The following article was published in TripsySouth.com:
UPDATE, 07 February 2020: Allison Burnett, a well-established novelist, screenwriter and film producer with impressive credits, has come forward to share how con man Tyson Cornell ripped him off. His story continues below in the section “HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER/PRODUCER ALLISON BURNETT SHARE HIS HORROR STORY ABOUT WORKING WITH CON MAN TYSON CORNELL.”
Last year, more than 50,000 writers self-published at least one book. Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? People who took the time to write, edit and produce their very own book. Like me, some of them took years, maybe decades. Their book was, still is, their baby.
The reality of statistics, though, is sobering: most sold only a few copies.
Others who could afford it invested money in advertising, marketing and promoting their books. The story was the same: most sold only a few copies.
Why, even after pouring in considerable time, effort and money?
AN OLD DISEASE STILLS RUNS RAMPANT
The “long con” is an old disease that involves a con man working his victim over the long term to cheat, steal and defraud him.
It is not only alive and well in the book publishing industry, it is thriving.
Independent authors and small indie publishing companies are being preyed upon at an unprecedented rate by these con men who are all too familiar with the above statistics and who see a goldmine that will likely last many years. These attempted long cons promise the moon and deliver little or nothing at all, yet we hear so little about them, because those victims are too busy or broke to report the fraud and they’re also too embarrassed to discuss it.
While authors may have some money to pay these con men and women to market/PR their books, these authors surely cannot afford to pursue litigation or a court case, especially against a con or their firm that resides in another state. Clever cons usually add a “venue clause” and “arbitration clause” to their contracts and agreements with authors. Worse, the courts in an author’s own backyard usually will not allow them to sue someone who lives and works in another state.
One judge we contacted said, “While I feel an author’s loss, this simply is not our burden.”
A con’s scams include reading and giving feedback on an author’s manuscript for hundreds of dollars, editing for thousands of dollars, providing marketing and promotion services for up to $10,000 over three months. These cons deliver little or nothing for all the money spent.
THE BOOK-PUBLISHING INDUSTRY RUNS ON QUITE DIFFERENT STANDARDS
No reputable book agent or agency charges money for considering an author’s manuscript. Good editors may charge up to $10,000 to do a substantive or developmental edit that produce an excellent manuscript, one suitable for publishing at a known publishing company. Good marketing and PR firms have extensive ties to many professionals in publishing and media, and so can attract excellent publicity and attention for an author’s book.
Confidence men (and women) promise to deliver what true professionals in the book-publishing industry actually do. And they rarely, if at all, deliver on those promises. Cons lie and steal and commit theft by deception and fraud.
Their only accomplishment is continually ripping off one author after another, their schemes lasting many years, causing untold harm to the careers of many an author, and defrauding authors of a lot of money that is almost never recouped.
WHY PROFILE AN AMERICAN CON?
This short profile features one con man and his company: Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit.
Robert Tyson Cornell, aka punk guitarist Lantz L’Amour, works out of a business at 453 South Spring St., Suite 302, Los Angeles, California 90013.
Rare Bird Lit’s business address is listed as 966 Everett St, Los Angeles, CA 90026, a property allegedly owned by William and Deborah Lee.
Several excellent attorneys we met with advised us to move away from a lawsuit, since the loss was “only” $10,000, but they also advised (off the record) that an online article or post, stating only the facts of this particular case, may serve as a warning to authors who may consider doing business with Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit.
Our attorneys all acknowledged that Cornell committed theft by deception, fraud and fraudulent inducement. And, since the amount of theft exceeded a certain amount, Cornell committed a felony. We presented the case to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division.
On the advice of our attorneys, we now present to readers, especially authors and writers and members of the book-publishing industry, an accurate account of how Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit committed theft by deception, fraud and fraudulent inducementagainst us, after we entered into a formal agreement with Tyson Cornell.
Our aim is to educate authors and writers about the dangers of doing business with this American con, with the hope that no one will be defrauded or ripped off by Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit in the future.
SUICIDE TANGO WAS BORN YEARS AGO IN SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA
I spent years writing and editing a novel, Suicide Tango: My Year Killin’ It With A Shrink, and we knew it would be important to those who suffered or were touched by anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicidal behavior and suicide. The story was born from my friendship with someone who was suicidal at the time. She was young, very intelligent and thinking, could speak a thousand words in complete sentences, all aimed right at your forehead. Not one stutter or uhhhhh or “like” ever escaped her lips. She spoke so fluently and smartly, I was awed.
