I’ve been blogging about scams and so have other writers. It’s amazing. They promise they’ll help a writer with key words that will bring more sales; promise to provide categories that will give the book more exposure; pretend to be a well-known writer asking for a favor; and say they’re an agent who will get the writer’s book into lots and lots of book clubs. With all of the warnings out about these scams, I’m surprised when I hear a writer either has fallen for one or is about to. But that said, I almost fell for one earlier this year. I know I’m not good at marketing, so being offered help in getting my books visible to larger audiences sounded great. I didn’t wake up to what was happening until it came time to pay and my wonderful “publicity assistant “wanted to be paid in foreign currency, even though she said she worked for an American company.

I lucked out and cancelled before paying, but just this week, while on one of the social media sites, I saw a post from a writer who was about to jump into a scam. He was excited to tell everyone that he’d been approached by a Hollywood agent who wanted to turn one of his books into a movie. The author asked his followers if anyone knew of a literary agent he could contact to represent him.

He had around 60 comments, a few congratulating him but most warning him to be VERY careful. First off, the author had self-published 6 novels. The “Hollywood agent” hadn’t named which book they wanted to make into a movie, just told the writer he liked his writing. Several commentors told him to get a literary lawyer, not a literary agent and not to sign any contract until he did have a lawyer look it over. The writer said he’d checked the website that the agent said she worked for and had met with her (I’m assuming on the phone or Zoom) and the agent looked like her website picture. Nowadays, with AI able to imitate a person so well, you really can’t trust any contact that’s not person to person. The writer didn’t say if he’d directly contacted the agency to see if  that particular agent had actually contacted him. (In my case, when I contacted the agency that my “person” said she worked for, they told me they didn’t have anyone employed by that name and didn’t do that kind of work.)

I have no idea what the above writer finally did. I do know, a writer in a writing group I belonged to in Florida had a similar offer several years ago. As expected, money from the writer was requested for “Help promoting the book to movie studios.”

So, once again, I’m warning you. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.