Bad Actors Damaging the Book Community

A while ago now I posted about scammers using AI to target authors; i.e. give us money to edit, market, review your book, to participate in a non-existent conference, to be interviewed or featured on a podcast, and the list goes on. The scammers claim to be famous authors or that other authors are using their services. They’re also targeting book reviewers. I’ve heard some people suggest that authors are a soft target and that having refined their tactics on us, the scammers will go after other professionals. I think they’ll also go after hobbyists because that’s where we’re, perhaps, less critical and more likely to spend money to feel good about ourselves and our work.

Anyways, this is just to say be very, very careful of anyone contacting you whom you don’t know. It’s also to explain why I’m very wary and often don’t respond to a private message. If you’ve messaged me and haven’t heard back, please comment on a public post. You don’t have to say anything important, just let me know that you’ll be sending me a message.

I hate how AI-empowered scammers have further eroded trust and communication. By being as transparent as possible about the problem, I hope our community here continues to grow. It’s why I have comments set to manual approval. I cannot tell you how much it annoys me that we can’t comment and reply to each other in real time, but keeping this space safe is the priority.

(If you’d like more information, the Writer Beware site run by Victoria Strauss is always to be trusted).