What struck me the most was her knowledge of teen suicide. I would listen intently to her speak, then imagine myself writing everything down. I wasn’t actually writing, only praying I would remember it all when I got home.
After meeting with her several times, I wrote the first draft of this novel, and then spent the next few years, off and on, rewriting it, tearing it up and down, editing it to the nth degree. Finally, in 2019, I said enough was enough. I could not make it better. It was time to publish it and get the word out to anyone who would listen.
MEETING TYSON CORNELL AND RARE BIRD
After spending more than $23,000 on book trailers and author videos with Adam Cushman and Film-14, we were then steered by Cushman, executive producer of the videos, to Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird.
As we discovered, Cushman and Cornell had done this type of business before, i.e. Cushman doing book trailers then referring authors to Cornell for marketing/PR. While Cushman was very difficult to work with at times, twice threatening to pull out of the project, I convinced him to complete the project to my standards, rather than have my longtime attorney for intellectual property cases go after him in court.
Cushman’s editor eventually presented excellent videos, thanks to the first-rate crew and film editor he hired to work on the project.
Personally, I will not work with Cushman ever again, but I do not discourage other authors from working with him. The final product was stunning, again, thanks to the outstanding people who did the actual heavy lifting, not anything Adam Cushman did.
In two emails to me, Cushman denied any involvement with Tyson Cornell or Rare Bird.
I chose to invest a lot of money in the book trailers and author interviews. They were to be handed over to Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird, so Cornell could incorporate them into the marketing and promotion of our novel. At least that is what Cornell promised me.
I personally flew to Los Angeles twice and met with Tyson Cornell and his staff. Cornell was calm, smug, slightly arrogant and aloof, but not overly so.
Cornell bragged about having worked with President George Bush, Sean Penn, and other notables, but refused to discuss book sales or refer me to anyone who would actually talk with me about their book sales and Cornell’s promoting them. I viewed many of the books he’d done, but there were no results of his having promoting the books of authors. That did concern me, but he said, “We do this all the time.”
THE AGREEMENT
We have included a pdf copy of our agreement with Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit. Please download it here.
In the “memo,” as Tyson Cornell puts it, notice there is no venue clause that would’ve kept any litigation in Los Angeles.
The agreement included a lot of hype that never generated anything. No radio spots. No marketing materials. No reviews. Nothing.
It looked impressive on paper, though.
TYSON CORNELL LIED ABOUT MARKETING AND PROMOTING MY NOVEL
At the end of the initial three-month period under contract, we asked Tyson Cornell what he and his team had done, and he sent us a list of the individuals and companies they had contacted on our behalf to promote the novel. On paper, this looked impressive.
However, when our team contacted each of the individuals and companies who allegedly received a review copy of the novel, NOT A SINGLE ENTITY SAID THEY HAD RECEIVED THE NOVEL.
No one had received any correspondence from Tyson Cornell. None.
Here’s what several of those people said:
“I don’t recall receiving any emails about that novel. I also didn’t see a copy of the book.” —Medaya Ocher, Managing Editor, Los Angeles Review of Books
“I’m on the AirTalk mailing list. I never delete email and this title shows up nowhere in my inbox.” —Libby Denkmann, 89.3 KPCC Radio
“As it turns out I have no record of Rare Bird Lit sending us copies of “Suicide Tango.” —Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review
In effect, Tyson Cornell had taken our money, promised a lot, lied about his efforts, and in the end delivered nothing at all.
Tyson Cornell is a con man and his company Rare Bird Lit is a fraudulent vehicle that commits theft by deception and fraud.
Tyson Cornell claims to have worked hard on my behalf, spending more than 75 hours on the project, but the results of his efforts show only two podcasts with his own authors, and one of those was to promote his author’s book, not mine. I didn’t know this going into the podcast, but I supported the author with all my heart and they very much appreciated my kind words and passion on their behalf.
After four attempts to see the results of Tyson Cornell’s efforts, he finally emailed me a list of contacts they mailed my book to.
I counted the number of my novels Tyson Cornell claims to have sent out to entities on his list: 56.
I had Ingram drop-ship Tyson Cornell 48 (not 56) copies of my novel in two separate shipments. See Ingram’s invoice to me.
Tyson Cornell outright lied about sending 56 copies of my novel to these entities, let alone following up with any of them. He also falsified the list of entities he allegedly sent my books to and followed up with. What else did he lie about and falsify?
Thank goodness for Tyson Cornell’s carelessness: he put it all in writing for us to view and study. I invite you to count the number of books Tyson Cornell claims to have sent out. None of these people we contacted even knew who Tyson Cornell or Rare Bird was.
