Barb

Barb asked:

Why does this author keep sending me SPAM emails with offers for his book? It's happened multiple times. After sending each email he deletes the user account so that I can't respond to him directly and ask him to stop contacting me. I'm doing it here. Brett Arquette, please stop spamming me through my Goodreads account.

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8 years ago
61 answers

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Kat This is NOT okay. There are proper places for promoting novels, my private messaging box IS NOT ONE OF THEM. And harassment is NOT a valid form of advertisement.

I do not read these kinds of books.
I do not LIKE these kinds of books.

And I will not be reading ANYTHING by this author, now or ever, even if he starts creating the kinds of books I DO enjoy.

Spamming people from immediately-deleted accounts only means you get a LOT of pissed off people looking for your author page. It also smacks of desperation and a lack of social skills, online or otherwise. If this man really things so poorly of his work that he thinks shady tactics are the only way to get people to buy it, far be it from me to disagree. You've convinced me dude, you AND your work sucks.

Now STOP SPAMMING ME.

Carol This is not about free books. I got it free from Amazon Unlimited and gave it a generous 3 stars. he wants me to go to every review that gave 5 stars and "like" that review. And his email requesting that I do this comes every 45 minutes or so. More than a dozen so far this morning. I even "blocked" him from contacting me on Goodreads and he doesn't stop. He is a menace. I don't care how well he write; he is being an unethical stalker. How do I stop him?

Lee I've just reported this author too. I do not expect spam from GoodReads.

Jennifer I came looking for information about the free book too. I don't click random links in emails so I came to the site and looked up my Messages, the user and the book directly and found this. Even after reading that it appears to be a valid free book, I'm still reluctant to click the link, as the link is one of those weird short URLs and I don't click any of those to begin with from absolutely anywhere, no matter how big or well known the site is.

I would gladly have accepted the free book if there was a copy of the Message on this website for me, but since there wasn't and I have to rely strictly on the email, I'm passing.

Bon Tom I don't get it. What's wrong with all of you, people? What's the problem? You get the free book and complain? Has it really come to this? The internet is becoming festival of overblown sense of entitlement. If your time was so precious you couldn't even be bothered with free book offer, god forbid waiting for download, you wouldn't waste it here on Goodreads, complaining. I got the offer as well and I, for one, am delighted and honored. Didn't get to reading the book yet, but I will. So I don't know if it's good or bad, but it doesn't matter. It's free for fuck sake. And there's even audiobook version! For free! Pretty damn good deal. So enjoy it.

Danielle Me too! Just came here to figure out what's going on. Send me a message through here to tell me I might like a book, totally fine. Don't then immediately delete the profile so I know it's spam - aka how to get me to not read a book!

Dobby The sending of spam emails is a violation of Goodreads' Terms of Service . You can report the spam and the sock-puppet accounts to Goodreads Support by clicking on this link or by sending an email to Support(at)Goodreads(dot)com. That's what I did when he spammed my inbox.

Diana It looks like he can't afford proper promotion of his "novel"...He just sent me his recommendation via Goodreads as well. I don't appreciate this kind of advertising.

Summer He’s done this to me multiple times as well. It seems like he targets different groups and then spams their members. I’ve reported him as well. I wish he’d just STOP.

Jackie Cain I just received an offer, thought seriously about it, looking up the book on Amazon, and decided I didn't want to donate my time to this book - it just isn't my taste - I get enough free books. Then I tried to reply but, being wary of links in emails, I tried to find the message on Goodreads.com, couldn't, got suspicious, came here and found lots of other people the target of unwanted spam.
Brett, if you are truly just trying to promote your book as your agent told you, then you need to provide a way for people to say, "No, thank you."

Pegboard I agree with Tom. Brett asked me to read his book and give a review. I really enjoyed the book and gave a good review for a good book. I even recommended it to one of my children. Plus, every time I am contacted by an author to read their book I will if it would interest me or someone I love. I feel it is an honor to help out an author, who knows I may ask him for assistance one day.

