As authors, we deal with things every day. Some are amazing and lift our spirits, and some are down right annoying. There’s a new level of annoyance as an author, and it’s author email spam.

Picture this: you’re going about your day and your phone pings with a notification. It’s an email from Susan Miffler, and she is gushing about your new book. I loved it, it was inspiring, the characters, the plot, and more. The obviously written by AI email is all wrapped up with a sales pitch for Susan’s marketing business. Where is Susan’s website? Missing. Client reviews? Don’t exist.

I’m not immune to these annoying emails. In fact, I get them every few days. One of them even stated “I’m not here to sell you anything.” Then why are you in my inbox, Josh???

Most recently I received one of these emails, and the sender thought insulting me was the right way to go. Nothing says hire me like telling me I can’t market my books properly, and my cover design business is why I’m not successful as an author. This person scoured my social media for examples of why I was stuck in obscurity, examples which I may point out were all from 4-6 years ago. Not only that, this person didn’t bother to fact check what ChatGPT spit out for their pitch, and touted an inaccurate follower count for the entire email.

I’m not sure who told people that being rude was a good sales pitch, but it’s not, full stop. I will not hire anyone who does not believe in me, even if these emails were legitimate, which they aren’t. Cold emails are no way to conduct a business, but if that’s the only way you can get people interested, at least have the decency to be polite.

For anyone who looks at me from the surface might see someone who has been at this for almost 9 years with currently 68 published titles without much to show for it, but I didn’t get to this point in my life by listening to people who doubt me. You’re not seeing the effort behind the scenes on my personal FB that isn’t open to the public. The friendships I’ve created along the way. And the journey of being a writer that began 25 years ago.

So sure, doubt me. Tell me I’m horrible at this. I don’t care.

This is what I love, and I don’t do it for fame or money. And I’m damn proud of myself.

P.S. My clients at Pixie Covers are amazing, and I love seeing my work on your beautiful books