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In 1979 I began to
write a series of books for Paladin Press, Boulder CO, some of the titles of which include
Book of the Ninja, Secrets of the Ninja, Secrets of Invisibility, Ninja Death Touch,
Ninja Mind Control and Forbidden Fighting Techniques of the Ninja. The
copyrights for all of these books were applied for by Paladin Press and they are registered
in my name.
Between 1980 and 1995 revenue from these books rose to a peak of $40,000 per year in 1984.
That means that I alone made the company $400,000 in one year, more than any other author
they have had before or since. In spite of this success, royalties quickly and steadily
declined thereafter despite numerous secondary rights sales to companies like
Citadel Press, Bantam Books, Penguin Publishing and countless overseas sales and
translations, and the fact that I wrote eight more books for the company. During this
period I discovered that the royalties for most of these books were going to a New York
literary agent who organized many of the secondary sales and overseas rights. In fact,
Secondary Royalty reports from Citadel Press listed him as the author. When I asked about
this, the editor I spoke with told me this was an “accounting device" to "make sure the
money went to the right person.” Which apparently wasn’t me.
Also, several of my books suddenly had new titles and covers. Secrets of the Ninja
became Invisible Ninja and Book of the Ninja became Ninja Training Manual and so on.
When I asked a twenty-year employee of Paladin who had risen through the ranks from editor
to treasurer about this, she referred me to the New York agent who told me flatly, “Those
books are mine, you are not entitled to any money from them.” And hung up the phone. The
next day, the trusted employee was fired.
I continued to deal with Paladin and demanded an accounting, among the materials sent to me
was a note clipped to royalty reports from South America saying that I and several other
authors should receive no royalties for these sales, per instructions of the owner of
Paladin Press. In 1995 Paladin severed all contractual obligations to me. At that time,
according to the letter they sent me, they would no longer publish my books and all rights
to all books reverted to me, although some continued to be published by Citadel and Penguin
and others, most of whom I am unaware of because they kept all these dealings secret, under
“secondary rights” contracts that could not or would not be voided.
In 1999 Citadel Press, who was responsible for many of these unreported sales and
copyright infringements on behalf of Paladin and the literary agent, declared bankruptcy.
At that time I had three separate contracts with them beyond secondary rights on the above
titles, all stating that in the event of bankruptcy all rights reverted to me and the
contract was void. But, that is not what happened. Instead, I got a letter from their
attorney saying that clause was “unenforceable” and that my contracts had been sold to
Kensington Publishing.
That same year Citadel "re-copyrighted" all my best sellers by claiming they had "added
new material." In so doing the installed their literary agent friend as the "author"
because that is how he was carried on their accounting books. They could not possibly have
added any new material because they know nothing whatsoever about the subject. Despite their
supposed bankruptcy, Citadel Press still maintains offices in NY and a website and have
continued to operate as a covert distributor of all of my books worldwide and stolen all
of the money from those sales.
For ten years I tried to work with Kensington. I offered new books, I tried to find out
what had happened to all my old books that they supposedly now owned. All to no avail. When
they wanted to release the new edition of Secrets of the Ninja to “honor” me for
being inducted into the USMA Hall of Fame in 2009, they refused to make changes in the
original manuscript that had been wrong from the first edition, and never corrected by
Paladin either, and added an endorsement from Haha Lung, one of their house writers, to
promote his books against my wishes. This insult was the last straw.
Many people think that I am Haha Lung. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is a
name invented to insult me. It comes from the references made to the Hai Lung Ryu, or Black
Dragon School. When the publishers decided to take advantage of the incredible success of
Ninja Mind Control, they invented Haha Lung. To them Haha Lung = Hai Lung, laughing
at me all the while. On his website he admits that he is not a martial artist at all but
instead a "staff" writer for Paladin Press who also uses the name Dirk Skinner to write
"frontiersman" books, another subject about which he knows nothing.
