Scam emails
Geneva Barnett wanted to review my book. Send her a free copy, she said, but don't respond in the public forum, just contact her via email.
This is the fourth such request I’ve gotten this weekend. It’s a scam.
Like every independent book publisher, I have to compete with the 10,000 new book titles published every year. It’s a challenge, so when someone offers to review my book, please contact them, the temptation is to respond immediately, and breathe a sigh of relief that my masterpiece is finally getting the notice it deserves.
But there is a catch. I’ve been publishing for a few years. I know that legitimate book reviews start with someone buying the book, reading, it, then feeling compelled to write a review. They don’t start with “Give me a free copy, and I’ll write a review.”
But Geneva, definitely not her real name, isn’t just trying to scam a free read. If I were to respond, I would soon find that she has 10,000 people following her reviews, they all fall into my target audience and I will soon shoot to the top of the Amazon sales charts. There will, however, be a small fee for such stellar results.
Geneva will have to look elsewhere for clients.
This is the fourth such request I’ve gotten this weekend. It’s a scam.
Like every independent book publisher, I have to compete with the 10,000 new book titles published every year. It’s a challenge, so when someone offers to review my book, please contact them, the temptation is to respond immediately, and breathe a sigh of relief that my masterpiece is finally getting the notice it deserves.
But there is a catch. I’ve been publishing for a few years. I know that legitimate book reviews start with someone buying the book, reading, it, then feeling compelled to write a review. They don’t start with “Give me a free copy, and I’ll write a review.”
But Geneva, definitely not her real name, isn’t just trying to scam a free read. If I were to respond, I would soon find that she has 10,000 people following her reviews, they all fall into my target audience and I will soon shoot to the top of the Amazon sales charts. There will, however, be a small fee for such stellar results.
Geneva will have to look elsewhere for clients.
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message 1:
by
Aino
(new)
Dec 31, 2020 06:44AM
I'm so happy you wrote this blog. I was contacted by her too on a social media platform and was just searching for information and thankfully your post showed up. As I'm just starting on this self-publishing journey, this sort of info is so valuable.
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Good luck with your journey, Aino. Book promotion is challenging. There are no magic bullets and even legitimate promotional tools may not produce results. I tried the Goodreads Giveaway for $119. The result was two reviews and no sales. I tried a promotional campaign with Awesomegang.com and another outlet, both part of Vince O'Hare's group. (You'll see his name scattered around Goodreads). These are too scattered and slapdash to produce results.
Recently I've been studying Bookbub ads. Their approach is very targeted and they provide data based on real results from previous ads. I'm intrigued, but haven't pulled the trigger on that one yet. I'm also trying the traditional route of sending off press releases to targeted media.
The only other advice I can offer is to study promotional options in detail and try to target your audience as closely as possible. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the thoughts, Doug! I've only done one promo campaign so far with the purpose of giving free books which went okay. I'm trying the 99 cents one next with a few promo places in line, but it's a real uphill climb. I don't have nearly enough reviews for Bookbub to accept me, but if I ever get there, I'll definitely give them a go. For now, it's all interesting and new, and sales would, of course, be lovely, but I'll still keep writing whether they happen or not :)
Thank you for your blog post Doug Shidell. I've been seeing posts warning about this more and more. They (whoever they are) have sent me messages to my e-mail, my website, here on goodreads, and now even pinterest. The messages come from different names and e-mail addresses.I don't respond because I've read something about CA having strict laws about writers requesting reviews (I'm not well informed about this, it was a random article I read years ago. I just make it a point to never request reviews to stay on the safe side).
I wanted to give a additional warning that I began receiving messages from people claiming to be members of media. Now these are tempting for me to reply to, however, they give no information about themselves nor their news outlet. All messages come from gmail accounts, with no other contact information given.
Research and be vigilant.
Thanks Aino. For all the research I did on Bookbub, I didn't catch the requirement that I get a certain number of reviews first. That makes BookBub even more legitimate in my mind, but it is unlikely that I'll get there. I've been writing and publishing for 50 years, but it has been mostly freelance journalism and guidebooks. This is my first foray into fiction and I've found that the platform I built as a journalist doesn't help much in fiction.
I checked your bio. It's very well written. I'm impressed that you are doing it in your second language. The reviews are positive and I see that you are already on your third book in the series. It all sounds promising.
Ann,Thanks for the heads up on the folks claiming to be from media. As a freelance journalist, I've worked with media people regularly and they always use emails through their organizations. You are right to avoid anyone with a generic email account.
If you get a suspicious message from a Goodreads member, you can flag it, then explain to Goodreads librarians why you consider it suspicious. I was able to shut down one member after she sent me half a dozen duplicate messages within an hour.
Doug wrote: "I checked your bio. It's very well written. I'm impressed that you are doing it in your second language. The reviews are positive and I see that you are already on your third book in the series. It all sounds promising."Appreciate it :) I'm a translator by profession so I thought I might as well take the chance as the market is much bigger outside my home country. But I couldn't have gotten all those lovely reviews without my editor's help.