Margarita Yes, I agree that it is annoying, and definitely not going to read the book. Not the best way of promoting your work.

Manon I received a similar message from “Brett A.” yesterday. I was puzzled by the fact that an author I do not know and follow could contact me, and feared phishing when I discovered no message in my inbox. Thanks to everyone who flagged similar situations on this thread. I would have considered reading his books if only he had done his promo properly and ethically - a Giveaway for example - but not this way. I have contacted Goodreads and reported the message as spam.

Jessica I got one this morning, after leaving a pretty scathing 1-star review for another techno-thriller. "I see you like techno-thrillers from time to time..." So clearly he didn't even look at my actual review, he's just spamming people who leave reviews on certain books. NOPE.

edit to add: I just reported him to Goodreads with a screenshot of the email I got.

Steph The scumbag is at it again with Author_Brett_Duncan_Arquette as his most recently created & deleted account. I'm not ashamed to admit that I judge books by their covers & would never have picked up his book regardless of his SPAMing approach to (dis)advertisement. After watching his "Hail Industries" trailer on YouTube, it's no wonder he's using the bombardment technique to get as many hits as possible.

Rebecca Agreed, although I only received 1 email about the free book, the spamming is very suspect. he isn't even targeting readers that would appreciate his books, just randomly sending things to everyone. So I returned the favor by reading it and giving him a 2 star review after not even being able to get through the whole novel. I haven't received anything else since.

Alexandra Report him to GoodReads. Over to the right side of a PM message you'll see an option to Flag it. I suggest you do that, even if the account it came from no longer exists. It's also possible he's not deleting those accounts, but GR is deleting them due to reopening accounts after being removed from GR due to spamming people.

You can also click in the Help link at the bottom of any GR page, then click Contact, and send GR a message regarding the spamming. Give them as much information as you can.

Mikaela I received this email yesterday and encountered all of the same problems you guys have had because of this. I've just reported this author, along with links the emails send you to and a link to this page in hopes that this harassment will stop.

UPDATE 2/18::
I got an email from Goodreads on February 13, 2018 saying:

Hi Mikaela,

Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention, though we sincerely apologize for the delayed response. Self-promotional messages can be considered spam and violate our Terms of Service. Given this, the account has been removed from the site.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Sincerely,
The Goodreads Team

Ameny Rjiba this also happened to me. Also his site looks sketchy, he's completely unprofessional

Kathleen Ingram I just got an email from him too this morning. I thought it sounded interesting, but then saw that his message didn't show up when I logged into Goodreads, which immediately raised a red flag. I looked up his book, and your question was the first thing I saw when I scrolled down to the reviews. Glad I didn't take it seriously.

Eilonwy I just got my second spam from this guy in 6 weeks (December 9 and today).

I don't even know why he's targeting me. The first one said "I see you love Orson Scott Card" (nope) and the second one said "I see you love thrillers" (nope again).

Also, both of my spams came to my personal address, which is marked in my GR settings as "Share with no one," so I'm not sure how he got hold of it, but the email was definitely associated with Goodreads.

I contacted Goodreads this morning and filed a complaint about this author, but his books are still listed here, so it doesn't seem like they're doing anything to stop him. Very disappointing.

Don Vaillancourt Wow, even the reviews on here read like spam.

Laura I got an email too--purported to be a message from Goodreads but there is no message from the author in my GR inbox. Sounds like phishing to me.

Bob He's just spammed me. I want to know how he got my e-mail address from GR in the first place

J.L. Neyhart I just got one of these emails too. I also reported it as he is violating the terms of service.

rose I also have been getting these spam emails from the author brett arquette
I'm not sure how he got my email address but it pisses me off that some author I don't know or care to read is sending me spam emails via goodreads - I have filed a complaint with goodreads and suggest anyone who gets a spam email or message from him or anyone self promoting their books complain to Goodreads ! Seems like he is just trying to get hits on his account and this is a tacky way to do it, I think he should be BANNED from Goodreads !!!!!
COMPLAIN TO GOODREADS ABOUT HIM https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/3...

