Under Attack by AI

We’re all under attack. Easy access to Artificial Intelligence has fueled the proliferation of scams, including scams targeting authors like me. I’ve been inundated with pitch emails over the last few months urging me to pay for exposure to “a flood of book-obsessed readers.” They promise tons of social media posts, guidance on writing better book descriptions, placement on Goodreads lists, etcetera, etcetera. And yes, reader reviews that can be purchased for “the price of a cup of coffee.” An EXPENSIVE cup of coffee.

It's fascinating how these emails sound like the sender has actually read my book. My take – the senders are using AI to read ABOUT my book, quickly scanning the book description and reviews posted on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Then they plug in a stylistic tone for AI to write the email – many of them as snarky as a sitcom on steroids. Like this one: “Confession: I almost tried to build a flux capacitor just to fix the fact that Time Travel Swap doesn’t have many reviews. Then I realized… welding’s not my thing, so here I am, taking the simple route writing to you.” And there’s this one: “Only Amazon could take a time-travel rock romance complete with stolen identities, AI-pop in 2054, and a guitarist boyfriend worth fighting space-time for and then hide it like a bootleg cassette in someone’s attic. Which is insane, because Carly’s journey is the kind of story readers devour.” And here’s one of my favorites: “Are we letting Forest and Kathryn quietly fade into the endless scroll of Amazon’s “meh,” or do we unleash your story into the hands of readers who will actually feel it, obsess over it, and elevate your time-traveling heroines into the legendary status they deserve?” He got Forest Water’s name wrong. Otherwise his email sounded like he’d read The Going Back Portal and LOVED it!

I also recently received a very friendly email from an author named Holly Jackson. She’s a legit author of YA mysteries which I have not read. The email basically said she was reaching out to other authors so we could all support each other. Links were included to her Amazon author page, her Goodreads author page and her most recent book. It closed with this paragraph:

“I’d love to hear what pulled you into writing and what you’re working on now and if you’ve got a book link or author page, feel free to share so I can check it out. Always great to swap stories and cheer each other on in this wild world of words.”

Except there's no way in hell she’d be reaching out to me like that. I reported it as phishing and sent her a message through Instagram that her name and image were being used in a scam.

I’m far from the only one being targeted. I touched base with a couple of other authors who told me they’re getting similar emails. I also subscribe to an excellent newsletter for authors published by Jane Friedman. In a recent edition she writes:

“Recently I had a meeting with an author (I’ll call her Kay) who … wants better visibility and book sales. She … pulled out a reader email she’d saved. It was the type of email most authors love to receive: someone had carefully read her book, summarized the parts that most resonated, then asked open-ended, inquisitive questions about her journey.

"Kay held up this email as proof that if she could just get her book into the right channels, or in front of the right people, it would sell and change lives.

"I found the email incredibly tidy. And what felt really odd were the questions. I didn’t understand why an appreciative reader would ask questions that seemed most appropriate if you were writing a book report or an advertorial.

"Right then I searched for the sender’s name and immediately found a LinkedIn post from a professional editor warning that a fraudster was impersonating her and trying to scam authors out of money. I showed the post to Kay and told her my theory: someone was using AI to make it sound like they had carefully read the book.”

Jeez.

I share all this to give a heads up to the authors who subscribe to my newsletter, and as a general warning to all of us that we could easily fall for scams as they become ever more challenging to detect. Rule of thumb: don't click on a link if you're not sure who's sending it to you and don't reply to any old email. And NEVER send any money to a snarky shark claiming to be a book promoter!

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