New beginnings and literary hoaxes

So finally we have a move date. After exchanging contracts last week while we were on holiday, we finally allowed ourselves to speak about ‘our new home’ and make lists of things to organise and people to inform. We have just over a week before the movers are in here packing. There’s a lot of stuff to squeeze into a little house. On the evening of the day we move I have to teach a step class and Nick has to take a choir rehearsal. So no putting our feet up that evening!  Then waking up the next day, clambering over boxes and hoping the boiler/shower/hob are all working…. wish us luck!

Obviously I don’t have a lot of time to noodle around on the blog. But I did want to mention these literary hoaxes that are doing the rounds. Maybe I’ve come late to this particular party. A few months ago I got an email from someone claiming to have read ‘The Golden Rules of Blogging’ and asking if I was up for any other projects with the publishing house she claimed to represent. I confess I fell for it rather stupidly – I looked up the sender on LinkedIn and she appeared to have a legitimate profile there, but I did think it very odd for her to pick up on a book that’s over ten years old. So I replied, albeit in a cagey manner. That’s when the penny dropped – another gushy email came back right away, and I recognised the purple prose of a crude AI bot. I’m happy to say I’m not the first to fall for it – for example here’s Julie Broad of Book Launchers telling her story. 

A week or so later came another similar email, this time allegedly from a professor at a West Country university who claimed he ran a literary festival and would be honoured to have me featured there! Woohoo! Except the ‘festival’ was starting the very next week, and the professor turned out to be a real person, but actually a professor of engineering. Since then the emails have arrived on a regular basis. It’s the present-day version of those misspelt email scams from twenty years ago. So, in case you haven’t yet been on the receiving end of one of these things, here’s the MO:

• An email from someone starting with ‘My name is….’ or ‘I came across your book…’ and claiming to be a literary agent, a publisher or the founder/organiser of a literary festival. They may be real person whose name and profile have been spoofed. Or they may be a fake character with a (superficially) impressive LInkedIn profile and a zillion contacts. Check the actual ‘from’ email address: it’s invariably a Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail account.
• The name of the publisher, agent or festival will sound vaguely familiar, such as the Haysuccess Literary & Arts Festival (yes, really), or Workman Publishing, (actually part of the Hachette Group.)
• A longwinded, gushing description of how impressed they are with your book, using the kind of language you find in blurbs, or even the actual blurb, repeating back to you all the things you already know about yourself and the book in typical AI style.
• An ‘opportunity’ – for example to be a ‘featured author’, to be on an author panel, to connect with thousands of eager readers worldwide all desperate to read your book and hear you talk about it, etc etc
• A sign-off urging you to respond (“I’d love to send you the complete details of the Featured Author opportunity, including the available participation options and next steps.”)

If you respond you’re told what it’s going to cost you to be the ‘featured author’. And there it is: they’re after your money and there’ll be nothing to show for it. Plus, respond once and you’re a mark for all the other scammers.

Actually, this kind of scam is well documented and if you ask Google AI search it will tell you the whole story. Use AI to call out the AI. Maybe one day it will eat itself like an ouroboros.