me know I can count on you. I’m willing to donate my time and money to go to Indiana on your behalf. All I’m asking you for is sign a statement that I will send to you requesting that the U.S. Attorney bring charges against Airleaf for crimes against our authors.

In the meantime, I am working with nearly 70 victims of Jones Harvest Publishing owned by Brien Jones. I have them filing reports to the Attorney General’s office in Indiana. When so many of you told me initially that Brien Jones was the real criminal at Airleaf, I couldn’t understand why. After all, he didn’t own the company. But of course I’ve learned the hard way that he was the one who came up with most of the fraudulent schemes and talked you out of your money as you kept telling me. He’s done this all over again on his own. Many of our victims have been re-victimized, and I will keep fighting on their behalf as well as his new victims who have found me due to my Google Advertising on the Jones Harvest page of Google. Feel free to check it out. We have to let the government of Indiana know that we will not tolerate their lack of action against predatory publishing fraud.

Three other items before I end.
1.Airleaf Victim Tom Barnes called me the other day and told me that if you have lost money with Airleaf, you can file it as a fraudulence loss on your income tax this year. Even if it happened two or three years ago, we didn’t know about the fraudulence until 2008. I took mine off my taxes last year. If you haven’t done that yet, please think about adding it to your return.

2.Keep in mind our Books of Excellence author’s co-op. Please check it out if you haven’t seen it lately at www.BooksOfExcellence.com. We have some wonderful authors, and books are selling and being promoted. We would be happy to have you join our group. Please email me if you would like further information.

3.I’ll be in Connecticut in May at the CAPA conference (Connecticut Authors and Publishing Association) as a guest speaker on Predatory Publishing discussing how we as victims stood up to fight and stop Airleaf. If any of you live in the area, I’d love to meet you. Please let me know if you’d like more information.

Thank you for your patience, support, and hopefully, willingness to keep our battle alive until we see justice. What happened to us is criminal—and criminals need to be punished.

Love,
Bonnie Kaye, M. Ed.

HORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

Hooray for Hollywood
Well, Hollywood is revving up for the Indiana Jones family. They are going to Hollywood one more time to give vulnerable authors false hopes that a blockbuster movie could be made from one of their books. Usually on these trips, they pack up the family as you can see on the website under the ‘Hollywood” button. It’s sort of like the Clampetts do Hollywood. There’s Brien and Brandy, Brien’s mom, cousin, and daughter. Well, at least it’s a family affair, although I hesitate in using the term “affair” loosely when I speak of Brien and Hollywood.

Anyway, this year’s offer is different than last year’s. Last year, the letter started with “Hollywood For Real.” It stated that “no one is making a movie out of one of our books—not yet. However, we have made three trips to Hollywood and we are closer than any other self publisher has ever been.” Now that’s really remarkable, I must say. I say that because it is now a year later and they are still no closer now than they were a year ago to getting anyone’s book turned into a movie. Even though I was assured by the author of “Rock with Rodney and Party with Perky” that Brien Jones had found four producers interested in her movies, so far, not one taker. Perhaps that’s why the “revised version” of the book has been “under production” for the past five months on his website because it’s now been extended to add a new concept on the cover: Bush’s anti-environmental report. When the author told me about the four productions companies that Jones had interested last summer, I checked them on the Internet and didn’t have any luck in finding them. Me of little faith, right? So then I called the man who is the organizer of the event and asked him if those companies attended, and he said he never heard of them either. When I reported the findings back to the author in hopes that she would wake up to the scam, she blasted me by posting on Brien’s blog that she spoke to the companies herself. That was different than her original story of telling me that Brien Jones gave her the name of the companies. But you know how it goes in Hollywood—fiction is always a big hit.

In last year’s offer, authors were promised that they would have their book, as well as their picture, featured on a site called “booktopictures.com.” When I checked out that website, it didn’t exist; however, it did redirect me to a site called “bootypictures.com.” All of this was available for “just $350.00.” But there was so much more! For a mere $500.00 additional dollars, they were willing to submit your book to one of two Hollywood producers and provide you with a resume and contact information for both executives. I think those of us who survived the Airleaf scandal will remember the kinds of producers the books were submitted to. They ranged from companies like Litestone Entertainment headed by Al Smith which lied about producing 30 books into movies, including his trailer that never became a book “Jessie’s Girl” to a company called Cinemagic which magically disappeared back to Japan. Ask me if I believe that there are not hundreds of scam artist producers waiting in Hollywood for vulnerable authors to shell out money. I’ve already spoken to half a dozen of them while fighting for our author victims. Anyway, that deal must have gone sour because it’s not even being offered this year.

