Spam, Scams, and Promoting Your Book
Bombarded with Spam?
If you’re a new author, you’re likely bombarded with people wanting to edit and promote your book. There are a few thing you have to remember:
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- If they were any good, they wouldn’t need to do cold calls.
- Most of these are scams.
Rarely, do you find someone who’s legit, but it does happen.
I found my first book cover designer in a closed group, he made good comments on my sample cover. Being a new designer, he asked if he could design a new cover and I could pick a price later. He did a great job, and I hired him to do my next three covers, at an increasing cost, until I couldn’t afford him anymore. However, I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten this far without him.
I tried several editors until I found one in another closed local group that said she was starting a new business, so I asked her if she could help me, and she’s been the best!
My current book cover designer I found on Fiverr. Her work was okay when we first met, but she has become a great 3D designer since.
So, it sounds like finding someone new in the industry to grow with you is the answer, right? Sometimes.
Lately, I asked for beta readers for my latest book. Almost everyone gave me something like 100 pages of minor grammar changes. At first I thought this was great, but I soon realized that the changes were tedious and my book no longer sounded like me. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that they fed my story into an AI, and then asked me for money and/or a good review on their Fiverr page. Basically, it’s another scam. While about 1% of what they sent me was useful, I could get the same AI report for free, and have it customized to what I need.
What to watch out for:
Most people who contact me say something like: “I’d love to hear about your writing path, what inspired you and what keeps you motivated.” It’s such a good line, isn’t it? Doesn’t it make you feel like they care about you and your book? Don’t fall for it.
Now, they make themselves sound like a fellow author: “I’ve found that connecting with other writers makes the journey far more rewarding.” They even may give you a link to the real author’s website or Amazon page. Don’t fall for it.
Here’s another red flag: “what’s the one thing holding it back right now?”
So, where can you find good help?
As I mentioned before, I found my cover artist on Fiverr, but Reedsy and Upwork are also good options. These platforms offer some protection that cold-call offers don’t – you can see portfolios, read verified reviews from actual clients, and the payment systems offer dispute resolution if something goes wrong.
But there is a trick to it. Don’t just look at the star rating, but look at how many people gave that rating. A 5 star rating from one person is useless, it’s probably a friend. But a 4 star rating from 10 people is a good place to start.
What if you don’t have money?
Whether you have money or not, joining a mailing list promo is a good place to start. You team up with similar authors, you share their books on your list, and they share your books on theirs.
If you don’t have any subscribers yet, your social media, friends, and family works well enough to get you started, just get them to click on the link. Some promo’s have a minimum list requirement but there are still promos that will take you, and once you get a few your list will probably grow quickly.
These promo’s works best if you have a reader magnet, a short story that you can give away. Even posting a link to your reader magnet on your social media can get your list started.
If you don’t have a reader magnet there is still sales promos.
Check out my post on Bookfunnel vs StoryOrigin
Author and Reader Groups
Facebook has many Author and Reader Groups that allow you to advertise your book to readers, but you have to be careful, many of them are full of spammers and scammers.
I admin a couple of such groups, and I try to keep the bad guys out. I don’t get anything out of it other than wasting a few hours a day on the job, but I think it’s important. I (and other admins) do our best, but if someone offers you services you didn’t request, or you’ve been scammed, please let me or the other admins know and we will ban them. Just remember, you are saving others from a bad experience.
My two groups are: ARC (Author and Readers Club), and Historical Fiction.
ARC also stands for Advance Review Copy, and there are quite a lot of those in the group. The concept is that you give a free copy of the book, preferably before it is released, and the reader then gives an honest review. There are scammers out there who say that they will write you a good review, for a price. Don’t fall for it. If Amazon finds out they could remove your book or ban you.
While I’m on the topic of protecting yourself, it’s a good idea to have your own website and not just rely on social media. Sometimes people get banned from platforms – whether fairly or not – and if this happens your followers won’t know how to find you.
Your website is the one place online that you truly control, where readers can always find your books, sign up for your mailing list, and stay connected with you no matter what happens on social media.
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