How Book Marketing Scams Work

Almost all scams aimed at authors are the traditional Spanish Prisoner con. This con involves convincing the mark (the person who will be conned) that if they put up funds now, they will receive a greater monetary reward at the end. It comes from the 1800s – though probably is older – when the mark was told that a wealthy individual has been imprisoned in Spain. That wealthy individual is relying on a friend (the trickster or in today’s terms the scammer) to raise money to pay for his release. The trickster asks the mark for money with the promise that upon release the wealthy individual will not only pay it back but offer a reward for helping him. The mark gives money, but the trickster is never heard from again. Sometimes, though, the trickster doesn’t immediately go away but asks for more money to secure the release of the wealthy individual.

Book marketing scams essentially follow the same pattern. The scammer offers a big payback if you spend a little money now. The process generally consists of six steps.*

Step 1. The Hook
Via either email or on social media, you receive a marketing offer that promises to deliver incredible results or you are asked questions about your book and writing and then your marketing activities. This is the solicitation phase. The scammer merely wants to establish his authority (such as by impersonating a bestselling author or holding some important-sounding marketing title like “literary scout”) as well as pique your interest while feeling you out to determine how to navigate you through the scam.

Personalized praise often is given during the solicitation if you receive an email (but if you’re being DM’d on social media it will come after a few innocuous questions). For example, the scammer will tell you how your book “immediately stood out” or how it “lingered in my mind and deeply touched my heart long after I finished reading.” The goal is to get you to let your guard down first by being friendly and by stroking your ego.

Step 2. The Pitch
The scammer describes what they offer. It might be a book trailer, a book club invite, featuring your book at a book conference, getting you more reviews, or a dozen of other services that supposedly will increase your book sales. Typically the pitch appears at the end of the email or after you’ve exchanged a few friendly messages via a social media DM.

Step 3. The Soothing
Either because you’re getting suspicious or because the scammer’s offer is a bit vague, you start to ask questions. The scammer expects this and so has some stock responses, all employing emotionally manipulative tactics, to keep you moving toward falling for the scam. You’ll notice that most of their answers are politely evasive – instead of directly answering “What is your education level?” they’ll respond with “I’ve found that a degree doesn’t mean one has the skills to do a job” – or they may simply ignore it. Their answers often possess a bland corporate tone (using phrases like “integrated event protocol” or “technical optimization”), which is a good indication that AI is generating the answers. Also dropped during an answer will be a casual, almost hidden, mention of fees though none were indicated before; in fact, the initial solicitation likely implied that there would be no cost.

As you ask questions and express concerns, the scammer will sympathize with you about your doubts. For example, “I understand your concerns” or “There are a lot of scammers out there!” He’s trying to show that he’s on your side and even your buddy. This helps assuage your suspicions and keeps you on track to fall for the scam.

Step 4. The Ask
Next the scammer asks you to go all in on spending money for the pitched service. The services you will receive often are vague (“an audit of your account”). This may involve some pushy sales tactics (“limited slots” or “final chance”) to get you to make the purchase. If you’ve gone this far, the scammer knows that you believe you need the marketing he’s offering (And since you don’t need it, he also knows you know little about marketing your books so can be easily fooled). If the scammer thinks you’re a sucker, he’ll even adjust the original proposal so that you’ll pay more.

Step 5. The Handoff
Once you agree, you are moved over to another person, often on a different platform, like Fiverr or Upwork, where you can make your payment. Don’t be surprised if the person you’re paying has a bank account in Delaware (an easy state to register shell companies and anonymous corporate structures so a popular location for fraud networks), is on a platform like WhatsApp where tracing payments is difficult if not impossible, or that the person you’re paying has a Nigerian name.

Step 6. The Theft
After you’ve paid, one of three things will occur:
• You’ll receive a shoddy product, such as an AI-generated trailer or an online interview in which the book club attendees are all bots.
• You’ll be asked for more money, maybe because the “marketing team” has determined the service you paid for, while helpful for your book, won’t be enough to generate the sales your book “deserves.”
• You’ll be ghosted, meaning none of your inquiries about when you’ll receive your services are ever answered, and possibly even the scammer’s email or profile will have been deleted.

A variation of this step involves you handing over log-in information to your Kindle Direct Publishing account or to your website, all under the guise of “optimization.” The scammer then locks you out of the account by changing your passwords and collects your royalties or uses your website for other scams.

These are merely the general steps in the scam, of course. Based on your response, the scammer can employ a variety of tactics all aimed at getting you back on track in this process so that you ultimately reach Step 6.

*Credit goes to Writer Beware for coming up with five of the steps, though I’ve slightly modified their descriptions and added a step (“The Soothing”). These changes are based on my personal observations and research and the experiences of my editing clients as they’ve dealt with scammers.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

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