Friday, October 22, 2010

Indiana Gets Tough on Scam Publishers!




Victoria Strauss did a marvelous piece of work in her blog posting at WriterBewareBlogs! (I'd add the trademark symbol for the blog name, but I can't find it on my keyboard.  Here's the link to their blog for the full story, where the Attorney General of Indiana (whose office we'll soon be contacting) slams the hammer down on a scam publisher: http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2010/08/indiana-attorney-general-investigates.html

This case is of particular interest to me because it happened in the same state where the publisher/writer/plagiarist David Boyer/ David Byron, etc., etc. lives.

Here's two fascinating excerpts from the filed papers on the publisher David Caswell of New Century Publishing:


"The Plaintiff, State of Indiana, by Attorney General Greg Zoeller and Deputy Attorney General Thomas Irons, petitions the Court pursuant to the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, Indiana Code § 24-5-0.5-1 et seq., for injunctive relief, consumer restitution, civil penalties, costs, and other relief.



PARTIES


1. The Plaintiff, State of Indiana, is authorized to bring this action and to seek injunctive and other statutory relief pursuant to hid. Code § 24-5-0.5-4(c).


2. At all times relevant to this Complaint, Defendant David W. Caswell (hereinafter "Caswell"), engaged in the solicitation and/or sale of book publishing and promotional services to consumers from a principal place of business located in Marion County, at 1040 East 86th Street, Suite 42A, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240. Caswell also resides in Marion County at 4425 Knollton Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46228."



"16. Among other things, Defendants represented that: (1) once the book was completed and sales by Defendants began, Baldwin would be entitled to royalty payments amounting to fifty percent (50%) of net sales, and that said royalties would be paid to him within six weeks from receipt of the sales proceeds by Defendants; and (2) various promotional services would be performed when Baldwin's book was published, including a press release and inclusion in a newsletter and catalog.

17. Despite sales of Baldwin's book on Defendants' website, royalties were not made in the amount or within the timeframes as represented by Defendants nor were all the promotional services performed as promised."

*****

Since I've been contacted by writers already who claim that Boyer hasn't paid them what they're owed, I'm announcing this open request for anyone who's been stiffed by this plagiarist to send me the info on their complaint.  I'm meeting with my lawyers next week re contacting the AG of Indiana re David Boyer/David Byron.  And I won't be alone.  A lot of people have been coming forward with more information.


Time to go legal.


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11 comments:

Unknown said...

Time to go legal indeed. Let's nail him to the wall.

Jules said...

Well, I'll be cheering you on.
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Mike Brendan said...

I cast Summon Popcorn... Go get 'em! :)

Rick said...

Hello Cussedness- I'll bring the hammer!

Rick said...

Jules- your support is so very welcome!

Rick said...

Aye, aye, Mike!

Lana Gramlich said...

Good luck, hon. In a similar vein, I'm taking a local "businessman" to small claims court in Nov. for selling my works & keeping the money. As if selling wasn't hard enough. Now I need to deal with courts, too?

Rick said...

Lana, let me at that guy. But I know there won't be much left of him after you get through!

Anonymous said...

Interesting... Did I read correctly in that the defendant's name in this case is also David?

Rick said...

Hello, aj. And you're right. They're both David, they both are scam artists, they both are publishers and they both operate out of Indiana. It's like something's gone wrong in the drink water.

Raven said...

@ Rick: You should be able to create HTML symbols by name, with ampersand-name-semicolon, for instance [ampersand]trade[semicolon] = ™    or    [ampersand]copy[semicolon] = ©

There's a full list at HTML Special Character Reference