Archive for the “General” Category

Marsha Friedman, CEO of EMSI (public relations) was kind enough to provide a nice testimonial of my book, “TurnKey Publishing”. I greatly appreciate her kind words and her support.

======

Matthew Chan’s choice of title, TurnKey Publishing, is perfect in describing the contents of his book – a wealth of information – truly a basic primer on the subject. He has included every facet of self publishing anyone would need to know in order to have a thorough grasp of the subject.

The book comprises such aspects as: what to write about, budgeting and setting aside of funds toward eventual expenditures, costing, forming your own publishing company, design ideas for the book cover, use of photos, printing options, getting an ISBN number, etc. Matthew covers it all.

Not only does he explain the topics in simple understandable terms, but he tells “how to” in a way that makes it easy for any reader to use and apply the material.

This book is one of my top choices, a “must read” roadmap for anyone contemplating the route of self-publishing and wanting to avoid the potholes with the result of having a successfully journey.

In doing a YouTube search, I found some great videos where Seth Godin spoke to the Digital Publishing Group regarding the future of the publishing industry. You can tell the employees are not happy about what Seth is telling them.

Part 1 of 3.

—

Part 2 of 3

—

Part 3 of 3.

—
Partial Q&A sessions

I have a prediction that within 5 years, only 25% of New York Publishing as we know it will survive.  The other 75% will be acquired, move into a different business, or simply shut down.  The economics of the present model will not be able to be sustained and the technological advances in publishing continue to advance at a rapid rate.

There will continue to be celebrities and other people who have large platforms that will continue to make the remaining New York Publishers viable.  But the Long Tail effect will continue to lengthen shattering the current obsolete book publishing and distribution models.  There will be much more free content produced by authors that will monetize their efforts in other ways than from their books.

As more authors become more empowered and understand their position in the new publishing marketplace, even the best authors will consider moving off in a different direction UNLESS New York publishing accommodates them or moves with them. But I see very little of that because most employees are fundamentally not entrepreneurial. Or if they are, they are not in an environment that will support them.

Many employees within New York Publishing will find their skills obsoleted in much the same way old-style typesetters were put out of business when desktop publishing software became popular.

Those employees who continue to chase positions with the big publishers will be participating in a game of musical chairs except that the chairs being removed will taken away dozens if not hundreds at a time.  Their only hope is to find another career or morph into providing contract services to empowered authors.  However, I believe most authors will NOT take on New York publishing’s ex-employees.  They expect too much pay and the culture shock will be too great. It will probably be better for many to home-grow their own professionals or find those people who are experienced in being independent contractors.

Book publishing will continue to have its place.  Books won’t go away.  But with many more authors producing more independent titles, it will dilute the power and influence of most New York publishers.

And if you are bothered by this article, ask yourself why?  I am only one unknown guy writing on little-read blog right?  There is no power in this one lonely blog post, right?  After all, a prediction does not make it fact.  If I am wrong, I have little to lose.  But if I am right, there are LOTS of people in for a lot of financial and career pain.

Word of the the day:  TITANIC

This is another “waste of time” post, but I have to cover myself by being transparent.

It appears that Ari Hinnant has is carrying out her threats to smear my name through fake stories of my being a pedophile, child rapist, and molester. Anyone knows if I was, in fact, these things I would be reported and registered in the state Sex Offender databases around the U.S.

It is simple enough to check anyone’s Sex Offender background on:

• National Sex Offender Public Website -  National search provided by U.S. Dept. of Justice
• Ancestor Hunt – Links to each of the 50 states Sex Offender Registry.
• Family Watchdog – National and state search on Sex Offenders.

She sent me this email last night.  Please note that she has not stated what “offenses” I have supposedly committed.  She is just going to report me to the authorities.  For what I ask? For telling the truth of her online shenanigans?

Matt,

I have reported you to the FBI, BBB, All your social networks and local police.  I will be taking further actions against you and your business. All future correspondences will be forwarded to the FBI and my attorney.

Ms. Hinnant

My initial response to her was this:

Ari,

What exactly will you report as you are the one who has been scamming people and lying to people with your products?  You have impersonated people.  You plagiarize people.  You hire people without paying them.  You get shut down by ecommerce companies.  In fact, I caught you and the proof is posted.  I suppose you will go make something up as you continue to do. I have screen shots of payment companies shutting you down and so forth.  I am keeping records on everything you send me.

You brought this on yourself.  If you had not persisted in spamming the business area I was in, I would never have investigated you.  I could not stay silent while you tried to take advantage of the community I participate in.