And now Jones Harvest is offering to turn authors’ books into screenplays for free. One of my Airleaf author victims said Brien called her and offered to turn her book into a screenplay for free. This way it might sell better to the film people.

Remarkably, hundreds of emails went out to our Airleaf victims this past week from Jones Harvest offering to sell their books for free. In this letter, Jones states:

No charge, no obligation. No strings attached. I'll put the book on our websites today and even make a few calls. If you send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)

All you have to do is send me a copy or copies of your book or email me the cover. I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.
http://www.myauthorspace.com/

http://www.jonesharvest.com/

http://www.starredreview.com/

http://www.authorgifts.com/

http://www.bookwheat.com/

http://www.myauthorprofile.com/

http://www.brienjones.com/

He did manage to leave out some of his other untraveled sites like Great Concept Books, Bargain Basement Books (doesn’t that sound uplifting?), Author Soldier, and his two Christian sites, Perfect Heart and Chosen Few. I keep reminding people that the only one who views those sites is me—trying to reach unsuspecting authors of the outrageous scam they are part of for thousands of dollars.

This short statement in itself was a lie. Brien was trying to put a two-year wedge between his leaving Airleaf and the close of Airleaf. Jones left in the beginning of 2007, and Airleaf closed 11 months later in December of 2007. Actually it was the same year. But that’s Brien Jones—trying to mislead the public again.

I sent out a email blast to my list of over 500 Airleaf victims warning them about working with the King of Con. To say the Brien Jones doesn’t do anything for free is truly an understatement. Brien Jones doesn’t do much for people who pay him thousands of dollars. Look at all the authors that paid him money to be featured in a color catalogue to be given out at the book fairs. There was no catalogue. And when they asked him back for their money, he told them that he doesn’t have money. And why doesn’t he have money? Not because he can’t keep fooling the same victims who were taken once or twice because they realize that they are donating to the Jones family charity and want to redirect their contributions. Not because he screwed so many printers that they won’t print for him anymore. Not because his production and sales crew quit because of his fraudulence. Not because people don’t get their books after waiting for a year or two or have to send back galley after galley. No—he’s broke because of Bonnie Kaye. He can’t afford to publish his books but he can afford to pay for a website called “Bonnie Kaye Lies” where he puts his blog letters of support from five or six authors on there along with his own commentaries libeling me. But what he forgets is that I am doing this work out of a mission to protect our authors who put their money, hopes, and dreams into a con game, not to make money. I have never accepted a dime from an author even though many have offered to support my efforts. He can’t hurt me. I don’t offer anything but the truth and help to authors. On the other hand, I am hurting him by telling the truth. This is why I now have 63 verified complaints about the tens of thousands of dollars that authors have lost and will never see again. You see, in the end, the truth speaks for itself. When authors receive royalty checks once a year for $1.35 or $6.25 after investing so much money, they know that what I speak is the truth. It doesn’t matter how many of the Jones Harvest websites these authors are featured on—no one is looking except me as I mentioned earlier.

Lee Goldberg, the renowned author and columnist, stated in a blog last week written by Victoria Strauss, my predatory publishing guru, about the Hollywood scam that his gardener has more contacts with Hollywood executives because at least he mows the lawns for some of them. If you want to shell out money, maybe we can ask the gardener to drop off your book while he’s at one of these jobs. He is actually closer to them than the Jones Harvest family team will ever be.

THE POWER OF THE BLOGGERS!

Last week when Brien Jones wrote his usual blog attacking me and my imaginary “lies,” he made the major mistake of attacking some of the most prominent people in the business of exposing predatory publishing. In his usual irrational, sociopathic manner, he threw in the names of Victoria Strauss, Lee Goldberg, and Julie Neidlinger berating them in an effort to defend himself. This was a major mistake for him because he publicly exposed himself to be the erratic, irrational, and desperate man that he is. Each of these people he attacked quickly wrote blogs in disgust and to set the record straight. And these are people who matter in the world of writing where Brien Jones doesn’t matter to any reliable and credible source in the publishing world.

I guess the power of the bloggers really hurt him because that post has now quickly disappeared from his blog. Now on his blog are a few of his defenders and attackers of “Bonnie Kaye,” so let’s see what rewards have been bestowed upon them for coming to Brien’s defense at the expense, at times, of defaming me.