YardBoy Some call it SPAM, I call it DIY or self-promotion and I'm OK with it.
My heart is not so cold or self-entitled to reject anyone asking for help.
I came to Goodreads to get synopses and reviews, not to judge how a book is marketed.

Rojen Salditos I took the offer the first time I got the Offer and it was a pleasurable read for Hail Storm.

Liz Just received one too with profile deleted.

Danita L These are the options that I used:

https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/3...

K He's still at it. My *13 yr old* just got one of his spam emails claiming "I saw that you liked reading thrillers every now and then."...uh, bullshit. She reads "Spirit Animals" books and most of the rest of her ratings are for PICTURE BOOKS. The user account must have been immediately deleted for this round of spam, too. I hope people keep reporting him.

Kaye I'm definitely late here and don't have time to read all the responses for answers, but can anyone help? I woke up to an email from a Brett offering me a free copy of this book. This is the first time it's happened for me. When I login to Goodreads there is nothing in my inbox. I go back to the email and click on the username, Goodreads says "Oops - we couldn't find that profile."

In the email he mentions reviews a few times, in the context of the book having many good reviews. There is nothing that says he is offering the book in exchange for a review and I would just assume that would be the case. I wanted to reply and find out.

I come to this page and see that the book is already free and there are a lot of people reporting spam. I'm not sure what to do. If he was offering it on an active account and it wasn't already a free book, I'd probably take the opportunity. Now I think it would be easy to pass. I'm not opposed to technothriller (as he called it), but if I can help it I prefer books with female protagonists and any other time I probably would've passed this without prior incentive.

Melanie Clarkson I just got the same offer via Goodreads messaging. I checked out the "look inside" feature on Amazon and browsed three pages, all of which had multiple typos which would make me put the thing down permanently if I could get past the inelegant prose and stereotypical characters. I'm befuddled by all the glowing reviews based on what I saw dipping in like that.

Javede And he is doing it again! How very annoying!

Ukrainian I also got spam from him today.
I don't see any way to report the author or user who send mail for spam.
I'm surprised Goodreads didn't suspend/delete this book considering that this continues for 3 months already.

Beth Shorten Wow! I got the email this morning and like others I love to help authors, but this was just a generic message. And to be judgmental, there were grammatical/punctuation errors in his email. (RED FLAG!!!) Generally I DO NOT read thrillers so this was very strange. I will definitely be contacting Goodreads about this.

IReadAllTheThings Just today I got an email from him. Profile deleted just like everyone else describes. I've reported him to Goodreads via their Terms of Service violation link that someone provided below. I hope they actually do something.

Featherfire I got the email this morning too, but something about it seemed a little off. When I came to GR to look for the message and make sure it was legit, it was mysteriously nowhere to be found. I DO read thrillers now and again, and a free book is a free book... but if you're proud of your work, if you want people to take you seriously and read your book, why would you delete your profile or the messages you send? It's shady and unprofessional business practice. I might have considered downloading, reading and reviewing the book (even though it doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy)... but after reading these complaints, I don't think I want to support someone who feels he has to resort to these kinds of tactics.

Alicia To be honest, as a member of several ARC teams, I enjoy reading free downloads for an honest review. But as many have indicated, Brett sent an email about an hour ago and then deleted his profile. I came here because I am wondering if by downloading the book I will get a virus or something along those lines.
Yes, I agree, it is a free book and we should be thankful, but his way of going about it is so shady. I immediately thought it was some sort of scam to get me to click on the link and get a virus. FYI- I have not clicked on the link because I am still on the fence about the virus possibility.

Hester I don't believe anyone who gave this book more than one star.

Glenn Blair I just had my first message from him, at one message I don't have a problem with it, I accepted the book and I will read and give an honest review when I am done (but it is currently in a queue of books) - if I keep getting more messages I won't be too pleased though.

