By Elaine Viets
Recently, a Very Important Person at Macmillian Publishers sent me a complimentary email. She’s a real senior editor at the British publisher. Modesty forbids me from using her name, so I’ll call her VIP.
The VIP editor’s email was headlined, “Editorial Interest in Beach Blonde Betrayal.” (That’s my new mystery.)
VIP was “immediately drawn to the combination of wit, suspense, and vivid South Florida atmosphere” in my most recent novel.
She outlined the plot in detail and said it was an “entertaining mystery with plenty of momentum, while the quirky residents and local setting give the story a distinctive character.”
Wow. Move over Kristin Hannah and Georges Simenon, here’s someone who understands the poetry of my soul.
The VIP editor wanted to know the name of my agent. (In publishing speak, that means she’s serious.)
Then VIP said, “there may be scope for a broader discussion regarding potential fit within Macmillian’s adult mystery, crime, and cosy mystery publishing programs.”
I noticed she spelled “cosy” in the proper British style. This was looking better and better. VIP said she’d be delighted to hear from me.
Not as happy as I was to hear from her.
I’d always wanted to take a long cruise. I could see myself relaxing in the ship’s spa after lunch, then resting up before a lobster dinner, followed by champagne cocktails at bedtime. In the morning, I’d work on my next international bestseller in my balcony suite. Meanwhile, the VIP editor would fend off the movie and TV offers for my latest work.
I was about to make my cruise reservations when the last line of the email stopped me: The VIP editor finished her email, “Keep being awesome.”
What!? My dream cruise was shipwrecked. The champagne cocktails spilled down the drain and the lobster was an empty shell.
No editor, especially not a British editor, would tell a writer to “keep being awesome.” Not unless Prince William slapped me on the back and invited me for a beer at the palace.
Furthermore, this VIP used a gmail address, often a sign of a scam. She should have used her corporate address.
Since then, I’ve been deluged with emails about my mysteries.
Marketing directors begged for the opportunity to increase my sales, starting with lowering the prices of my mysteries. (Those are set by my publisher, thank you.)
Dubious book clubs wanted to recommended my books to their thousands of readers. (For a small fee.)
Flattering emails invited me to be a guest on prestigious podcasts. No charge, of course, though they’d appreciate a “donation” to help pay for the sound engineer. (No thanks.)
One of my favorite radio shows, “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, invited me for an interview. I noticed the email for “Fresh Air” had an extra R. No Terry. No invite.
All of these emails were AI scams. Writer Beware, the useful blog that helps writers navigate the darker corners of our industry, wrote “How Those Personalized Generative AI Scam Emails Are Built.” Check out the full article here: https://tinyurl.com/mr3c5ct4
These scams are surprisingly easy, Writer Beware’s Victoria-Strauss said. And common. My VIP editor routine has its own name.
“For the Editor Impersonation Scam, these emails use a real editor’s name and title,” Victoria-Strauss wrote. “But they often use a gmail address instead of the corporate address, and the scammers usually slip up some other way.”
In my scam letter, they told me to “keep being awesome.”
These scam letters are extremely detailed. Not only do they include information about my book’s plot and characters, but my biography, sale rank on Amazon, and more. All that information can be picked off the internet.
“We still don’t know how the AI scams are structured or who runs them,” she said. “The payment and other data I’ve collected suggests that they mostly hail from West Africa, and there’s obviously some degree of centralization – the way the solicitations sort into distinct ‘types’ or categories suggests this (i.e., marketing, book club, impersonations of well-known authors, editors, agents, etc.).
“The one bright spot amid this scam tsunami is that familiarity breeds suspicion. . . . The scammers are still making money, though. The emails wouldn’t be flooding our inboxes if they weren’t. Be careful out there.”
Since that email, I’ve been careful, resisting the siren song of those gushing letters.
Fortunately, I have a nice Nigerian prince to advise me.
***
Beach Bargain. Both my Florida Beach mysteries, “Sex and Death on the Beach” and “Beach Blonde Betrayal” are Kindle ebook deals. Click here: https://tinyurl.com/2uxyfa5d
I think if I got a real offer like that now, I’d assume it was a scam. Some of them are getting more subtle, not asking for money up front. I think the goal is to build a rapport first and then strike once they have your trust.
I can’t believe people have nothing better to do with their lives than try scamming. A waste of everyone’s time. We all have too many emails to deal with on a daily basis as it is! UGH!
I also got one from a real name at Macmillan, only the email address used was @ “Macmillian.” That’s confidence building. Where do I sign up?
I love how many of these say something like “I recently came across [TITLE].” No marketing professional, legit editor, or studio executive EVER “comes across” a book.
I get those all the time. The most recent one didn’t even have the decency to name my book. The email kept saying “your book.” Hmmmm
I get them for books that haven’t been published yet. And emails that neglect to mention which book (or the [book title] that JSB mentioned.
They just want you to reply so they know they’ve hit a live email and can sell it. That’s a better income stream than the money suckers are willing to fork over.
NEVER reply.