Scammers are skilled in the art of seduction. Can there be anyone more easily seduced by skillful flattery than an author who has just launched a book? He/they—or, in this case she—has worked for months, or years, researching and writing a book, believing that this is a good book, a great book, a book that the world has been thirsting for years to read. This writer so wants to believe someone who writes, “ In a time where readers are searching for historical fiction with emotional depth, cultural richness, and powerful human stories, An Uncharted World stands out. Your novel combines history, survival, identity, and resilience into a sweeping narrative that feels both intimate and epic in scale.”

If I were a swooning woman, I would gracefully sink to the floor. “At last!” I think. Somebody understands what I was writing.”

The problem is that the “person” who sent the email is an AI chatbot, and the human seducer is just after my money.  AI helps scammers in two important ways: it “reads” the book for them, and tells the author how fabulous the book is. AI is really good at that. Scammers can now use AI to read your book, and to tell you want you long to hear. And AI is really good at that.

Independent Publishing: A Wild World

I’ve published two books, both independently, in the past ten years. During that time independent publishing has grown and morphed like Disney’s genie coming out of Aladdin’s lamp, and an army of scammers has popped up beside it. Not because independently published authors have a lot of money, but because we have to do our own marketing, which now involves a labyrinth of online processes.  Because of my own inexperience in this area, my book, which is getting very good editorial reviews, is not getting a lot of sales.

It is, however, generating a lot of scammer emails. I could just trash them right away, but they make interesting reading, and most of them are easy to spot. What I’ve often done first, because I spent 25 years as a journalist, was check out the source: look for this person online, check out the organization they said they represented. The trail usually evaporates quickly.

Writer Beware

I think a little detective work is fun; you may consider it a waste of time. A great way to educate yourself on this subject is to check Victoria Strauss’s website and blog, both entitled Writer Beware. Here’s a link to a May 8, 2026, post about book festival and interview fakes.

Those appear to be sort of a new wrinkle. Strauss keeps up with different kinds of fakes, and she has a standing list of characteristics that I’ve also found to be true: she warns about email addresses that are gmail or even aol, for example. All of my “fan mail” has come from oddly structured gmail addresses—except for one.

Impersonation fakes

I got an email signed Jiri Greco, introducing herself as an editor at Pan Macmillan. This passed my initial verification search, because there is a Jiri Greco who is an editorial assistant at Pan Macmillan.

It is wildly unlikely that she would reach out to me, and I knew that. But hope is a powerful drug; even the tiniest hope can make us cling to the most outlandish of beliefs. So I thought I would write to Ms. Greco, not on the same email chain, but starting afresh. It was during this process that I realized that the address the email had come from was macmilian, not macmillan. I did try to write to Ms. Greco to let her know she’s being impersonated. The email bounced.

Writer Beware is a great source of impersonation fake stories and ways to combat them.

Book club “moderator” fakes

I’ve been hearing a lot from people who claim to be moderators of large book clubs. It’s not hard to figure out that I would LOVE to have my book purchased and discussed by lots of thoughtful readers. Yesterday I heard from someone claiming to be Sarah Harden—although the “Harden Sarah” signature at the bottom of the page indicates that whoever wrote it’s from someone in a different culture from the real Sarah Harden, who is an executive at Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company, and used to be CEO. Yeah, the real Sarah Harden would be great at helping me get to a major book club, one that puts women at the center, and I think my book would be ideal. But this scammer is not going to help me get there.

What I’ve decided to do

What most of the scammers offer is a skill I have realized is important, but not one I have: optimization of An Uncharted World on Amazon, especially choosing the most effective search terms. There are some things I find unattractive about

Amazon as a company, but it has the most developed sales mechanism in the game. I don’t know how to pick the search terms and categorization for my book, and I don’t think I have the time or the inclination to learn. I have decided to work with a company that does those things, but which has a much more credible profile than the people who have reached out to me: Geoff Affleck’s AuthorPreneur. Affleck’s presence on the internet checked out. I checked to see that the authors who offered glowing reviews of his work are in fact real authors, and that their books are doing well on Amazon. I think I have realistic expectations about what’s going to happen, and I’m working with a member of his team who has so far proven to be responsive and reliable. I’ll let you know how this works out.

Affleck offers a discussion on Zoom before you commit to anything, and I found our conversation to be helpful. His services are not cheap, but at least he tells you up front what you’ll be paying. The scammers always shy away from naming any money figures at the very beginning—and I do sometimes write to them and ask them specifically how much they cost.

Use the scammers’ material for yourself

The scammers write such glowing praise about my book, homing in on elements I worked very hard to make right. I mentioned to the team member I’m working with that I wish these were legitimate reviews. She said we can use their material to create and test search terms and to write the book descriptions. I think that’s a fine idea.

So that’s what we’re likely to do.

BTW, it IS a good book!

In case you think the only praise An Uncharted World has received is from scammers, I’ll point out that it won the American Legacy Awards Gold Medal for Adventure:Historical. It also got five stars from The Book Revue, and a starred review from the Independent Book Review. Jaylynn Korrell wrote, “An Uncharted World is a story you’re not going to forget. You are in good hands with Susan Storer Clark. This eloquent, yet plot-driven story maintains historical accuracies and deep reader engagement while never sugarcoating the realities of slavery. This is a book that honors real people and contends with themes of loss, romance, history, culture, passion, and resilience. I couldn’t put it down.”

And Korrell is not trying to sell me anything

Please leave a comment

Do you have some experience with such scammers? Have they made you angry, or made you laugh? What do you do about them? What would you do if you could? I’m thinking maybe I’ll just write back to them and ask, “Does your mother know what you do for a living?