Tyson Cornell claimed to have met in person with Cevin Bryerman, Publisher and VP of Publishers Weekly, and raved about my novel. I called Mr. Bryerman on the phone and asked if Tyson Cornell had ever talked with him about my novel, Bryerman said, “Who is Tyson Cornell? The only copies of your novel were sent directly by you.”
[I personally submitted copies of Suicide Tango to Publisher’s Weekly after Tyson Cornell failed to make good on his promise to do so.]
Tyson Cornell lies lies lies. And when he is caught in a lie, he denies denies denies. It is a hallmark of all con men.
Also, the list Tyson Cornell sent me did NOT contain any book reviews by any person or entity, nor did the list show any celebrities or political figures or any other persons he so bragged about when we met in person.
Tyson Cornell claims to have spent far more than the 75 hours on contract to promote my book, although the results of his efforts show that he spent NO time at all, plus lied about shipping out 56 copies of my novel to the entities on the list he sent me. Remember: I had only 48 copies of my novel sent to Tyson Cornell, not 56.
I PERSONALLY WORKED LESS THAN THREE HOURS ON MARKETING MY OWN NOVEL AND GOT 46 REVIEWS
I personally spent less than three hours reaching out to all my contacts, and I got excellent responses. Three hours.
Tyson Cornell claims: “we’re comfortable with our fulfillment of the contracted responsibilities, even putting in significant additional time after June 15th due to the then-assumption that we were going to continue working together.”
He said he spent significant additional time over the contracted 75 hours. With nothing positive to show for it.
To start, I solicited editorial reviews and personal reviews from dozens of people and review companies. And I got good to excellent reviews from many people and companies, plus some negative reviews from people who we later determined were not part of our target audience. Nothing we could do about that, but at least these people shared their deep passion for disliking my novel. This book is for a certain audience, those who have been touched by anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicide. “Normal people” just won’t get it or appreciate it.
Again, all my personal efforts paid off handsomely, and I can prove that with the formally published reviews of my book that appear on NetGalley.com, Goodreads.com and Amazon.com, plus popular blogs by book reviewers.
I spent less than three hours on my book-promotional efforts and got 46 editorial and personal reviews, with more still on the way because I did formal giveaways online and those who received my novel have not yet reviewed it online.
Unfortunately, because con man Tyson Cornell had already missed all the deadlines to submit my book to key influential people and relevant companies, my personal efforts yielded very little.
HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER/PRODUCER ALLISON BURNETT SHARES HIS HORROR STORY ABOUT WORKING WITH CON MAN TYSON CORNELL
[This section was written by Allison Burnett, communicated to me via email, and added on 07 February 2020]
In late June of 2014, I hired Tyson Cornell to do publicity for the launch of my fourth novel, The Escape of Malcolm Poe. I paid him $6,000 for his services.
In return, I received almost nothing. He booked me twice to read from the book at tiny gatherings in East Side bookstores, where other authors were also reading. and that was it. I had to organize and pay for my own launch party. His contribution was to work the credit card machine.
All of my previous books had received reviews from major publications, but I received none for Malcolm Poe. One of my books had been a finalist for the PEN Center USA literary award for best novel. I asked Tyson if I should submit this book to PEN or if he would do it. He told me he would do it, and I stupidly trusted him.
Months later, now knowing how ineffectual Tyson was, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. The PEN awards would be announced any day. What if he had not submitted the book? I called over to PEN to confirm that they had indeed received my submission months before. They assured me that they had not. Tyson had sent over a box of another client’s books, but not mine.
When I confronted Tyson, he denied everything and blamed PEN, but when I told them that they carefully logged in all submissions, he blamed the mistake on his assistant Julia.
When I eventually told Tyson how displeased I was by his work, and that I felt he had effectively stolen six thousands dollars from me, he replied: “Not taking fault off of Julia for ineffectively following up with PEN on your submission, but in your hunt for blame on why Malcolm Poe didn’t become a critically-applauded, international bestseller could it possibly be that it just didn’t take to the marketplace?”
Furious at this, I wrote back.”I wish you would not caricaturize my position like this — it’s passive-aggressive to the extreme — and a mind-fuck. I am not some retarded tyro expecting my book to be lauded and for it to be a bestseller. I have hired publicists before. I reasonably expected a podcast or two, maybe an East Side signing, maybe an embarrassing public access show, and perhaps a few reviews in something other than cheesy websites. That seems reasonable for six thousand dollars. Clearly, the biggest problem in your company is Julia. While you are out and about and she is minding the store, it sounds like not a whole lot is actually getting done. Go hire someone who is manic, efficient, well-connected, responsible, and dynamic. Someone who complements you.”