The list of Jones supporters who attack me personally in the blog are Carol Fosdick, Patty Harlow, D. H. Gauvey, and even though not directly, indirectly Nancy Bauser. Is it any wonder how they now show up on the cover page of JH, with Nancy Bauser listed as “Author of the Year,” Carol Fosdick as “Best New Fiction,” and Patty Harlow on the front page of the website (although her listing has gone from the original second row when her letter appeared to the last row) and also featured on the front page of Author Celebrities. D. H. Gauvey was moved up to the first page of “Author Celebrities” when his letter came out, but now has faded to the second page. I guess he needs an updated attack letter.

Other supporters of JH, not quite attackers of me, but supporters on the blog include Alfred McCroskey of “Bibles for Russia”—now on the first row of Author Celebrities and the JH website, and Gerry Edwards on the cover page as a Best Selling Author. Well, actually Edward’s books do sell, so at least that’s most likely the truth. It’s doubtful that any JH authors are selling more than Edwards because according to their royalty checks that range on the average from a dollar and change to six dollars and change, he stands a chance of actually claiming that title.

On the other hand, poor Noriaki Osada is listed as a “Best Seller of 2008” for Jones Harvest. Mr. Osada, a victim of the Jones Harvest Fraud in tune to the amount of $7,000.00. For that money, Mr. Osada was promised three author reviews by real reviewers as opposed to Brien Jones and his nephew Tim, both of his books taken to the Book Fairs as opposed to just one of them, and the usual undone deeds guaranteed to make him a celebrity. It makes you wonder why the “Best Seller” is a man who has received a total of $40.00 in royalty checks—last year—but nothing this year. Sad, isn’t it? And let that be a lesson—if the best seller has received $40.00, is it any wonder that most people have never received anything? This is so typical of the misleading and fraudulent services offered by Jones Harvest. Mr. Osada, a fine and proud man from Japan, has a limited understanding of the English language, and like others in his position, it’s easy to take advantage of him.

But getting back to my original point, I have a great idea for the JH authors who are looking for prominent positioning on his numerous websites that are read by...well, mostly me checking him out. If you want to be a “Celebrity” or “Starred Author,” or even be part of the “Bargain Basement” books (whatever that means), you don’t have to cough up thousands of dollars as you’ve done in the past. Just write a nasty letter about Bonnie Kaye and you’re sure to get prominence. Since I am looking to save you money, you have my permission to make up whatever attacks you want about me because that seems to get front page exposure. In fact, if you need help in making up lies about me, just drop me a note and I’ll be sure to think of some new ones. The old ones about blackmailing Jones into publishing books for free for me and my friends, owning a publishing company, and making money from authors is really growing old.

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.

In Response to Carol Fosdick's Attack on Me

The Jones Harvest blog site posted this new attack on me from their author Carol Fosdick. Then Carol asked Brien to forward the letter to me. This is my response to her:

Hi Carol,
Brien forwarded your email to me. You can always feel free to write to me directly in the future. I would like to respond to your comments.

Dear Brien, I would like to reiterate my support of you in the face of Bonnie Kay's last attack. She must indeed be a very vindictive, bitter woman.

Carol, I am not sure why you would think that I am vindictive and bitter. I resent the fact that so many of our Airleaf victims became Jones Harvest victims. They reached out to me for help in the beginning when they saw they were being defrauded again, this time by JH. I took on the Airleaf campaign, and it would be ridiculous for me to ignore their pleas for help a second time or ignore them. In the beginning, I had them write to Brien and the first five did get their money back, but then it stopped because Brien can afford to give money back, in spite of the fact that he guaranteed it. I guess he had to fill in something on his website when he took down that guarantee--but you filled the void in that spot.

As you know, I have had nothing but good results from Jones Harvest Publishing. You have gone out of your way to treat me well. In working with you on almost a daily basis, I feel I am gaining name recognition, my latest goal to sell more of my books. I do thank you for the honor you recently bestowed on me.

I am glad you are having good results from Jones Harvest. If the other nearly 50 authors who are now filing charges through government agencies had good experiences, I'd have lots more time to devote to my own career instead of helping them. But they are my first priority because I am a human services professional--always have been--and someone has to stand up for the rights of the vulnerable people in this country.

As far as the gaining "name recognition," the only ones who really looks at the JH site daily are me and other members of my group who are helping to organize the other authors who have been scammed. Since Amazon has your book listed with not one sale, I don't think the recognition has gone very far.

I cannot help but wonder just what Bonnie Kay's motive is. Undoubtedly to feather her own nest with her own company. Why does she feel she must destroy another business to build her own?

