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Member only guide to the Australian book industry.
MIN READ
Last October the ASA provided advice to members about how to protect themselves in the face of a marked increase in email scams, enabled by AI technology. Unfortunately, the problem seems to be growing – where solicitous emails were previously impersonating publishing houses, book marketers, and film production companies, now they are also impersonating book clubs, podcasts, literary magazines, book strategists, and platforms that promise to promote your work to any number of reading groups. There has also been a rise in emails purporting to be from famous authors hoping to connect with the recipient about their work.
These cold callers seek to exploit a creator’s desire to connect with their reading communities. They can appear to be realistic requests, partly due to the ease with which AI tools can give the impression of personalised contact – within a few seconds a scammer could use generative AI to draft an email to you providing intimate details of your work, including quotes, and reflecting on your book’s themes and content. This level of specificity means that these emails may also break through your spam filters.
Unlike emails impersonating publishers or film producers, which can be more easily verified, it is much more difficult to corroborate requests from book clubs or podcasts because real approaches are typically informal and can come from personal email addresses. Book clubs or podcasts may not have websites, domains, or easily accessible information online with which to assess the veracity of the request.
Journalist and author, Walter Marsh, detailed his own experience of these AI-powered scams in a recent op-ed for the Guardian cautioning writers to think twice before engaging with those who promise ‘exposure or engagement’, no matter how tempting the offer may sound. It’s more important than ever for all authors to exercise greater caution when reviewing unsolicited offers, especially if you are an emerging creator with little experience of industry standards or do not have representatives that can assist you to manage these requests.
As a blanket rule, proceed with caution if anyone is requesting payment from you in return for visibility, promotion, or sales. In particular, it is not at all standard for book clubs to request payment from an author to feature their book at the book club.
1. Do your research Search for the book club, podcast, or organisation online.What can you find? Is there anything about the person who’s emailed you specifically online? Do they appear on the organisation’s website at all? If the organisation exists, but the person doesn’t, this might be an indication of an impersonation scam.
2. Check the email domainBe wary of those who approach you with standard free email domains like @gmail.com, when they claim to be an established organisation. While a professional email domain is not a definitive green flag, checking this is always a good first port of call.
3. Treat unsolicited approaches with scepticism It’s common for these emails to be vague about how they have come across your work. If someone has contacted you out of the blue, think about how they could have found your work. Have you engaged with or heard of them before? Has your work garnered any kind of attention or sales levels that might legitimately warrant an approach?
Also think about how many offers like this you might be receiving. We’ve heard of creators who have been receiving hundreds of offers of this nature in their inboxes. The scale and frequency of these offers can be a warning sign – AI tools are making it easier for scammers to send out emails to creators en masse, and, as Walter Marsh highlights, play the numbers game.
4. Be suspicious of overblown claimsPromises of guaranteed visibility to a network of 5,000 readers, five star reviews, or massive sales exploit the natural hopes of both emerging and established writers. But if the offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. The reality is that reaching readers and achieving bestseller status in the book industry is extraordinarily difficult.
5. Reduce opportunities for scammers to access or misuse your contact detailsConsider removing your email address from any public-facing websites, or listing your email in a format that is less easily readable by automated systems. For example, asa [@] asauthors.org. If you receive suspicious emails, block, report, and delete them immediately. The best practice is to avoid engaging with these messages altogether — ignore them rather than responding.
Should you have any questions about a request you have received, do not hesitate to contact the ASA via our free Member Advice Service.
Writer’s Beware also offers resources that can help you identify reputable providers, and Scamwatch, a service of the National Anti-Scam Centre, provides support and guidance on how to protect yourself. We encourage anyone who has encountered a publishing scam to make a report to its Scamwatch service.
