Literary Scams

I was midway through writing a different post for tonight but this just came up and now I’m annoyed so let’s talk about scams that prey upon authors.

In 2023 a few things happen in my life—one I had been managing editor of a literary press for a few months and was both the recipient of scams targeting the press directly and was hearing about them through “my” authors, of whom I was feeling more and more protective. And then that summer I had the audiobook of my memoir come out with an American publisher, which is actually my first experience with US publishing in my entire career—I’d had US distro before, but always indirectly, through my Canadian publishers. This put my name on hit-lists for scam artists like never before I got, well, not slammed but certainly just a lot more deceitful emails and DMs.

Anyway, I did a bunch of research and wrote a blog post for the press I worked for at the time, which they have since removed for whatever reason (this, too, is annoying, but such is life) so I can’t just include a link. Instead here is most of that research again plus whatever more I have gained in the years since).

Paid critical reviews are scams: I’m sure there are exceptions to this, but whatever they are, they will not be “reaching out” and letting you know they’d “love” to review your book, as soon as they can be paid. Sometimes these solicitations are in the guise of requests for permission to feature a book review or mention in a print or online publication, but no need for permission exists and anyone running a legitimate publication knows that—whatever stripe of illegimate publication we are dealing with, whether fraudulent or incompetent, need not be delved into. Occasionally the request is simply for a review copy, which is better directed to one’s publisher, but for the self-published it is of course necessary. For those whose publishers are slow, disorganized, or rude to small outlets, it is of course fine to fulfill these requests oneself if you have capacity—your call. These requests only.

Pro-forma publicity packages from randos are scams: This is not to be confused with working with independent freelance publicists, which can be a great option if the right synergy among book, publicist, and author is found. If you’re interested in doing this, the right way to research it is to ask author authors of similar books in a similar market if they know anyone talented—such people are out there and they do great work. Depending on where you are and what you write, you can possibly ask me! Please please don’t respond to an email from a stranger in another country or another part of the country offering ten radio spots or seven podcast mentions or nine blog posts—those could be to any audience!! Or likely to none. I’ve researched some of the “big name” Sirius radio spots my regular scamsters email me about (I cannot block those people—I’ve tried!) and they are very dubious.

Some purchased social media is scammy: Listen: many—most?—big deal influencers on Bookstagram and BookTok do sponsored posts on occasion and possibly with enough cash I guess an individual author could pay for such a post. But it would be very expensive. Paying a small amount of money to an influencer you have never heard of to do a screengrab of your bookcover alongside a caption with the cover copy is unlikely to be valuable. If you’re curious about a so-called influencer, check what’s on their feed—is it a mismash of baby board books and histories of the third reich and biographies of podcasters? Is every “review” three sentences long? Are all the comments “wow, this really cool” or “:):)”? Influencers with influence review books you’ve heard of and they do it with real personality and flare. They also engage with followers, and have a fun dialogue going with them. When I first started getting these solicitations, I read the comments on some of the posts and realized it was the same five or six comments over and over from different accounts—bot traffic. Urgh. These posts aren’t even going to (m)any human followers.

Book fair and rights fair placements are legit things but…: This one is tricky because even the most legit version of it—even the versions I myself participated in—sound like a scam. Literary orgs and genuinely helpful representative agencies sometimes take books to trade fairs and right fairs around the world—they charge a fee that sounds like too much for literally taking one book and putting it on a shelf and in an online catalogue but it’s really limited, prime real estale. When I finally went to the London Book Fair, for example, I didn’t have a booth so our press’s UK distributor gave us half a dozen spots on their display for some astronomical number like…$300 per book? It was nuts. But the booth was wildly expensive and we were helping them underwrite it and I got off easy not having to pay for my own booth. Whether this is a useful thing to do I can’t say—but it’s mysterious like most legit things in bookAnyway, if you want that kind of placement, deal with someone reputable, that you know and trust, and get photos!

Everything that comes in the form of a phone call from a stranger is a scam: Somebody called my mominator this evening trying to find me to get “permission” to put my book on a website. As per above, no one needs permission to put my book anywhere on the web, and I am incredibly easy to google and email, DM, etc. I assume that it is easier to rush someone into a bad decision over the phone than online. It’s 2025—nothing of substance is transacted over the phone, certainly not initially. And leave my mominator ALONE.

I’m sure there’s more that I haven’t covered: Are there more scams you want writers to be on guard against? Please put’em in the comments—it’s a public service.

PS—The cover image is a bit misleading, in that it’s from a movie about a much more fun type of literary scam. See the film Can You Ever Forgive Me for an entertaining (but still fairly dark) scam completely unrelated to the matters above, for which I couldn’t really think of a good image.