Carol, I don't have a company. I am a relationship counselor. I also own a school. I have no interest in the publishing business now or ever. I know Brien likes to tell that to people in desperation, but it's a lie.

It just shows me what a petty, small person she is. Great minds grapple with great concepts; petty minds grapple with fault-finding, gossip, and destroying others.

Actually, the great concept I grapple with is not having people lose thousands of dollars to fraud. If you came to me and said you were charged thousands of dollars for services that were never provided, I wouldn't look at you as being a petty person looking to find fault. I would look at you as a victim, which you are, but don't even realize it yet.

I notice she says, "Happy Holidays", instead of "Merry Christmas". In this day and age of political correctness, this tells me something --- that she is secular.

Actually, I am not secular. I am Jewish. And the members of our group are Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. I think it would be prejudicial of me to leave out any one of them.

If I were to give her advice, I would recommend she watch Joel Osteen on TV weekly. She might get some humility and some good grounding on living up to her potential. And I'll guarantee you, she wastes so much time going after others, her own work surely has to suffer.

You are right--my own work does suffer because I spend hours weekly working with people who have been violated and "raped" all over again. Most of the victims are elderly, disabled, and people with language differences who don't understand why they are being promised something that hasn't happened.

Carol, please let Brien know that if I have the opportunity to go to court with him, I will bring in the former employees who will be sworn to tell the truth about what really goes on there. At that point, they will be asked what Brien Jones really says about you behind your back. Maybe then you'll realize that he is making a total fool out of you and has been for a long time. Right now, Brien is using you as a "shill." In case you are not familiar with that word, a shill is a person used by a con man. Con men can't work without shills. Con artists know while people are easy to fleece and separate from their money they won't really begin forking it over until they see someone they can identify with as coming out on top, winning, having the claims of the con artist come true for them.

If Jones Harvest is as honest as it says it is, then there is nothing to worry about, is there? I am just an organizer. The government officials are doing the investigating. When all falls into place, let's see who really is the liar here and who really is guilty. It isn't me.

To you, Carol, Merry Christmas. Maybe if you and Brien can invest some positive energy into selling your book instead of attacking me, you will get some book sales.

Best regards,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.

CEASE AND DESIST RESPONSE

The Jones Harvest Family has posted the letter on their blog from their attorney that was sent to scare me into stopping my campaign to stop the Jones Harvest Fraudulence.
You can feel free to read this on the Jones Harvest blog with other attacks by his handful of shills. The shills are his fans that Brien Jones does all kinds of publishing favors for. Most of them get free publishing in response for attacking me.
This is the letter I sent to Steven Hedges, his attorney, explaining the situation.

Mr. Steven G. Hedges P.O. Box 5085
Bloomington, Indiana

November 20, 2008

Dear Mr. Hedges,
Before I begin, I would to ask you a question. What kind of attorney/CPA doesn’t have a real address or email address? It is very hard for me to communicate with you via a P.O. Box, but I’ll try my best.

Thank you for your letter regarding Jones Harvest Publishing. I would like to respond to set the record straight. Let me preface this by saying you are not the first lawyer who has written to me about a campaign against a predatory publisher. The first was a year ago from the attorney representing Airleaf Publishing, the now out-of-business company where Mr. Jones was the former Executive Vice President. That attorney, like you, accused me of similar “wrong-doings”; however, after he received my letter to him as well as numerous letters from the Airleaf Victims group that I had write to him, he walked away from the case. I have a feeling that once you know the truth about Mr. Jones and his company, you may want to do the same.

I am the organizer of the Airleaf Victims group which now numbers over 500 people who were fraudulently taken for money by Airleaf Publishing. At least 2/3 of the group dealt with Mr. Jones at Airleaf and felt that he was the person responsible for their loss of money. I say this to you to lay the basis for his lack of character. If you would like, I could ask my victims to personally write to you and discuss this with you. In fact, I will cut and copy some of their comments recently published on line at the end of this letter for you to read.

When Mr. Jones left Airleaf, he contacted me with a letter which I have pleading his case and stating that he, too, was a victim of Airleaf. In my quest for getting justice from Airleaf, I called him. You see, I didn’t know Mr. Jones at Airleaf. I never heard of him because he wasn’t my representative. I had no reason to doubt him, and I wanted to utilize him to help me as he offered. Mr. Jones offered to print my book from Airleaf “Straight Wives: Shattered Lives” for free if I would allow him to do so. I did not ask him; he asked me. He asked me if he could feature me on his website because I had been one of the most prominent customers that Airleaf had. I agreed to allow him to do that. I also told him that I would help him with his business if he would live up to his promises of “only wanting to sell books for authors.” At that point, I was editing his fliers and advertising for grammar and helping him with ideas for marketing—which I did for free because I believed him. I had no reason to doubt him.