I have no wish to waste any of my time coming across your fake posts and messages.  I see you have removed your website so I am willing to “hide” those blog posts.  But if you persist on, I will spend money on information services to dig out more personal information on you.  I don’t want to waste my money but if you are hell bent on tarnishing my reputation by concocting stories, be prepared.

It is your choice how you want to proceed.  Believe it or not, I have much better things to do than to keep investigating you.  I am willing to stop but you need to stop engaging in your fraudulent and spamming activities where I participate.  You let me know what you want.  This can all go away quickly.  But if you want to do it the hard way, then I can play hardball too.

I have way more to report on you than me.  The only way you can report something on me is if you fabricate something (which I know you have already done).  Do you want to escalate this or do you want to back it down?  I prefer that everyone go back to their own lives and mind their own business.

Matthew Chan

My second response to her made today was:

Ari,

I have seen evidence of your handiwork on the whole Pedophile accusation thing.  Everyone knows if I was, in fact, a pedophile, I would be required to register my name to the state and I would have a criminal record.  I am happy to say that, aside from the occasional traffic ticket, I have no criminal record which is easily verifiable to anyone who cares.

Just realize, I am printing screens of everything I find from you.  As usual, you have taken to impersonating other people to make these accusations. This is very transparent. If and when it comes to the point where there is “enough” evidence or destructive behavior, I have every intention to seek criminal prosecution not simply make online reports.

At this point, I am willing to let everything go away.  But just realize if you persist, I will be an aggressive fighter and I will reach out to your family and friends to inform them of your shenanigans. Believe it or not, I don’t have an axe to grind here but if you perpetuate in this smear campaign, I will become very angry.

If I find more fake smears, then I will no longer give you a courtesy warning.  You can simply expect I will be taking actions to the fullest extent I am able.  There will be no warnings anymore.

Matthew Chan

I have made screen prints of everything I discover along the way. Thus far, she has attempted to smear my name on:

• Scribd
• Twitter
• ArticlesBase
• RipOffReport

There is probably more on the way that I will have to keep track of.  I will be updating this post as I gather ongoing evidence.

—-

On May 17, 2010, I received 2 fake comments on this blog post by “Zorro” who uses the name “Ann Alloria”. WordPress is an impressive piece of software and reveals a lot of information regarding anyone that posts comments to this blog. Look below. The IP address and ISP being used is identical to the ones I listed before relating to Ari Hinnant and all the other aliases she has been using.

Author : zorro (IP: 74.128.166.84 , 74-128-166-84.dhcp.insightbb.com) E-mail : ann.alloria@gmail.com

Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=74.128.166.84

Comment:

I’m read and have worked with Ari and she’s amazing and I love her books. I think you have the wrong person.  All her books have a money back guarantee… so, I’m confused about what you’re talking about.

I heard that Matthew who owns this blog is a child sex offender and thinks that Ari is another person who wrote an article about him.

Ann Alloria

—

Author : zorro (IP: 74.128.166.84 , 74-128-166-84.dhcp.insightbb.com) E-mail : ann.alloria@gmail.com

Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=74.128.166.84

Comment:

I actually know Ari and she is a wonderful person. She has given away over 50,000 books to the poor.  I’m confused, how can she scam people if she sells books and has a 30 day money back guarantee?

Anyway, I heard that Matthew (Owner of this blog) is a child sex offender and someone named Ari wrote an article about it and he is blaming the wrong person.

Believe what you want, I love her books and I know her personally.

Ann Alloria

I also found independent complaints/reports on Ari Hinnant / Ari Zkari that I found to be good reading. One relates to Living-in-bliss and the other is Verifiee.  Apparently, she engages in sexual services too. I wish I could take credit for this report but I cannot. Someone else besides me have found Ari Hinnant’s behavior disgusting and unethical and felt the need to report on her.

I have heard of nutjobs on the Internet but I have to say this is my first close encounter with one.  Four weeks ago, I had the misfortune of encountering an online scammer named Ari Hinnant, who allegedly is a best-selling author that wanted to give to the world.  She made these outrageous claims of books sales that no reputable author could ever accomplish anonymously.

You can read about the two prior encounters here:

Ari C. Hinnant – Red Flags for a Possible Scam/Rip-off Artist

Ari C. Hinnant is Definitely a Fraud and Scam Artist

Anyhow, you would think she learned her lesson and keep a low profile.  So, on a LinkedIn Group, she makes this post in a group full of experienced publishers, authors, editors, writers, etc.  Everyone knows she is running a scam because of what she wrote which I have pasted here.

