Boyer's Stoker Scam

Boyer a Stoker Nominee?

Have you been nominated for a Stoker Award lately?  It's the supreme award for Dark Fiction issued yearly by the HWA.  You probably think it's a lot of work to get nominated for a Stoker.  First you have to be recommended (lots are recommended), then you have to make the cut to be nominated. 

But wait, there's an easier way- The Boyer Way!  All you have to do, according to David Boyer, the Vincennes, Indiana plagiarist, is write in the bio of one of your books that you were nominated.  Just put it there, and that means you really were nominated for a Stoker award by the HWA.  You don't really have to be nominated.  Since you've claimed your imaginary nomination in black in white, it must be true.  Name it and claim it.

People claiming they received awards or nominations for awards they either weren't nominated for or didn't get are the bane of our industry.  And David Boyer, the Vincennes, IN plagiarist, is the most notorious of these.  He claims he was nominated for a Stoker (for the story he stole from me), but he wasn't (it was only recommended).  He just slaps the imaginary nomination in his bio and figures readers are too lazy to check it out.  After all, someone would have stopped him if he was lying, wouldn't they?

Not really.  Readers are loathe to think writers are that dishonest.  But they're wrong.  Writers like Boyer are that dishonest.

It's the oldest trick in a con man's book- claim you were nominated for something.  No one checks unless you claim you won.  There are lots of writers out there without scruples who claim in their bio that they were nominated.  They figure we're too dumb to catch them at it.

Why would a writer risk their integrity when things like this are so easy to check?  In Boyer's case, he has no integrity.  He's a plagiarist.

What have we come to as writers when the award claims are more important than the quality of our stories?

Stuart Kicked David Byron (David Boyer) off of Amazon

And He's a Better Writer, too...

*****

Remember Stuart?  He wrote us all to warn everyone what a thief David Byron a.k.a. Iron Dave of Indiana was. 

"I submitted my book to another publisher, they accepted it. Then, I heard some news. My book was on Amazon. But it wasn´t by me...WHAT? I checked it out...the SOB had put MY book onto amazon, but not under my name - under his! One of his many pseudonyms. But my name was on the cover! The idiot hadn't even changed that, nor the copyright page. My name, still emblazoned on the inside...What a moron he is. I had to get in touch with amazon to block all this, had to prove who I was, that I was the author, etc, etc. fortunately, I had all the documentation. I had to sign an affadavit that I would face prosecution if I had committed purgury. Well, I did all that and eventually the book was withdrawn. I had to change the title of my new book to The Well of CONSTANT Despair. This man is a total shark, a predator. I told P and E all about him, and they have posted a Not Recommended flag against NVH and all of its off-shoots. I've never seen my 500 dollars, I never will. So beware. Why the guy hasn't been shopped to the FBI is beyond me. Maybe some of you guys over in the USA should get him investigated. FBI are good at hunting down scams, con artists and the like. Iron Dave is all of those things and more."

Stuart did it right.  Hats off to you, friend.

We're doing it right, too.  Here's what's happened so far:

The editor of "Something Wicked" magazine, a true professional (unlike David Boyer a.k.a. David Byron, a.k.a. Leo Wolfe, a.k.a Iron Dave, a.k.a. etc, etc) straightened Dave out.  He put the story under my name and kicked Dave out.

Tyree Campbell, the lion of Sam's Dot Publishing, posted on his magazine's forum decrying David's actions.  I've spoken to Tyree Campbell.  He's a straight up, strongly principled guy who has no use for plagiarism or plagiarists like David Boyer (I'd insert a few more of his aliases, but more on that in another posting- this man has some identity problems).

Ralan, the workhorse magazine listing on the web for writers of dark fiction, has booted rusted Iron Dave off their site.  The people at Ralan were wonderfully professional about the whole thing.

My legal team is drawing up the first round of papers against this creep.  And by the way, it's all of you that made this possible.  So many people have written us exposing his shyster activities that we have all the ammunition we need.

Booksie has been whacking him down.  More to come there.

Piker Press busted him.  More to come there, too.

The mighty Duotrope has taken down his "Darkened Doorways" listing from its site.