Mr. Jones was instrumental in my campaign to contact authors who were dissatisfied with Airleaf. He provided me with the illegally taken database from Airleaf with all of the data of their customers as well as a list of nearly 1,000 email addresses of people who were dissatisfied with Airleaf. Each day, I diligently sent out letters to 25 or 30 people of this list he provided to me telling them about my Airleaf plight. You can see my site at www.AirleafVictims.com. Horror stories starting pouring in daily from people responding to my forming a group to take legal action against Airleaf. Ironically, the overwhelming majority of letters were attacking Mr. Jones. I didn’t understand it. I pled his cause, telling people he was “just an employee” as he told me. I still didn’t get the fact that he was the mastermind of many of the fraudulent promotions at Airleaf. When I reprinted people’s stories on my Airleaf Victims website, I did so taking his name off and replacing it with “employees” or the “the owner.” I was protecting him because I still believed him.

I did plead the cause of two Airleaf Victims to Mr. Jones asking him to publish their books for free. One, Marta Jankowitz, was a woman in Canada and the other, Jason Hubals, a young man in Washington State, who was dying. Both had given their monies to Airleaf in good faith. Jason and his mother had invested $8,000.00 with Airleaf and never saw a book. Marta invested her mother’s money only to have her mother die before ever seeing a book. In fairness, he did publish the Hubals’ book and he did offer to publish the Marta’s book for free. The Hubals accepted; Marta refused because she wanted action taken against him specifically for misleading her. But because he made the effort, I still believed in him.

Mr. Jones did offer to publish a second book for me for free. Please understand that he would receive half of the monies in royalties as part of the agreement and my books make money—thousands have sold. I was still pushing people his way in the summer of 2007 before the fall-out began. I was promised to have my second book by September 2007. I had made expensive arrangements to do a book launching in NYC with that guarantee. When the book wasn’t delivered after daily promises, I decided to go with a different publisher, CCB Publishing. I had researched publishing companies for six months, and I narrowed my search down to three publishers. After interviewing each of them extensively, I chose CCB. The cost for publishing was much less than Jones Harvest for paying authors, and my book was produced and out in four weeks with integrity and professionalism. I was overly impressed with the company, so it is natural that I would refer people there. I also refer them to Mountain Valley Publishing, Fideli Publishing, and Artship Publishing. These three companies have proven to me that they have an excellent work ethic and produce the work they are paid for. I have no ownership or partnership with CCB Publishing. However, please feel free to read the numerous testimonials from the Airleaf Victims on their website to concur that what I am telling you is the truth. You can also read the testimonials at Mountain Valley Publishing. I have been accused by Mr. Jones of working with them as well. He is always grasping at straws, isn’t he?

Mr. Jones was living in his own delusion that he would be able to take away the Airleaf business and build a money-making company like Airleaf that brought in millions of dollars. In the beginning, he must have believed that publishing and selling books could do that for him. But it didn’t take long until he realized that publishing doesn’t bring in the money—selling promotions is what brings it in—especially if you don’t have to do anything once you get the money. All of a sudden, fliers starting coming out of Jones Harvest looking just like the Airleaf fliers promising people that they could become famous if only they would invest thousands of dollars. All kinds of promises and guarantees were made—GUARANTEES. I am enclosing some of those for you to view. Mr. Jones was careful NOT to send me these fliers knowing that I would be very angry. However, when I was contacted last November by my first clients, Reverend Cleon and Ada Spencer, I knew something was amiss. The Spencers, who are Airleaf Victims, told me that they had given Mr. Jones $4,000 in April to publish two books. Now, seven months later, they had never received ANYTHING—not a galley, not a cover—Nothing. I told them to write to Brien and ask for their money back. He gave them back $3,600.00, charging them $400.00 for a bogus radio interview that he pays a few dollars for. But at least they had the bulk of their money back and they were grateful. The Spencers are elderly people in their 70’s—as are most victims of Mr. Jones. Two weeks later, I received my second letter, and then my third, fourth, and fifth. In the beginning, I was successful in telling authors to ask for their money back—and they got it back. But then it stopped. Mr. Jones didn’t have any money to give back because he was blowing it on his large payroll and personal business.