When my lawyer contacted him about repaying a portion of the money, he refused to take any responsibility for his poor performance.
I have not spoken to Tyson since.
WHAT AUTHORS AND OTHER INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS SAY ABOUT TYSON CORNELL
One author who worked with Cornell described him acting like he had “just come off a heroin bender,” especially when Cornell would yell at him and threaten him on the phone. “He told me never to question him again. Don’t even call him. What an asshole. I’m not working with him again. He’s a fraud. Oh, yeah, he’s also probably a drug addict like his dad who committed suicide from ODing on oxy. There’s definitely something bad going on inside his [Tyson Cornell’s] brain.”
Another author said, “He [Tyson Cornell] couldn’t give a shit about my book and acted like he was always doing me a favor. I wasn’t allowed to ask about the status of marketing or promotion. He said to trust him and don’t ask questions. What shit that man dishes out. He’s a liar.”
A third we contacted said, “This guy is a fuckin’ con. He says a lot and when you challenge him he screams at you and threatens to pull your book. He’s a piece of shit. I’m out $10,000 but fuck it. I moved on.”
#4: “He has no Rolodex of people to work with on the marketing side. If he tells you he knows a guy who’ll help sell your book, he’s probably lying.”
$5: A PR expert at a prominent marketing/PR firm in Los Angeles: “Never heard of him, and I know people in the book publishing industry.”
#6: “He has a partner who funds the book publishing, but Cornell doesn’t own much of it, if at all. He solely owns Rare Bird Lit, which is a marketing arm that has no teeth. Something funny’s going on over there.”
#7: “Cornell hires dilettantes to do his marketing and run the imprints. That guy he hired to get Natasha Tynes’s book had no experience in publishing whatsoever. And Cornell and this guy ended up destroying her in the media. Good he’s now being sued for $13 mil. I hope Tynes wins that one.”
#8: “I paid him over $10,000 for three months of promotion and got absolutely nothing out of it. He asked me for more money and I said no. After that, I promoted my book on my own.”
#9: “What a fucking lying, backstabbing, piece of shit he [Tyson Cornell] is.”
TYSON CORNELL’S EMAILS TO ME ABOUT MY BOOK PROMOTION RESULTS
July 20, 2019
“Nobody is trying to con you. We run a legitimate operation, and entered into this arrangement because we believe in you, we believe in the work, and desire long-term relationships with our authors and clients. I’ve attempted to be flexible and work with you, but can only now assume that you have your reasons for disengaging. We’ve communicated a great deal via email (Apr 22–24 and May 12–13, notably) on engagement and author activity, among other topics, so I won’t go into detail repeating things we’ve already covered.
“However, three months and seventy-five hours of billable time is a very short period. As discussed, this was intended to be an initial campaign that would get our feet wet, let us both explore whether we’re compatible or not, and plant seeds for ongoing activities in the future. Reviews and coverage, for any book and author, take time. They require matched author engagement with our work, and results don’t happen overnight—and we did an exceptional job, especially considering how late physical copies took to get to our office (over halfway through the campaign and only a little over a month before official publication date).
“Below is a select overview of outlets and efforts compiled by staff. Though you don’t appear satisfied with the “results,” we’re comfortable with our fulfillment of the contracted responsibilities, even putting in significant additional time after June 15th due to the then-assumption that we were going to continue working together.
“Please let me know if you have any questions. Good luck on your continued endeavors with the book and otherwise.
************
July 14, 2019“We reject your claim that there was any “failure to produce on contract,” as our arrangement (Marketing memo agreement, signed March 7th, 2019) is for specific services—not for guaranteed reviews (positive or negative), features, highlights, interviews, and/or specific coverage. It is our position that services hours have been rendered sufficient to the agreement. We will not be issuing any refunds (via PayPal or otherwise), nor are there any grounds to commence any sort of litigation. “On July 7th, 2019, you requested—instead of the suggested discussion of summary, status, and next steps by phone—a written response, which we’ve, in good faith, agreed to do. However, these additional requests can take some time to compile, especially considering the extensive work that has been done on behalf of this project in such a short amount of time. We are working diligently to review and summarize activities for you, and will be in touch on or before Friday, July 19th, 2019. “To be clear, though, we do not release proprietary contact information to any of our services clients unless we feel comfortable that our relationships with those contacts are safe from disruption and/or abuse. You will receive a summary, status, and next steps as applicable to the campaign, but that is all. “Please let us know if you have any questions in the meantime.”