Tips on Selling over 100,000 books for the fearless author

Hello fellow fearless writers,

I’m going to tell you step-by-step how I sold over 100,000 books. I will make this process effortless.

1. Create an explosive book. The title must be off the hook! The book and title must be irresistible! Inside the book, the first page my have 10 plus bullet points one what is inside the book. Once again, they must be irresistible. Once your book, website and publishing’s company is complete its time to hit the street.

2. Book hundreds of radio interviews.

3. Advertise on TV, cable, radio, etc..

4. Most importantly, own all your work. Create your own publishing company. Do not give your power or money away.

If you want me to show you how to sell tons of books… let me know. I will show you how to sell over 250,000 books in 18 months or less. Effortlessly.

Contact me at: ari@changeyourlife.org

Tell me.  Does that smell like a scam or not?  And get this, the LinkedIn Account holder is named Bliss L. but the message says to contact Ari!  Yet another fake name and account.

Anyhow, everyone is piling on with wise cracks of her claims.  I share my prior investigation and the moderator Judy (a consummate publishing pro in her field) thanks me.

So, I get this email tonight from an “arnold lewis”.  It is a bit sick but it proves what a nutjob Ari is.

I was going to buy a book from you… then I read that you are a child rapist on Linkdn.  Now I know why you write such mean things about people.  I’m going to spread the word that you are a pedophile.  I will make sure that every social network knows about your past.

Let’s assume for a minute that what she said was true.  Who the heck says to themselves, “Gee, that looks like a great book.  I think I want to buy it. BUT, she “reads” through some LinkedIn post that the author is supposedly a child rapist?  Imagine that.  LinkedIn is where a whole bunch of networking and business discussions are going on and someone just conveniently discovers a little-known “news flash” about a child rapist.

So this “arnold lewis” supposedly has just met me and now feels the need to spread word about me being a pedophile.

The investigator within me decides to look at the email headers.  This is what I find.

Return-Path: <arnoldlewisjr@gmail.com>
Received: from psmtp.com (exprod7mx264.postini.com [64.18.2.118])
by new.ascendbeyond.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with SMTP id n9G8IWZi023651
for <matt2@ascendbeyond.com>; Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:18:32 -0400
Received: from source ([209.85.212.177]) by exprod7mx264.postini.com ([64.18.6.14]) with SMTP;
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:18:32 GMT
Received: by vws7 with SMTP id 7so986318vws.18
for <matt2@ascendbeyond.com>; Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:18:31 -0700 (PDT)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed;
d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:message-id:subject
:from:to:content-type;
bh=AjyFk7niymcVApoCZlNk74TfIsmIK1tCY8ea++XKkx8=;
b=tH+dHLaTqT52JpiM+hCYI3HsfhFwDcaOTLLN2RKHvO8H2HEquP52wikr8lzCf0Kt3a
NSOJNJtIYWDjVHqy4p/Xpcuyey0MGHv3TkJukzqA5AX2uuR3hf3MML4NF4s3/DQHkcNu
sFOHXJRh48ggnfogFd/tAb7RPZLl92mGGwbr4=
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws;
d=gmail.com; s=gamma;
h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type;
b=q6l0ZtZRa7LySCOr7WKyhCn+KeIgJKH0NXNqvIk7D7JS3wC/mx2QAJ3HiJdmv/yc3E
szDYvLvbpAM5D6Xypf75++5VqBQY1DM4rJk6HZ79W1WzvWVmDo0sKyIJ0NSm4vVwmMqR
h92+JYWw+vgo4OBWY0gxpv3LKpRPXdVvadpQA=
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.220.89.4 with SMTP id c4mr2533203vcm.38.1255681111739; Fri, 16
Oct 2009 01:18:31 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:18:31 -0500
Message-ID: <34c023970910160118q2a7f64c6wdb92a6970e07c999@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Sex offender
From: arnold lewis <arnoldlewisjr@gmail.com>
To: matt2@ascendbeyond.com
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=0016363b925e9dccba0476090aaa
X-pstn-neptune: 0/0/0.00/0
X-pstn-levels:     (S: 5.72949/99.90000 CV:99.9000 FC:95.5390 LC:95.5390 R:95.9108 P:95.9108 M:97.0282 C:98.6951 )
X-pstn-settings: 1 (0.1500:0.1500) cv gt3 gt2 gt1 p
X-pstn-addresses: from <arnoldlewisjr@gmail.com> [db-null]
Received-SPF: pass (new.ascendbeyond.com: domain of arnoldlewisjr@gmail.com designates 64.18.2.118 as permitted sender) receiver=new.ascendbeyond.com; client-ip=64.18.2.118; helo=psmtp.com; envelope-from=arnoldlewisjr@gmail.com; x-software=spfmilter 0.97 http://www.acme.com/software/spfmilter/ with libspf2-1.0.0;

