SCAM

SCAM definition: a dishonest scheme to gain money or possessions from someone fraudulently, especially a complex or prolonged one.

Hello again my friends, it’s been a while since writing my last blog. What with the house move, settling in to new surroundings, and the reason behind the title of my blog. The never ending scam emails jumping into our inbox!

We both made a decision a few years ago to remain as independent authors, to publish both of our work ‘in house’, just to allow us the time to concentrate on teaching the boys, to reconnect with our creative selves and explore our new surroundings.

Usually, all suspicious emails get dropped into the recycle bin, without being read, along with the usual marketing emails, yet an email dropped last week, one which pricked my curiosity.

It was professional, well written, and pretty convincing, I hasten to add, it began with a huge congratulations, to then lead on to an incredibly flattering assessment of my latest book series. The Author was an editor for a publishing house in the United States, a Christian publisher and bookstore, which I found a tad strange, considering my book series is titled ‘The Wytch Trail’.

Intrigued, I played along for a while, replying to the email, thanking the sender for their kind words, only to be asked if I had current representation with a literary agent, to which I replied no. Within a few hours, this supposed editor replied, stating that she would be happy to ‘refer’ me to a reputable agent, and went on to send me the email address.

I emailed the ‘Literary agent’ whose response was rapid to say the least, sending me none other than a contract to sign, to return asap, along with my prepared manuscript.

This sent me off down a rabbit hole. Following a few hours of researching trending literary and publishing scams, I emailed the real publishing house, who responded within a few hours, categorically stating that the editor in question had NOT reached out to me, and congratulated my vigilance.

Unfortunately now that AI, love it or hate it, is so prolific, it allows scammers to become more and more convincing, which is neither here nor there, if like so many other indie authors, one becomes accustomed to it.

My fear is for the new writers, who have not been exposed to such shameful defrauders and could easily find their bank balances completely depleted and their incredibly hard work stolen from under their noses.

Therefore, I intend to keep up with the trending scams and raise awareness, whenever I can. If you are new to the wild and sometimes chaotic realms of independent writing and you need advice, on potential scam emails, self-publishing on Amazon, or anything literary based, we are more than happy to offer guidance, completely free of charge, of course!

Brightest blessings,

Louise