Crystal Rivers said:
She'd like to call the IRS, CIA, FBI, the President, the BBB, Attorney General, the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, but who or what should she do first?
All of the above.
Seriously, hard-copy letters stating calmly and with detail (times/dates/places/dollar amounts/quotes) to the BBB, the IRS, the FTC, the Maryland Attorney General, her state's Attorney General, her congressman, the Governor of Maryland, and her own state's governor. Don't forget her local newspaper, the consumer reporter at her local TV station, and anyone else she can think of. Rot like this spreads in the dark.
Then she should step smartly to a phonebooth and call a lawyer who specializes in publishing/intellectual property.
You know, and I know, and the guy standing over there knows, that Willem, Larry and the PODettes are dirty as sin. They'll go down, and they'll go down hard (and the day they start their prison terms I'll send 'em a fruit basket, by Gad, so I will). All that's required is enough people telling their simple, truthful stories in public.
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Do you know what took down Al Capone? Yes, it was the IRS, but what made that case possible?
It was Eliot Ness smashing Capone's stills. He wasn't looking for evidence. There was already enough evidence to convict Capone a dozen times over. Smashing the stills stopped Capone's revenue stream. Without the cash he couldn't buy cops, buy lawyers, buy judges, buy jurymen, buy politicians. Without money the law could finally be brought to bear on him honestly.
Our speaking the truth here is the same as Ness smashing Capone's stills. We're stopping the revenue stream from new, naive writers. That's what'll bring down the house of cards on Church Street.
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Personal for any PA employees who are reading here: Get your resumes in order and start looking elsewhere. You don't want to be there when the whole place implodes.
Personal for PA authors who are reading here: Get your contracts canceled now, before the place collapses. Afterward your rights may be tied up in court for years, and that whole time your book won't be available anywhere.
Personal for Willem, Larry, Miranda, and the PODettes: I'll come to your trial, folks. That'll be me, sitting in the front row taking notes. I'll write the book -- and publish it. And I mean it about the fruit basket.