OTHER MARKETING PROFESSIONALS RESPOND TO TYSON CORNELL’S BEHAVIOR
Rather than give my assessment of Tyson Cornell’s explanation, I sought three seasoned professionals in marketing and PR, though not in book promotion.
One said, “This is standard bullshit from someone who is trying to extract more money from you. Any good marketer or publicist has great contacts in the industry, and they pitch to those contacts every day. The person you worked with? We see this a lot with small firms just trying to eke out an existence. Some are nice people doing a bad thing, others are real con jobs. I’m sorry you went through this!”
The other said, “Con game, no doubt. And if you got all those dozens of reviews with just a few hours’ work, then he [Tyson Cornell] either doesn’t know what he’s doing or is flat out lying to you.”
“We have major accounts and they all expect topflight service from us, and this includes pitching the major players in media. Your guy sounds fishy. My best guess is, the guy has no real contacts to pitch to but he’s hyping himself all over the place . . . If this is all he could come up with after 75 hours of supposed work, fire him. Seventy-five hours is a lot of billable time. In that time, I could’ve gotten a few dozen top contacts to endorse a product.”
SUMMARY OF AN AMERICAN CON MAN
Tyson Cornell owns 100% of his book-marketing/PR firm, Rare Bird Lit LLC, whose address is different from his Rare Bird Books address in downtown Los Angeles. He owns only a fraction of Rare Bird Books and its imprints. His business partners own the remainder of the business.
After more than six years of doing book promotions, either Tyson Cornell is really really bad at what he does but somehow he manages to lure unsuspecting authors into his shady business arrangement. He is playing the LONG CON, the long and drawn-out confidence game in which a con man snares his prey and keeps milking her and him for substantial money over a relatively long period of time.
Make no mistake, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tyson Cornell is playing the long con with book authors, none of whom end up working with him again. So far, we have not discovered one person who signed on with Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit, and then ended up paying Tyson Cornell for subsequent rounds of so-called book promotion. Not a single person or book publisher.
Tyson Cornell has gotten away with his con for many years because the publishing arm of Rare Bird has legitimately published some books, using other people’s money. He has leveraged this fact to lure in unsuspecting authors to his con game of marketing and promoting their books, and delivered nothing at all. It is estimated that Tyson Cornell has ripped off dozens of authors and stolen more than $100,000 from them.
We chose not to pursue a court case against Tyson Cornell for many sound reasons. However, should he come after us in any way, we will drop a legal bomb on him and release all the documents and results of our research and background investigations on him and his accomplices and business partners.
Incidentally, Tyson Cornell and his colleagues were being sued for more than $13 million dollars in Los Angeles Superior Court, because they wrote and published defamatory remarks about one of their authors, Natasha Tynes, and very publicly and maliciously threw her under the bus. Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number 19STCV24535. You can download the 38-page court filing here. Ms. Tynes could no longer afford the attorney’s fees, so she dropped the case.
This case shows the extent to which Tyson Cornell and his people will publicly shame one of their authors and destroy their reputation. Not only that, Tyson Cornell employed a complete amateur and dilettante, Robert Jason Peterson, to run the book imprint that originally acquired Natasha Tynes’s book.
TYSON CORNELL TURNED A GOOD AND IMPORTANT NOVEL INTO A FAILURE
The novel is a commercial failure because Tyson Cornell and Rare Bird Lit failed to meet critical deadlines, did not contact those influencers and companies he promised to, and failed on all levels to market the novel as promised.
He stated clearly he would get one of his “influencer-friends” to promote this novel, but he never contacted anyone.
This is an excellent novel, one that’s important to those in the throes of anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicidal behavior. Tyson Cornell not only failed me, he failed all those who could’ve benefitted from this compelling and healing story.
MY ASSESSMENT OF TYSON CORNELL
ROBERT TYSON CORNELL is a deeply troubled, puffed-up little boy who attempts to appear more than he actually is. He repeatedly lies about who he is, what he has done, and what he can do on an author’s behalf to market their book(s).
Simply put, Tyson Cornell is a fraud and a con man who talks a good game of book promotion and delivers nothing.
Please keep something in mind: All it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am actively doing something on behalf of myself and my family, and book authors and small publishers, and I pray it will assist them in choosing a legitimate book-marketing firm to represent them and their books.
Best of success to all of you!