When I realized that I was being used by Mr. Jones as a “hook” for his business, I asked him to remove me from his website and to remove my book from his publishing company. There were no hard feelings over this. I did not have anything personally against him, just the way he was conducting business with authors in my group.
In the spring of 2008, when Dorothea Smith, an 81-year-old author wrote to me about investing $5,000 with Mr. Jones who guaranteed her a national television advertisement, radio shows, weekly updates, interviews, etc. etc., that did it for me. I told her to ask for her money back, and when he refused, I set up my website.

You see, I was tired of having to relive a nightmare that I was still recovering from. I was unable to sit back and watch innocent people get hurt all over again and lose their dreams. And so yes, I did set up the website, but there is not one bit of inaccuracy in that website. Everything in there is the truth. I will have Dorothea Smith contact you directly so you will know, and I am directly copied his letters to her on my website that states his “guarantees” that Mr. Jones never carried out.
At this point of time, I have had 37 people contact me or respond to me about their problems with Jones Harvest. I am soliciting new victims because I know there are many. In fact, I just sent out a mailing to alert the people who paid for a “catalogue” to be given out at the book fairs Mr. Jones has been sending his wife and cousin to. There is no catalogue, but the money has been paid by at least 16 people for the catalogue. This is the pattern of Mr. Jones.
As far as calling his printers, yes, I did call several of them when one of his other victims, mid-70’s Sioux Dallas of Tampa who is disabled and in a wheelchair with cancer wrote to me in despair because it had been over a year since she paid Mr. Jones. She heard the book was at the printers for months. I told her to ask the name of the printer. When Mr. Jones gave her the name, I gave her the phone number (which Mr. Jones had given me last year while I was still speaking to him) and she called. Mr. Jones said he “paid” this printer—I have the email in case you would like it. When Sioux called, the printer told her he never had her book. Then a few weeks later, Mr. Jones tried to blame the woman for his losing this printer by her getting involved. So I called the printer at Axess Printing to verify if this could possibly be true, and of course, they assured me this was not the case. Of course—but this is my fault to I suppose.

The bottom line is this, Mr. Hedges. I am not going to cease and desist my activities against Jones Harvest until Mr. Jones returns the money of the victims that I am representing as a public advocate. There is no gain in this for me—in fact, I am donating my professional time and money for this campaign because it is a labor of conscience. I am in touch with the Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Attorney’s office about Jones Harvest. I have people filling out reports to those government agencies to take action against him, just like I did to Airleaf Publishing.

If you would like to haul me into court, I would be happy to be there. However, keep in mind if I do go to court, I will be subpoenaing the following to back up my case:
1.The victims of Jones Harvest who will verify everything that I present as evidence of the truth as I tell it

2.The victims of Airleaf who dealt with Mr. Jones to attest to his character—or lack of it

3.The former employees of Jones Harvest

4.A former girlfriend of Mr. Jones during his time at Airleaf

5.Former employees of Airleaf who will testify to Mr. Jones’s scheming and selling

The truth of the matter is, Mr. Hedges, you are representing a criminal. I am representing victims. I do not get paid for anything I do for these victims—I just do it out of conscience. If you think that you will win a case against me, I welcome you to take me to court. I don’t believe that telling the truth is a crime. I don’t think that you’ll think I’m a criminal either after you check out the facts—not the fiction as Mr. Jones tells it.

As with every con, Mr. Jones has his “shills” who will testify that he is a wonderful person and publisher. He has done a number of their books for free, so why not? I could provide you with a list of their names as well because he has them attacking me whenever possible. And if some people have had good experiences with Jones Harvest, that’s what his business is supposed to be about. Airleaf Publishing had some very satisfied customers as well; however, that doesn’t negate the hundreds of us who were defrauded for over two million dollars. The same here goes for Jones Harvest.

As far as hurting Mr. Jones’s reputation—well, he is doing that all by himself. I’m not the one falsely taking people’s money—he is. Mr. Jones has written very libelous things against me. I don’t personalize them. I know where they come from. And I know because the people he sends these lies to send them on to me. I’ll bring them along to court with me as well.

If you are counting on the money you are requesting from me to pay your legal fees—the money you claim I have gotten from these victims—you’ll find yourself penniless because as all of them will verify, I work for free.
Please feel free to contact me if you care to discuss this further.
Sincerely,

Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.

Here are some public comments posted on the website A Writer’s Life from September 2008. Do you want to sue all of them as well?

