Hey Scammers: Get a Life!

Hey Scammers - Get a Life!

I received the email of my dreams this week. A senior publicist was interested in all three of my books, mentioning each of them by their title. She said what stood out to her about my work was my “passion for storytelling and clear dedication to crafting narratives that keep readers fully immersed”. Yowsa!

The email went on, explaining how she was very interested to learn more about my current writing projects and any upcoming novels I might be developing within the romantic suspense or thriller space. She even said if I was currently represented by a literary agent, she would be happy to continue the conversation through them. If not, she would gladly explore how we might proceed with reviewing further material and discussing potential opportunities.

Eek! My heart sped up. To say I was excited is an understatement. This sounded fabulous. Maybe too good to be true? Yep, that’s what I thought too. In this world we live in, surrounded by deceit, ploys, scams, and dishonesty, one can never be too sure. 

Still…this was a dream come true, if it was legit. Someone in the publishing industry was reaching out, interested in not just one of my books, but all three I’ve written plus anything I had in progress. Yet, there was a little nagging voice in my head telling me not to pop the cork on the champagne just yet. I shared her email with my husband and daughter, and told them I was a bit skeptical because stuff like this never happens. Traditional publishing usually requires a literary agent to champion your work, but dang, she’d even mentioned she’d work with an agent. Like me, they were excited but wary.

So, off to the web to research. Yes, she was really a publicist. The picture she’d used in her email signature matched the one on the internet. She was featured in multiple articles, talking about her love of thrillers. Since she’d mentioned the company she was with, Penguin Random House, I would have expected the email to come from an email address through them. But what really got me, what really raised my suspicion, is that the email came from her name with an AOL email address. I’m pretty sure there’s only a handful of us left still using AOL. (Yes, I also have an AOL email address, but I don’t use it for writing.) I kept researching and found her on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, etc. She really did exist and was well known in the industry.

However, I did find a mention in LinkedIn about her changing publishing houses last fall. Ding, ding, ding: Red flag number two. I found an email for her through her previous job at Penguin Random House, and another email from a site she uses to share her excitement about her favorite thriller reads. I used those to forward the email I’d received to her, questioning its legitimacy. In less than five hours I received an email reply from her indicating it was a scam and she was sorry I’d been targeted.

The very next day I received another email. This one from an Editorial Director at Bloomsbury Publishing. She said my novel The Seaside Crosses had recently been brought to her attention by a colleague who believed it might be of particular interest. She said she was immediately drawn to the title…blah blah blah. This time the email address had the Bloomsbury publishing house name in it, but still using an AOL email. So, back to the web to research. I found a gmail email address for this Editorial Director and forwarded the email to her, questioning if it might be a scam. In less than two hours she confirmed it was.

I’m not sure whether they are targeting manuscripts to try publishing them as their own work, or if they will extend offers to publish and ask writers for money up front. But, somehow they were going to end up with money, if only us gullible writers would go along with their schemes. 

I have to admit they are good. They must have some pretty nifty data mining tools to come up with specifics about people’s books. They said all the right things, had knowledge about the genre I write in. Both emails were unique, not repeating the same phrases. If only they weren’t cheating bastards it would have been wonderful. 

But, lesson learned. Like they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. That was definitely the case here. 

Fellow writers, beware. There’s some bad actors out there trying to make money off our hard work. Be wise and verify and never give them any money.

Dear readers, thanks for taking the time to read this month’s blog post. I hope that soon I’ll be able to share news that at least one of my books has been published. Legitimately. In the meantime, I’ll continue to write the stories and do my best to navigate through the swindlers. Take care and love each other.