Yes, I suppose fiction has a very different audience, and it's difficult to get people very excited about any new fiction book as the market is so saturated these days, but you never know :) We just need to keep at it.
Thanks for your post, Geneva wrote this one one of my Facebook posts; Geneva Barnett
Jo-Anne Barker I have a question regarding your book I believe I should not post in public. Could you please send me an email so I can ask away?
awesomebooks455@gmail.com
P.S.: Please note that I am not active here or on messenger
Thanks so much for the warning. I've had a message from her on FB but 'she' seems to have changed her approach - she's now asking me (and others?) to email her directly because she has a question about my book. She posted on a promo post I'd done about my new book on my own FB group so it seemed legit. Luckily I haven't sent her anything yet but worth other authors noting the new tactic.
Doug wrote: "Ann,If you get a suspicious message from a Goodreads member, you can flag it, then explain to Goodreads librarians why you consider it suspicious. I was able to shut down one member after she sent me half a dozen duplicate messages within an hour"
Thank you for the information Doug Shidell, I had no idea I could flag suspicious messages on Goodreads, that is great to know about.
In my case, Goodreads seems good about deleting many of the suspicious messages, I only knew about the deleted Goodreads messages because I received e-mail notifications about those messages before their removal. Yet there are some suspicious messages that still make it through, and I will happily flag them. Thank you.
I just got an email through my website from Paula Kline. She wants to review a book that I wrote in 1972! The book has been out of print for over 40 years. That is so absurd that it is hilarious. I'm definitely going to play with that one. It should be good for a Facebook post and a website post.
I've had a few scam 'review offers' since joining Goodreads. The spam filter has picked up all but one, but they I have to careful that genuine ones don't go into spam, too.
This forum has been very helpful. I recently published my first book in December and received the same message from Geneva Barnett today on Facebook.Christina Tsirkas I have a question regarding your book I believe I should not post in public. Could you please send me an email so I can ask away?
awesomebooks455@gmail.com
P.S.: Please note that I am not active here or on messenger
I definitely will not respond. Does anyone know if Goodreads does anything about spam ratings? I received a one-star rating last week from a member who left no comment and does not have an active profile.
Unfortunately there has been a spate of authors being hit with multiple 1* ratings and also unkind and inaccurate 1* reviews. Goodreads will take them down if they are obviously fake, but I was hit immediately by another lot. They are copied from one author to another and so ridiculous in their claims. Then some authors get a message offering to ‘fix’ the problem - for a fee. Haven’t had that yet. If I do the screenshot will go straight to Goodreads. Hopefully they can find a way to prevent this, rather than reacting after the fact.
Jane wrote: "Unfortunately there has been a spate of authors being hit with multiple 1* ratings and also unkind and inaccurate 1* reviews. Goodreads will take them down if they are obviously fake, but I was hit..."Thank you for sharing, Jane. That is helpful to know. I'm sorry that is happening to you. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be.
I haven't had anything from a Geneva Barnett and I haven't been hit by a plethora of 1 star reviews, but I did, perhaps foolishly, send a free copy to an Ellworth Washington a month ago, in exhange for a review that will almost certainly never happen. Can't say for sure whether they really were a member at the time, but they're certainly not now. As it stands, I'd say there's no harm done - they got a eBook for free that quite frankly has so far only shifted free copies anyway.It cost me nothing and it gained me nothing...I can't help feeling those two things are linked!
In Feb. I received this following e-mail,----
I want to ask an indiscreet question privately to you regarding your book, that I believe I should not post in public.
-----
This came from someone named, Fiona Alexander.
I have received numerous (scam??) e-mails from several different names. At least a handful have come from this name.
Something about this e-mail unnerved me...I'm not going to answer. I've been receiving many of these suspicious e-mails and have never replied to any of them.
Should I allow it to unnerve me?
Just ignore it. These emails are sent out by the thousands. They won't know you unless you answer and they know nothing at all about your book. I've received several myself.
Thank you Doug Shidell,This does make me feel better, considering that this message was sent out to numerous e-mails.
I don't know why I let this one bother me. I guess I was worried about this sender becoming more negative. I'm seeing a lot of complaints on Goodreads about these scammers.
Thank you,
Ann Crystal.
Gary wrote: "I've had a few scam 'review offers' since joining Goodreads. The spam filter has picked up all but one, but they I have to careful that genuine ones don't go into spam, too."Oh no, I just sent that same email address a pdf of my book. She mentioned a legit giveaway I had going on Goodreads so I was fooled. SAD!!!
Victoria wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've had a few scam 'review offers' since joining Goodreads. The spam filter has picked up all but one, but they I have to careful that genuine ones don't go into spam, too."Oh no, I..."
In this case she said her name was Ethel J. Issac (sp?)
I got an email from awesomebooks455@gmail.comHello,
I am a professional reviewer reading and reviewing books from all genres. If you want a fresh, honest and high quality book review from someone who has done Masters in Literature then please connect with me. I am also a beta reader and editor.
Mary Jane
Did not send anything.