Brad Agreed. I got an email from a deleted author profile as well. The way he is promoting his stuff is SLEEEEEEEAZY. I won't be reading for sure.

JM This question was asked 4 months ago but I received one of these SPAM emails from Brett Arquette just a few days ago. Looks like goodreads doesn't care about honoring the wishes of its users.

Uzma Parveen I got a message from him too. It's just like many other authors sending me their free books. I downloaded the ebook and the audiobook. I am willing to help out a new author if his work is good. I haven't read it yet, but I am planning to do that..

C How do I stop the emails??? I’ve unsubscribed from every thing and still get 5 emails a day!

Thomas Bell I decided that reporting this guy to goodreads, while a good thing, is not enough. Now I have reported him to the FTC in violation of the CAN-SPAM act, in which he can be fined up to $40,000 per email. Hope they find him guilty. :-)

Eveline Mann Wish I had read this before accepting to read the book for a review... could've saved me struggling through it.

Yursa Tahir i got this message too. as i am new to goodreads myself i did not know what to do but seeing all you people getting this message has confirmed it that this author is a stalker

Cara Albert I agree, contacting people through their private accounts is out of hand. If I continue to get these messages I will post my own complaint. But for now, I'll give the book a try, though I don't read these types of books either.

lam Yeah, this happens to me too!

E Just got a message through goodreads about it and immediately checked this out here. As soon as I clicked on the message in my inbox it disappeared as he'd deleted his account. Not sure how goodreads can completely prevent this from happening if he just keeps making new accounts?

Nemo I keep getting e-mails similar to this from this author only for the accounts to then be deleted as well, which is beyond an odd way to go about reeling fans in. Also, it claims that the download is free, but then following the link to a shady looking site it says it's only free to people on Kindle Unlimited - isn't the point of that to read whatever for a set amount every month anyway? And if you want a free download for anything other than that, it claims you need to give a load of personal details in order to receive one. There's self-promotion, which a lot of people do these days, and I respect those who either choose that road or have no other choice, but then there's this where everything about it feels off. Whether I would read this book or not, I won't even look at any books by this author under these circumstances.

Lgerd Ah, so it Was his email i got this morning!
honestly, i thought someone was using the poor author to scam people, since the profile was deleted and the message didn't appear in the inbox. I mean, i'd give it a try if the mail didn't look sketchy af, and the promotional site so poorly done.
Ended up reporting suspicious activity to Goodreads.

Apsalar Received a mail today asking for a review but the account it was sent from is already deleted really annoying when people ask for reviews

Paul Got spammed as well. Shame on goodreads for enabling terrible people like the author and his marketing team. The astroturfed reviews page is no surprise. For shame.

R Piiparinen Just got a message promoting the book/offering a free copy as well, but it was deleted before I could even read the full message. Not cool. Hoping it's not the author, but some shady employee at the publisher. Needless to say, I won't read the book now.

Lexi 💜 I literally got an email from him a few hours ago and noticed the profile miraculously deleted when I went into my messages... Spam for sure and such a poor tactic to try to draw people into reading their books...

David Alexandre Well i only got 1 email, and i actually was glad that someone wanted my opinion on his/hers book.

Also he did not ask for any positive reviwe or 5 stars in Amazon as some people say that got on their email.

Either way will read the book and leave my honest opinion.

Michael Richards I’ve just had one from Gabriel Audrina

Gabriel would like to be your friend on Goodreads!
hi Michael Richards, get the book 'The Rising Dead by Devan Sagliani' at http://3sd.me/JJJJWjre/,It's best ebooks website in 2018 all links are dead

Jeff Penver Wow I feel left out. I only got one invite to read the book and I'm quite enjoying it.

Gloria Jorquera The day that people start getting angry about having the opportunity to read books for FREE, is a very sad day. I was given the opportunity to read this book by the author himself and I was more than pleased.

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Operation Hail Storm

by Brett Arquette

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