The Bummer about Scammers

It’s difficult enough to be a writer. You slave over words and edits and strive to get published and recognized. And then the scammers move in. Some give flowery praise of your work and promise to get it in bookstores, gift shops and book clubs. All for just a few hundred bucks.

I did fall for one scam recently. The marketer, a “book placement specialist,” was effusive in her praise of one of my books and said she could get it featured in several book clubs. Since I haven’t had much visibility with book clubs, I took the bait. She took a nice photo of the cover and did a trailer using an AI voice for the narration that couldn’t even pronounce my name correctly. That should have given me a clue of what was to come. Then she began the campaign, or so she said.

After a couple of weeks, she claimed one book club was already reading the book and that the members wrote several positive reviews on Goodreads. This is where I became suspicious. The new reviews, all 25 of them, were posted on the same date, and all were fours and fives and dripping with praise: “Doug Alderson captures not just the art but the very heartbeat of old Florida, its laughter, charm, and endless sunshine”; “The book is pure visual poetry”; “I couldn’t put this book down”; “A treasure of a book”; “This book is pure magic”; “The imagery leaps off the page.”

They were the type of reviews for which every writer yearns. Too good to be true? Quite possibly. No reviews trickled in after that one date. All of the reviewers except one joined in August of 2025 and that lone reviewer was the marketer’s boss. Regarding other authors’ books, all of the reviewers reviewed the same books. So, did this marketer somehow game the Goodreads review system to show she was on the job?

I asked my marketer why I didn’t see an uptick in Amazon sales or Amazon reviews during the time this book club read my book. Where did they obtain copies of my book? “I understand your observation about the number of ratings on Goodreads compared to Amazon,” she said. “Many of these readers are active on Goodreads and genuinely love using the platform to share their thoughts. These reviews are extremely valuable because they create visibility, credibility, and momentum that often translates into wider awareness and sales on Amazon and beyond. Positive feedback on Goodreads helps new readers discover your work, which ultimately strengthens your presence across multiple channels and builds a loyal following.” While what she said was true—positive reviews on Goodreads can translate into sales—she largely sidestepped my question.

What followed was a procession of emails from other marketers wanting to help raise the profile of several of my other books. From what they said, I was one of the world’s greatest writers. I just had to be discovered, and they would help.

I started wondering if all of these marketers were in cahoots with each other, part of the same online street gang a la Oliver Twist style. A sucker had been identified—me—and they were piling on. Who was the Artful Dodger behind all of this?

Supposed online book clubs started chiming in, too. One wanted to include my book in their anniversary celebration that would feature 300 books. “Only a few spots left!” the email read. They didn’t specify which one of my 17 books they wanted. When I responded and said I would be interested if there wasn’t a fee, the response was that most authors contributed a $100 donation for the good of the club. I told them no thanks. The reply said they could reduce the expected donation to $70. “Your work genuinely deserves to be seen, and this event is the perfect way to introduce it to a wider audience of readers who are excited to discover new authors. Would you like me to send the $70 confirmation link so we can secure your feature today?”

Seventy bucks for a listing with 299 other books in a Facebook post …

The real zinger came when I was contacted by a man who claimed to represent a big city book club with 950 members. 950 members! And they wanted to feature one of my books! I didn’t know there were book clubs that large, but if they all bought a copy of my book… After some back and forth correspondence, we narrowed down the month the book would be featured by the club. Then it came. I would need to choose one of three different levels of exposure, and I would pay handsomely for all of them! I sent the proposal to my publisher to get their reaction. “Sounds like a scam,” they said. And so I passed on that one, along with several similar ones that soon followed. But how many other writers had been suckered in, I wondered.

After a tip provided by Florida Writers Association, I discovered a website called Writer Beware sponsored by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. Very quickly, everything came into clearer focus, and the big picture was alarming. Many writers like me were being bombarded by Nigerian marketing scams that were creating fake reviewers, fake reader communities, fake book clubs, fake marketing companies, and fake emails from well-known writers wanting to engage in a friendly chat about the writing process followed by a sales pitch. Even more alarming, some believe this is a harbinger of a coming tsunami of AI generated super-scams. We must not only be on high alert for book promotion scams, but scams related to other aspects of our lives!

In the days that followed, I took a step back and did some soul searching. Marketing companies are fine, but it’s best if you find them first after researching their track record and checking with other writers about their experiences. And there’s nothing like promoting your work the old-fashioned way by setting up appearances, talks and podcasts, and featuring your work on social media. So, if someone is offering you an easy way to the top for a few hundred bucks, it is probably too good to be true.