Beware Book Scams

One thing that has changed in publishing over the last few years is the dramatic increase in amount of deceptive and/or down right fraudulent activities targeting writers. It used to be the only thing you had to worry about were vanity presses convincing you to give them several thousands of dollars for the privilege of publishing your book. But now, you have to worry about people pretending to be agents, publishers, book reviewers, book club hosts...the list goes on. Here are some general rules of thumb to help avoid these scams.

1. The most common and easy to fall into is the book reviewer trap. This one isn't technically a scam. Most of them will actually provide a book review and post it to their channel, Goodreads and Amazon, and usually for a low fee of around $50. Here's the problem. They are almost always bot farms, accounts that have added hundreds of others but have little or no engagement with followers. They will post the review, but almost no one will see it. They will even go as far as to have hundreds of likes and comments posted on their post, but all of these will be bot generated. And that Amazon review? Forget it. Even if they do post it there, Amazon will most likely identify it as a bot account and delete it.
2. Second is the book club scam. This usually comes in the form of an email or DM saying that they are interested in having your book featured in their book club. Again, the engagement will be nonexistent and the "nominal fee" they charge will be a waste of money.
3. Far more concerning are the true scams. People who will find an editor or agent's name and pretend to be them, telling you they are interested in your book. Honestly, it's very rare that an agent or publisher will reach out to you about your self-published book. It does happen, so if you get one of these, ask to meet on zoom or contact them through their company's website.

Bottom line, caution is the key. Question, research and verify if you are contacted by anyone regarding your book.