His "books" on mind control are little more than recycled NLP (neurolinguistic
programming) technqiues. A psuedo-science at best, whose methods have been largely
abandoned by serious psychologists. The names of these methods are "shrouded in mystery"
and wrapped in mystical names taken from a medieval role playing game like "mind slayer"
and "psychic flail." The sad part is that so many people were led to believe Haha Lung was
me in disguise and actually fell for this scam. DOJO Press will shortly release a true
edition of Advanced Ninja Mind Control techniques that will be unlike any trash foisted on
the public by this fraud. Real Ninja do not meditate on dominating people or manipulating
them. We strive only to be of service, so that good deeds will spread out like the ripples
on a pond and cover the whole world.
In the last two years I have become aware of how incredibly well known and widely read I
have been all this time and how, through a series of shell companies and artful dodging, my
books have been sold all over the world for three decades without me receiving a pittance
of the income.
When I broke with the first publisher, all rights reverted to me. When the second
publisher went belly up, all those contracts went void. I have no contract with the third
publisher at all. Therefore, as the copyright holder of all of my books and all of the
variations and editions of my books known and unknown I declare that DOJO Press is the only
legal and legitimate source for any of my books and that all others are illegal pirated
editions. Any other vendor, retailer, distributor, warehouseman or seller in possession of
them will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Don’t buy any book with my name on it unless you get it from Dojo Press. For years I
gave away Secrets of the Ninja free on my website to keep the publishers
from profiting by it. As soon as I took it down they came up with this latest scam to rob
me again. The new Dojo Press edition has fifty more pages and 80 more pictures than the
original. We have re-worked and re-mastered all of my books, REALLY adding new material and
making them better all the time.
I am the most well known and best selling Ninja author of all time, and I have nothing
to show for it except the fortunes these thieves have made off my work. Please understand,
this is not for myself or for revenge. I tell you this not to discourage you from trying to
accomplish anything. But rather so you will be aware that there are many devils on the road
who will gladly pretend to be your friend so they can steal you blind. Even if you are so
good you make the company, any company, millions of dollars, they won't share it with you.
Even if you sign a contract in good faith, it's not worth the paper it is printed on. Even
if you have the copyrights in your name, if you don't have an army of lawyers and thousands
of dollars and years to spend in
court, it means nothing.
Consulting
a business lawyer can be just as expensive as hiring a
Columbus criminal defense attorney
for legal advice.
Same thing happened to Billy Blanks and his Tae-Bo workout tapes. Same thing happened to
Susan Powter and her Stop The Madness Diet. I think of how proud my parents would have been
to know what a great author I was and how I could have made their lives so much easier. I think
of all the good I could have done in the world and all of the people I could have helped,
if not for swindlers like these. I went to the FBI with this many times, even before
9/11, and they just laughed, saying that my paltry $5 million was insignificant.
The law is supposed to protect honest people from unscrupulous and unfair business
practices. Instead, it is twisted to help them rob us and all we ever hear when we ask for
help is, "Sorry, nothing we can do." But there is...
Ninjitsu is the most inoffensive and non-violent martial art known to man. But, it is a
martial art and a method of self-defense. I therefore ask that everyone employ passive
resistance to this cause. Boycott and protest the sale of these books wherever they may be
found. It worked for Dr. Martin Luther King. It worked for Mahatma Gandhi. It will work for
us as well. All you need do is nothing, refuse to participate in their crime. By so doing
they will be powerless and broken. Henceforth, these books and this knowledge are KINJI-TE,
forbidden, and will ONLY be given by me to those I feel worthy.
Now, there are a lot of pimply faced little trolls that have been jealous of me for
decades because they think I am rich from all these books. This is the real story of what
happened to all that money. If I had any of it, there WOULD be a Ninja temple where people
could be safe from liars and thieves and cowards like these.
And, that is the name of that tune, ‘cause Ashida Kim said so! |