Now, I am no expert here but I do some poking around to check where this email is coming from.  Clearly, it is being sent from a Gmail address (which Ari is infamous for using). What do you think the chances the email sender’s real name is “arnoldlewisjr”?  I would have to say “arnold” is “ari”.  If you study her writing patterns and languaging, it is consistently bad English!

Anyhow, based on past behavior patterns, it did not take long to figure out who it was.  For the record, this was my reply to Ari Hinnant and “arnoldlewisjr”:

Ari Hinnant,

You are fooling no one.  You are once against impersonating someone.

If you decide to post these false allegations, you better believe that I will be tracking you down personally and hold you responsible for such actions.  I suggest you watch yourself.

You are the one who has been scamming people.  Jennifer Cole knows it, another editor knows it, and I know it.  All of your messages will be traced I promise you.

Matthew

I truly hope I don’t have to write about this again but when someone is going to make some outrageous statement about me that has no basis in fact, you have to fight it even if it is a nutjob.  And the best way to fight it is to just make it public to defuse it.

As an added feature to the TurnKeyPublisher.com website, I have added a Discussion Forum as an open and free resource for anyone interested in getting into the independent publishing business, how to write a book, how to produce audio programs, and other related subjects.

I have visited various publishing discussion forums and I am disappointed by what I see.  There is clearly a lot of interest but there are lots of spam-like posts, self-promotional posts, and otherwise unrelated posts.  Having successfully operated and managed a very active business discussion forum for many years, I thought I was done with that phase of my life.

However, it looks like I am getting back in the discussion forum game on the subject of Independent Publishing because I want to see a better quality and better managed forum where there is quality information and solid enforcement of rules to keep out unrelated, spam-like, and self-promotional postings.

Like my prior forum, I will be assembling a small team of subject matter experts who will assist me in managing and answer questions on this forum.  For now, I am both the Host and Moderator.

If you have any questions regarding how to write non-fiction books or starting an independent publishing business, you will want to register yourself and participate.

In my earlier article on Ari C. Hinnant and the changeyourlife.org website (now defunct and replaced by zkari.com, I strongly suspected and was 95% sure that she was a fraud and a scam artist.  However, today I am absolutely sure of it would bet my life on it.

In the few days since she contested my claims, she has gone to almost entirely a cash basis to collect payments using MoneyGram for the moment.  She had the Amazon payment option but that looks like it got removed.  I suspected that it would not last long since Amazon and other payment vendors has excellent fraud detection.

She has certainly revealed more by posting this “C. Hinnant / Zkari |  Louisville, KY 4022″ as the person all money orders should be made out to.

I must say that watching this 46-year old woman make a mockery of her name and throwing her incredulous claims around is mind-boggling.  I never knew there were so many payment vendors around but she is quickly burning through them all.

An it appears she has made an enemy of Jennifer Cole (twitter jcole711) because there are several tweets trying to warn others of Ari Hinnant’s fraudulent claims that Oprah has jobs for people.

For the people who are wondering why I would waste any time writing about this.  It is simple.  I am trying to prevent others from being scammed and victimized.  And if they have been victimized and scammed, to let them know other people know about it.

I know it is sort of a sick activity watching a scam artist at work but I can’t help it because it is out in the open!  You just have to read the contents and pay attention to the details of changeyourlife.org (now zkari.com) and you will understand what I am talking about.

The latest update I have is, Ari is now on Zkari.com using am Insight Phone cell number of 502-690-4685. The mailing address she uses: 277 Royal Poinciana Way, Palm Beach, FL 33480-4007 is from an RSVP Pack & Ship facility in Palm Beach, Florida.

This post was first published on the MatthewChan Blog.

====

As an MBA alumni who became an author, I have been invited by Webster University to attend the Webster University Alumni & Faculty Authors Book Signing & Reception in St. Louis, MO on October 9, 2009.

When I attended Webster University for my MBA well over a decade ago, I did the academic work at the Orlando campus.  I have never been to St. Louis and looking forward to finally visiting the city and the Main Campus being at the heart of the academic action.

I will be bringing out my digital camera and camcorder to capture some memories of the experience.