And Amazon is in the works.  Serious trouble coming the plagiarist's way over there.  Publish America and iUniverse are on Monday's list.  Lulu is studying the case before they get into action.

 

Too big a list to to type out, so more to come!

Thanks so much to all of you in the blogosphere for all of your help with this.  When writers come together, we can really take out the trash.

By the way, I gave David til last Friday to provide me with a list off his various aliases so that all of you could use them to see how many of your own stories he'd stolen.  He wouldn't do it.  Too bad, Iron Dave.  I would have stopped if you'd confessed all your aliases and jumped in with a list of plagiaries so everyone else could get their stories back.  He sent me a confession and apology,  but wouldn't give me a complete list of his aliases.  Bad move, Dave.

So what's happened to Stuart?  How has he moved beyond David Boyer toward success as a writer?  He deserves a full posting middle of this week and I'm going to give it to him.

This week, I'll fill you in on how easy it is for real writers to get ahead by shaking off leeches like David and working with honest publishers. 

Stuart will always be a better man than you, David.  He's a real writer.

Help Pin the Tail on this Plagiarist.

He Can't Write So He Stole My Story

"Electrocuting the Clowns"



I wrote a short story titled "Electrocuting the Clowns."  It was copyrighted in 2003 in an anthology called "Beyond the Porch Light."  Check it out on Amazon and you'll see I wrote it and that the story is there and was copyrighted in 2003. 

Here's one of many places this guy publishes my story under his name: http://www.booksie.com/horror/short_story/horrormaster/electrocuting-the-clowns.  There's more and he's clumsy.

As  a member of the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, I am fortunate enough to be able to report this a plan for investigating this action.  The first step was to research everything about him and his activities.

Here's his bio/lies at this link: http://authordavidboyer.webs.com/photos/My-book-covers/IndieFilmHandbookR2.pdf on page 233.  To save you the work of having to click there, here's what this clown says about his work:

About The Author 


David Byron is the founder/CEO of NVF Magazine, an online publication
that promotes Indie filmmakers, actors, actresses, FX artists, graphic artists,
and musicians. He is the author of five non-fiction books, including The
Queens of Scream, Film Prodigies & Legends, Cinemassacres, Hot & Horrifying:
The First Ladies of Horror, and The Indie Filmmakers Handbook.
His other credits now include fiction writer, poet, screenwriter, producer,
and editor. His short stories, Electrocuting The Clowns and The First Cut Is The
Deepest, were both nominated for a Bram Stoker Award in 2008. He lives in
Indiana with his cats, Toby and Buckwheat, who are both a constant inspiration
for another story or film. You may view his magazine at www.freewebs.
com/nvhmag1 or email him at his personal email, db5948@gmail.com.

I know I wrote "Electrocuting the Clowns" and am going after that, but does anyone know who wrote "The First Cut is the Deepest?"  Did he steal that from someone else?

I've already notified the HWA about this guy.  I can't find any record of either story being nominated.  They cite this stuff on the web.

Oh, and his real name seems to be David Boyer.  He uses a lot of names.  Doc Byron, Iron Dave, David Boyer (real name), David Brookes, Leo Wolfe, Jerry Burkette.

Also, I'm notifying Lulu.com of the need to cease and desist making the story available to people and asking for what monies they paid out for the stolen property.  Amazon is next and... well, you get the picture.
Including the South African magazine.
 
This loser even cites my story on his Mingle web site.

But will you help me find out as much as I can about this man and his plagiarist activities.  This could happen to any of us.  I'm sure most of you are more web savvy than I am, and I'd appreciate the benefit of your knowledge and skills.  It's important that we stop this guy because there are other people on the web who say that he stole their work as well. 


This plagiarst poses as an editor looking for submissions to his magazines, but is he really looking for stories to steal so he can claim he wrote them?  Please look into this and see what you can find out about his activities.  Check out how many places on the web where he sells my story: 

He's selling it as a download on Lulu.com.  He's published it in a South African magazine.  He's got it in an anthology.  Take a look at these three links as starting points:

Play detective.  See how much you can find out about this creep.

This could happen to you, too.  So I'd appreciate your help. 

How would you stop this clown?  What can we do as a community of honest writers to bust plagiarists?

Have you ever looked on the web to see what's been stolen from you?