If you don’t mind, here’s a bit of a deviation from my normal writing.
Readers often wonder about the writing life, and what authors do after a book is finished. I do a lot of promotion, as I care about getting the book into reader's hands. It would be nice to have help sometimes. Many writers must feel the same way, because there is an ongoing wave of scams seeking to capitalize on the innocent author who wants to meet with a book club or get some marketing help. Let me give you an insider's view of the smarmy messages I've been getting and my journey from feeling flattered to annoyed.
Few things in life should make a writer happier than receiving an adulatory email from a book club with a 4.9-rated experience. Or so I think I am supposed to think. Recently such an email bearing this information arrived in my inbox. The author was Sneha, who not only merits just a single name but also organizes the Berlin International Book Club, notable for a membership that tops 1,079 people. Truly cosmopolitan, the club embarks on literary journeys from around the globe, guided, of course, by the “strong ripple effect of discovery and conversation” of “passionate readers.”
Sneha had sought me out regarding my first book, A Naturalist’s Guide to Canyon Country (2000). A traditional field guide, the book has long gotten favorable reviews such as “all pages of the book have a slick feel and would probably handle outdoor use much better than most ordinary books.” As you might imagine, I had been rather thrilled to receive such high praise but now it seemed I had jumped to the big time, with interest from 4.9-rated-German bibliophiles.
With piercing, multi-syllabic insight, Sneha was sure that my book would help readers address questions such as: “How does a deep geological and naturalist framework strip away the static, commercialized veneer of iconic desert landscapes to reveal a living, fragile repository of ancient time?” Nothing was more central to my mind when I wrote my book, and I certainly hoped that an answer to a question such as this would be within the grasp of the Berlin book gang.
But I worried how such a discriminating group would react. Would they be concerned about the lack of narrative arc and dialogue or the descriptions of kinky sex rituals, such as female black widow spiders eating their post-coital mate?
Alas, the note from Sneha was a scam. If I had accepted her offer of sharing the wonders of my writing, all I’d have to do was cough up a nominal fee and A Naturalist’s Guide to Canyon Country would be on its way to fame and unimaginable sales. Suffice it to say, reader, I did not respond to Sneha.
In the months since she wrote, I have received dozens of similar solicitations, becoming more frequent with the recent publication of my newest book. Every one of the email writers flatters me and my prose and offers trenchant, sesquipedalian analysis focused directly on the book’s subject matter. With their repetitious paraphrasing of passages from the book, droll content analysis, and attention to useless details, it is clear that all were written by AI, though none of them had the grace to mention the quality of the paper in the book
Initially, the emails were like Sneha’s, noting a book club’s interest in my “brilliant book.” Next came marketers, who let me know they had unique ideas that would propel my book to the upper ranks of Amazon, followed by agents, who would jump start my career to new, unimaginable levels. Recently, the newest scammers feel that my book would be great topic for their podcast, radio, or TV show. What makes the b******t AI worse is that many of the emailers are masquerading as legitimate people who actually do have real shows. For example, one claimed to be Katie Campbell of KUOW, here in Seattle. Katie has heard from more than 40 people who received “her” invite, one of whom shelled out $250 before realizing the scam.
As a regional writer with a limited audience, I am surprised at how many of these solicitations I am getting. Do they really think I have the money to pony up for their services? Afterall, I am the type of writer who has gotten royalty statements with $1.52 in earnings, and that’s based on a year of sales! (I think my mom bought that one book.)
I may be trying to make light of these solicitations, but they are becoming a huge problem for authors, agents, publishers, and the real people who are being impersonated. As I told the real Katie Campbell when I spoke to her: “ For those of us, like yourself and me, who worked really hard to create something that we're really proud of, and to have it sort of thrown back at you with that purely syrupy, saccharine, sycophantic s**t is not really good.” In fact, these scams are horrible and offensive and yet another pernicious influence of AI. Have these people no shame?
October 27 - 7:00 PM - I’ll be back out on the road headed east to Leavenworth at the Wenatchee River Institute’s Red Barn. I will be in conversation with author and naturalist Ana Maria Spagna. Hope to see you there. RSVP link.