I contacted the attorney general's office regarding business with this company before this scandal came out. I also knew that Brien Jones was the biggest part of it because he was the only one I had exchanged monies with. I was, however; after the complaint, somewhat compensated. What I have not received are books ordered and am weary about the promise to send novels to film companies etc. This too had a cost.
Hoping that we will all be compensated for all the hard work we did to get our works to a point of publish and for having to go through the process again
Posted by: l charles | Sunday, September 07, 2008 at 03:10 PM
You amaze me Kaye!! Stay strong!! You are such an amazing writer and motivator!!
Posted by: Susan | Sunday, September 07, 2008 at 03:10 PM
When I first dealt with Bookman Publishing - and, later, Airleaf - Brien Jones was the person in charge, as far as I'm concerned. His was the signature at the bottom of the promo letters, the contract info, everything. He incurred the negative karma by so doing, and all the protestations to the reverse will not change that truth.
How convenient for him to now attempt to distance himself from the mess he minimally co-created. He marketed and sold the plans, he promised the goods, and then he failed to deliver. His was the name we authors saw, and therefore, he owns the karma.
I won't bore you with the details, but I paid dearly: money for services that were never rendered, received guarantees that were never made good on, and gave trust that was returned with abuse and failure to produce. My Airleaf rep changed at least four times (including one repeater), so promises and consistency were impossible to maintain.
How subconsciously telling it is that he chose the name Jones' "Harvest", because as he has sown, he surely is now reaping - thanks to Bonnie Kaye, I might add. Jones' Harvest is quickly becoming Jones' Karma.
Posted by: Peter Del Vecchio | Sunday, September 07, 2008 at 08:56 PM

When I first started working with Airleaf, Brien Jones was my only interface. The only thing that I can say is that for me, he brought a whole new meaning to the word “incompetence”.
Posted by: Bruce Blanton | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 06:50 AM

Those of you who want to do business with Brien Jones may certainly do so. He will be happy to separate you from your money. That's what he did to me by promising things that Airleaf could not and did not deliver.
I blame myself. I should have known when he gave the lame excuse for the name change from Bookman to Airleaf. He's a salesman...a closer. But like so many others, I got a little carried away with the idea of having my book published, which never happened. But they took my money.
Buyer beware. Take the time, do your research and find a reputable company. As for Bookman, Airleaf, Brien Jones, and Jones Harvest, I would not have anything to do with any of them or with anyone who had anything to do with any of them.
Good Luck.
Posted by: Martin Salzer | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 08:01 AM

Brian Jones is just as crooked as his old boss Carl Lau. (And the State of Indiana is allowing this crap to continue; plus the major Indiana newspaper The Indianapolis Star has ignored all pleas to do an investigation. Is the whole state corupt?)
Posted by: Donald F. Myers, USMC Ret. | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 10:06 AM
I, too, have been burned by Bookman Publishing Company. I had an irregular run-in with Brien Jones, after I asked him a question concerning my book sales. He became irate, and naturally I hung up on him. He called back with a very rude retort. He stated, "Lady, that ain't cool." He repeated the same statement at least two times. I intoned that his behavior was short of being professional and should not be dealing with the public.
I paid several hundreds of dollars for promises that was not delivered. I have decided that POD publishing is not the way for an author to go. I know I will never see my hard-earned money again. I have purposed in my heart to propagate to other author's who may be considering POD publishing, to seek other ways of publishing their book. I am not saying that all POD publishing is crooked. I am certain that there are creditable POD publishing companies out there. I have not found one, yet.
I have an abundance of respect for Bonnie Kaye, for her courage and drive. I am sure that her continuing pro-activeness for what she believes in will prevail and we "authors" will be the better for it.
Good luck to all of you "authors" who are seeking a reputable publishing company.
Colleen Jeffries
Posted by: Colleen Jeffries | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 12:05 PM

There may be a few authors who feel their association with Jones Harvest has treated them fairly, but I only see one blog who does so. And it is quite egomaniacal to state that "disgruntled" authors who probably are not smart enough to write, let alone publish, a book are the only ones complaining against Brien Jones. No one but Brien knows how many scams he has cleverly put together (let's give him credit for that ability anyway) but since there is a coalition forming as we speak, it appears that the number of his complaining clients is growing along with the number of his exaggerated promises being uncovered daily.
He is supposed to be a consultant which to him, means collect the money and do nothing.

