The Penn Group must be an absolute torure chamber. Numerous ghostwriters, editors, and freelancers contacted me privately after I posted my concerns on this forum and others last January. All were desperate to know with whom I had spoken. Names, places, times, terms--they wanted any info I could provide for possible lawsuits, citing that it had been difficult to get paid or sever their ties with the company. One such story is already chronicled in this thread. Some ghosts are intimidated and threatened if they merely pass on working for the Bailyn brothers. It's one thing for their clients to get scammed, but I found it most unsettling to have one of the posts above be confirmed by so many other writers to whom Penn attempts to subcontract their work.
Interestingly, the Penn Group is no longer a sponsored link on Google. Because of their linking with lawyers, DUI defense sites, the owner's Peter Pan page, the Doll Emporium page for young female teens, and numerous other websites unrelated to writing, Penn now enjoys an organic ranking, and hence no advertising costs to obtain search results for the company. (Shame on Google--their ranking algorithm is supposed to penalize this way of obtaining traffic.)
One would think that the NY State Attorney General could shut this sleeze factory down, but the Bailyn brothers impart fear to everyone. They're like cyber-mobsters. Mess with 'em, and you get served papers. I started this thread as an outraged former client. I hope that writers, however, might stumble across this thread and be saved a lot of misery and legal fees.
Interestingly, the Penn Group is no longer a sponsored link on Google. Because of their linking with lawyers, DUI defense sites, the owner's Peter Pan page, the Doll Emporium page for young female teens, and numerous other websites unrelated to writing, Penn now enjoys an organic ranking, and hence no advertising costs to obtain search results for the company. (Shame on Google--their ranking algorithm is supposed to penalize this way of obtaining traffic.)
One would think that the NY State Attorney General could shut this sleeze factory down, but the Bailyn brothers impart fear to everyone. They're like cyber-mobsters. Mess with 'em, and you get served papers. I started this thread as an outraged former client. I hope that writers, however, might stumble across this thread and be saved a lot of misery and legal fees.
