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Week 2
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imagine if you teleported to a big multiversal hub of every version of you from every parallel universe and like 99.99% were just minor variations of some weird beetle alien and it turned out being a human made you one of the zany gimmick versions
So I had a small rant on bsky but thought it was important so I’m crossposting.
Since my book came out I get a LOT of scam emails. They’re using AI to target me specifically, they usually regurgitate the plot of my book and the opinions of goodreads reviews in order to make it seem like they’re some kind of industry professional who loves my book.
This is not unique to me, I imagine this is shared by most authors.
The usual scam is either that they want me on their podcast, for a nominal fee, or they want me to jump agencies or publisher, or sometimes I’m not entirely sure what they want cos it’s garbled AI nonsense, but they want me to respond so they can hook me further.
The insidious thing is they are using the names of real agents, real podcasters and real companies, so if you were to do a quick google you’d think ‘oh this is legit’.
The email address is usually “RealPerson.RealCompany.com@gmail.com” to try to mask that it’s not real.
So A PSA for newer creators, if you get an email that seems to be a legit offer for agency rep, or a podcast appearance, or a publisher for your work (or other fantastic sounding offer), you are totally within your right to protect yourself, to go to the agency/podcast/publisher’s real site, and email them directly from the address you find on their website, “hey i just got an offer from you? Is this real?” And they will answer yes or no. (I know it’s disappointing to find out if it’s not real… but at least you’re not scammed!!!) The agencies are aware of these scams and are just as disheartened, I imagine. It can’t be helping anyone in publishing right now.
(Please also do your research for legit offers too… signing yourself to an agency or publisher is a big deal, don’t sign your stuff away lightly! But that’s not the main point of this post…)
Adding the tags from @hamletteprinceofdenmark because yes! As an author you shouldn’t be paying for anything, they pay you or at least exchange for free. These things will NOT help your book sales.
And to add… some of the scams from podcasts, were for pay-to-guest podcasts already! So even if they WERE legit I’d never pay them to appear on their podcast. A scam of a scam. (this tickled me…)
If I want to talk for an hour to no listeners, I’d do a monologue for youtube! XD
Oh easy mistake. Yearning actually rises from the floor and longing hangs from the ceiling
ALT🥺🥺