Posted by: Dorothea Smith | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 12:13 PM
My name is Ken Pullen. I am not a publisher. I have no ulterior motives. I will not benefit in any manner from writing this, or seeing Mr. Brien Jones of Jones Harvest Publishing go out of business.
It is an utterly insane and illogical premise that anyone would monetarily benefit from Brien Jones going out of business. Think about that absurd statement. Where is the logic and reasoning? That is said to merely distract from what is actually taking place should you be foolish enough to trust Brien Jones and give him your money.
I am writing this for one reason and one reason only.
I know Brien Jones. Through knowing him I am very aware of what Brien Jones is. Mr. Jones is a conman. A simple modern day con artist using the Internet and the United States Postal Service to expand and maintain his scheme.
How can this be a con and a crime if some people defend Brien Jones and make the claims he has done wonders for them? Always delivered?
They are shills.
Without shills cons don't work.
Con artists know while people are easy to fleece and separate from their money they won't really begin forking it over until they see someone they can identify with as coming out on top, winning, having the claims of the con artist come true for them.
Brien Jones was the first person working at Airleaf Publishing to contact me. He worked the same angle he does now. He provided names and emails of people who he'd represented that he claimed were happy customers of Airleaf.
The shills.
I let my guard down upon being emailed by these shils that they had no qualms with Brien Jones or Airleaf.
Meanwhile Brien Jones and Carl Lau of Airleaf Publishing were fleecing literally hundreds and hundreds of people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
None of their hollow words rang true - or ever came true.
Do not follow, do not believe, do not trust Brien Jones. Ever. He is a con artist. He is a criminal. He defrauds people. He can no longer discern fact from fiction, the truth from his myriad lies.
Think of this - in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, any gambling location we all know the house wins 9 out of 10 times, or as adults we should be aware of that. Everything in a casino is set up in favor of the house. Yes, there are occasional winners but tens of millions of losers.
Now knowing that would you take thousands of dollars of money you cannot afford to throw away or lose and bet it all on one bet, one number, one spin of the wheel?
Here is the difference between Brien Jones and Las Vegas - in Vegas you still have the small outside chance of winning, albeit rare. With Brien Jones he already has his shils in place. None of the players ever have a chance of winning at this point. There isn't even that rare remote possibility you might win with Brien Jones.
Don't throw your money away.
Don't merely follow, trust, and believe.
I get nothing from doing this.
The people who have written of Brien Jones crimes do not get anything from saying what they did.
Bonnie Kaye does not benefit in any way other than knowing that if she can bring about awareness and an end to such cons there will be the chance one fewer person will lose their money and have their dreams dashed.
Brien Jones is a crook.
You want to finance a crook and ignore all the warnings it's your life, your money, but do not delude yourself into thinking you're going to be the exception that he cares about, helps, and that you will succeed - you won't.
That you can take to the bank!
Posted by: Ken Pullen | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 11:21 PM

Posted by: GC | Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 04:19 PM
My main concern about authors who are dealing with Brien Jones...they honestly feel as though he is their friend and cares about them personally. They believe he is a good friend working on their behalf; when in reality, he only knows them by caller ID and a spreadsheet of notes he reads as the call is being forwarded. He doesn’t read any of the manuscripts ..but does have lots of notes from conversations. He mocks and makes fun of authors after their calls.. I know this first hand.
If you've spoke to him more than 4 times and not noticed his replies are recited like verse from memory -pay closer attention. "You’re our top priority", "I thought you had that already", "I'll find out and get back to you"-- Just like in every review Brien has ever written the phrase "engagingly written painstakingly researched" is used- no matter what the subject matter. He actually gets a kick out of getting by with it and no one noticing. Check out starred reviews on the starredreview.com website and see for yourself.
He knows exactly what he's doing...Has always known what he has been doing...Hes done it for years...First Books to Bookman to Airleaf to Jones Harvest.

I totally agree with everything Ken Pullman stated on Sept. 8, 2008. Brien was the first person to contact me at Airleaf. He lost all my manuscript, took half of the $1850.00 he was charging me to get started on my book. He always had excuses for not getting it edited. I worked with five different ones and was told so many lies about why they left. Before Brien left Airleaf, he called me and told me that before he could back started on my book, that he had to have the other half of my money that I owed. Like a fool, I sent it to him. He probably took that with him, because the next thing I knew he was gone and I was receiving letters from him trying to get me to go with his new company. I thought to myself, you conned me out of all that money and did nothing for me, why should I change and start over paying again with you? And, thank God I didn't.
Posted by: Sarah Harrison | Sunday, October 26, 2008 at 06:00 PM


Mr. Hedges, I hope these postings will open your eyes to the reality of your client. If not, I have hundreds of angry authors I’d be happy to send your way via letters to confirm it.
Bonnie