Today’s post is by author Teri Case.
Since I published my debut novel, Tiger Drive, in 2018, I’ve seen my share of scams. The more books I’ve published, the more calls, texts, and emails I’ve received from supposed reviewers, book clubs, television producers, and popular authors. As technology advances, the schemes become harder to spot and filter out.
But, I’m cautious by nature thanks to my upbringing (if you’d like a fictional adaptation or taste of it, read Tiger Drive), and I’ve grown into a literary citizen. I enjoy looking out for my fellow authors. So, if you receive an email from another author like the one that I received below from Colleen Hoover, check yourself and follow these simple steps before you get excited and reply or click on any links.
The Email
Step 1: Review the sender’s email address
Different email servers have different steps to confirm the full email address of the sender. In general, you can click on the sender’s name following “To:” and the full address will be displayed. Below is an example of how to check the sender’s address.
Step 2: Confirm the author’s email
Find the author’s website on the internet. Their website will most likely have a Contact or Contact Us section that shares the best contact email(s) for them. Often, the email address will match their website domain. For example, mine is teri@tericase.com. Hoover’s writing requires a business (Hoover Ink, LLC) and a team, so she uses Microsoft Outlook for her email which creates a centralized hub for her team to organize emails, calendars, and more. Some authors do not offer their email addresses but do offer a contact form. If so, skip to Step Three.
Step 3: Be a literary citizen
If you want to be a literary citizen, alert the author that you’ve received a supposed email from them. Use the email you found on their website and forward the suspect or fraudulent email.
Hello Ms. Hoover,
I thought you should know that someone is sending an email out pretending to be you. I’ve attached the email below. I’m sorry this is happening to you.
Best,
Teri
If you’re lucky, the author or venue will reply and say, “Yes, that was me. I can’t wait to speak to you!” But it’s more likely, you’ll get a response similar to the one that I received:
Hi Teri,
Thank you for sending this over. We have had a lot of people email us about the same thing and there are so many different addresses being used to impersonate Colleen.
Please report it as fraud, and we will forward the email to our legal team.
Thank you again.
Stephanie
Hoover Ink, LLC
www.colleenhoover.com
Other solicitations for money
Have you received invitations to have your book discussed at book clubs with tens of thousands of members? At first, I ignored the emails. Though they offered praise for and helpful insight into my novels (probably thanks to AI), I knew the offer was less of an invitation and more of a pitch to buy their services and entry into said book club. Eventually, I decided to start responding as follows:
Wow! Thank you for the encouraging feedback about my novels and your enthusiasm to share my novels with your book club. You are more than welcome to read and share my novels with your network. I can do a Zoom with your members as well. However, if a fee is involved, then I will have to decline.
On a few occasions, I’ve received responses that they are excited to hear from me and that they will be including my novels, and they fully understand that I will not pay a fee to be included. However, they will need to collect a small contribution from me to cover their advertising costs. My response: No thanks. And there it ends.
There are also the silly outreach emails from people claiming to love my voice on social media and asking where can they find my novels on Amazon and Goodreads. I haven’t responded to or followed this trail, so I don’t know their angle, but it hardly seems worth it if I have to first explain to someone (or something) how to use Amazon or Goodreads. My educated guess is they are trying to engage me for their own deceptive reasons. If I write back, they’ve likely mastered the first step of their plan, so it’s best to delete or send their inquiry to spam.
Finally, there are the offers for book reviews that I’ve received via direct messaging in social media. To explain the risks, I’ll point to Victoria Strauss’s guest post for Writer Beware,“The Book Marketing Scam That Went the Extra Mile.
Scammers will continue scamming. As authors become aware of each con, a new one will appear. It’s constant, but do not become discouraged. Literary citizens will continue to be literary citizens, and the creative community will prevail.
Teri Case is the award-winning author of Tiger Drive, In the Doghouse: A Couple’s Breakup from Their Dog’s Point of View, and Finding Imogene. She lives in Washington, DC, and runs the Tiger Drive Scholarship for students who want to reach, learn, and grow beyond their familiar environment by attending college or a trade school. Learn more at tericase.com.
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