Three Scams, Three Weeks, Three Authors

What I saw, what gave each one away, and what authors need to know.

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Three of my clients came to me with three different scam emails over the past three weeks. This is not new. I get emails every day from authors asking me about how to manage a detailed and unbelievably flattering email they received. I see authors talking about these same messages on social media and even I get them in my inbox.

What struck me with each of these scams is the level of complexity and how they’ve evolved from those pesky social media DMs. For years, these scams have shown up as direct messages on Facebook, Instagram, or X, usually poorly written and full of spelling and grammatical errors, easy enough to delete without a second thought. (My favorite was the elderly Rockefeller inviting me to join the Illuminati.) Now they’re showing up in your email inbox, and they’re long, well written, personal, and overwhelmingly flattering. It’s obvious these scammers have created a formula, feeding an author’s bio and book description into an AI tool, and generating messages that read as remarkably convincing.

They’re appealing to exactly what each author hopes is true: a book club wants to feature your novel, a reader loves your book enough to leave a review, a publisher is interested in your manuscript. None of that sounds impossible. It’s exactly what every author hopes to hear one day, and that’s what makes them so appealing. Let’s take a look at the three very common scams.

The Book Club

The email came from a real book club’s name, asking if the club could feature the book for their next selection. The message was detailed and flattering. In the past, the scammers would immediately ask for a fee in this initial email, a simple, pay-to-play scam. This one was more complicated. They first lured the author in and then, once she agreed, they asked for marketing assets, banners, videos, logos, colors. My client was three or four emails into the conversation before she came to me, and then only to ask for help pulling those marketing assets together for her.

I was immediately skeptical, and one look at the Gmail account confirmed it wasn’t a real request. I told her I’d handle it, and replied to the club directly to say we weren’t interested and the author wouldn’t be participating.

That’s when the tone changed. Anger, accusations, “who do you think you are,” and “mind your own business.” The unprofessional behavior was confirmation. I simply replied with the domain for the real book club’s website. Silence.

In a real book club situation, the club might reach out to invite the author to a meeting. Nothing more. No fee. Even then, direct contact is rare. I’ve seen it happen once, and only because the author already knew people in the club. She attended, and it turned into a real chance to connect with readers.

The Book Review

This one was new and quite clever. It’s still playing out, so I’m curious to see how far they take it.

The email came in through the website contact form. A reader claimed Amazon wouldn’t accept their review and asked for the link to Goodreads instead. They followed through right away and posted the review. Then came the request to be paid for the review, and to provide ongoing marketing support.

When my client explained he didn’t need more help, he already had a team, the reply came back angry, asking why he wouldn’t get more help if he already had some. When he didn’t answer, another message demanded a response and accused him of ghosting. I offered to step in, but my client decided to ignore it.

This one worked as well as it did because part of it was true. Amazon has genuinely been delaying reviews lately, sometimes for weeks, sometimes failing to post them at all, and who wouldn’t want that review handed to them. It was a sneaky way to gain access, and the moment the payment or marketing support question came up is the moment it gave itself away.

The Publisher and the Agent

This was the most complicated con. The first email came from an address made to look like a top five publishing imprint, something like joesmith@harpercollins@ Gmail.com, expressing interest in the work and offering to make an introduction to an agent.

The next email came from another free Gmail account, not a domain email address. In this case, they used a real literary agent’s name @Gmail.com, asking for writing samples and referencing the publishing house, making it look like they were working together. Whoever ran this scam had gone so far as to take the agent’s photo from her website’s about page and used it in the email signature in an attempt at authenticity.

I checked the real agent’s actual website, and it was easy to verify from there. She had clearly laid out how she works, how to submit, and how to contact her, including her real email address. None of it matched what my client had received.

Again, this client was three or four emails into the conversation before she mentioned it and then only to ask me for help with next steps. She didn’t realize it was a scam. She’s a newer author with a brand new website and no social media presence. What stood out for me in this particular scam was the involvement of both the agent and the publishing house together. In the real world, an author might hear from one or the other; they don’t typically work in tandem like this.

What’s an author to do?

Ignore it. Good people somehow feel compelled to respond to messages that land in our inboxes. The truth is, these are strangers who’ve stormed the gates of your inbox, uninvited, with nefarious intent. You owe them nothing.

Don’t feel bad about hoping or thinking these scams are real. Who wouldn’t? With how fast AI is advancing, these scams are getting better all the time. Poor grammar and spelling used to be the giveaway. With the help of AI, these scammers are providing professional emails that make them difficult to distinguish from the real thing.

Publishers aren’t just looking for a beautiful book. They’re looking for a book that makes money. In my experience, publishers and agents tend to look at authors who’ve already gained a significant volume of reviews on a single book, along with a massive social media audience and email list to sell into. If you’re still under 5K reviews (not ratings), it’s probably not real.

The Tell

When in doubt, look for the real tell, so simple that most authors miss it: the email address.

In the preview pane of your inbox, you’ll see the sender’s name, publisher, agent, or book club. The name is often long enough that you never see the actual domain address attached to it. That’s how they get you! Click to expand it, and you’ll find Gmail. Always Gmail. Any reputable professional has a domain email address and will never email you from a free email account.

Or, you can borrow one of my long-time client’s approach. Whenever one of these lands in his inbox, he simply replies:

“Does your mother know what you do for a living?”

Lynn McGinnis writes about publishing, author visibility, discoverability, and the future of building a writing career. As Founder and Chief Publishing Officer at Plotsy, Inc., and with more than thirty years of marketing experience at Lynn McGinnis, LLC, she brings practical insight to the changing world of books, technology, and author platforms. Her work helps authors think differently about visibility, publishing, and building careers that last. She writes from her little lake house in rural Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, son, and two fluffy companions, Kaiju and Bella.