Authors & Reviewers discussion

I was wondering if anyone else have been getting a lot of emails from people wanting to "endorse" or "connect with other authors"? Usually one is fine, but I've getting multiple within the past few days. They're typically just a paragraph or so, but don’t elaborate what company they're apart of etc.

E. wrote: "I was wondering if anyone else have been getting a lot of emails from people wanting to "endorse" or "connect with other authors"? Usually one is fine, but I've getting multiple within the past few..."

I haven't had those, but out of the blue last month I received a flattering email from someone called Carolyn Saundra about the first book I'd written.
The letter sounded great. Thrilled at her comments, I emailed her back. I mean, who doesn’t want their work to be noticed?
The first red flag appeared the next day, when she said, “And just to appreciate your faith and dedication, I’ll be happy to reward you with a Marketing Research Analysis (MRA) completely free.”
It was then that I started asking questions as she didn’t have a blog or web presence, just a gmail address.
After running her email through an AI checker, I found it was 100% AI and I terminated the conversation.
The old adage “It was too good to be true” applied.

Joanne wrote: "E. wrote: "I was wondering if anyone else have been getting a lot of emails from people wanting to "endorse" or "connect with other authors"? Usually one is fine, but I've getting multiple within t..."

Hi Joanne :)

Thank you for sharing- I've had some emails and messages of the same, " too good to be true" kind; you say its AI, wow! I mean who would actually want to send those messages, and what for? are they from a real person, I wonder? I doubt it was Alexa lol, she has an easier access to me
:)

Jasmine

Really interesting... which a i. checker did you use? 🌷

Dr. wrote: "Joanne wrote: "E. wrote: "I was wondering if anyone else have been getting a lot of emails from people wanting to "endorse" or "connect with other authors"? Usually one is fine, but I've getting mu..."

Hi Jasmine,
I think the scammer utilised AI to write the emails, and if we'd carried on the subsequent "book reviews" would also have been AI generated, but I never got that far.
After having a hunch it was AI I did some research.
I found an article called "Authors Beware, If you receive a flattering email about your book, it may be written by an AI" by Jonathan Emmett. His article had the link to the AI checker.
I don't know if I can post the link here, I'll try.
https://jonathanemmett.com/2025/07/au...

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Really interesting... which a i. checker did you use? 🌷"

Hi Liz,
Here's the link to the AI Checker, which is on Jonathan Emmett's article I've cited above.
https://copyleaks.com/ai-content-dete...

Ah, thank you guys for this advice; we all need to be careful!
However, what about genuine publishing professionals, real people who want to help us?

Please share if anyone had success with MAR ( market reach analysis), its all about refining keywords and categories on Amazon for your book. Is it effective? How much would you pay for it?

Thanks! :)

Jasmine

That’s a great point. I’ve also noticed more of those “too good to be true” emails lately — always good to stay cautious. Thanks for sharing this!

I’ve been following this thread about marketers, and I think there’s a reason why so many of them appear.
It’s not because authors are naive — it’s because most of us are desperate to be seen.

You spend months, maybe years, writing a book that carries a part of your soul, and then Amazon buries it under thousands of others. It’s like shouting into a storm.
And when no one hears you, someone appears offering “visibility” — even if it’s fake, even if it costs you what little hope you have left.

I’m not saying marketing is evil, but it’s sad that the system itself creates this market of despair.
Somewhere among all these buried titles, there might be the next Tolkien or Lewis — but no one will ever know, because Amazon’s algorithms don’t measure sincerity, only sales.

That’s why I understand why people turn to marketers — not because they want fame, but because they just want to be found.

Vasyl wrote: "I’ve been following this thread about marketers, and I think there’s a reason why so many of them appear.
It’s not because authors are naive — it’s because most of us are desperate to be seen.

You..."

Vasyl you are so right :)

Jasmine

Vasyl wrote: "I’ve been following this thread about marketers, and I think there’s a reason why so many of them appear.
It’s not because authors are naive — it’s because most of us are desperate to be seen.

You..."

Hi Vasyl,
You're right, Amazon serves itself, not authors. It's a sad state of affairs, it's like a monolithic machine built to hide us!
Cheers,
Jo

Getting a ton to "promote my book" I am not even an author lol I am just an ARC reviewer.

I'm suspicious if someone reaches out to me. If they're legitimate, they don't need to reach out to authors. Also, I'm getting lots of friend requests from famous authors that are fake accounts. So sad that there are so many dishonest people.

I just got a phone call from a "police officer" telling me I'd missed showing up for jury duty. I'm not sure what he was after, but I verified with the sheriff's office that people are getting these fake calls. At some point, I'm sure he would've asked for $.

I've noticed that, too. Only recently have I become active on Goodreads, and sure enough, I get lots of friend requests from 'bogus authors' who often cannot even write their emails well. I report them to the site's administrators. But what a waste of time it is to exchange messages with those scammers. I fell for one impersonating Jojo Moyes in the very beginning. My alarm bells finally sounded when that person denied having published a new novel in 2025, which I knew the real Jojo had done. In any case, toward the end of our email communication, she proposed to connect me with a marketer named Elizabeth, who would make my novels more visible to the world. I stopped it right then. I'm sure that it would cost a pretty penny to pay for Elizabeth's services. Haha.

Seeing how a lot of people here are getting the similar emails, regardless if they are an author or not, I'm starting to suspect they target people in Goodread groups like this one since they're typically full of new authors who are desperate to be seen in the book market. It's a sad reality that people feel the need to take advantage of those who are trying to make it big in the book world though :/

I'm getting people asking if they can beta read my book. I'm not an author, just a beta reader/book reviewer who posted a fanfiction i wrote on my tumblr for fun.

Joanne wrote: "Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Really interesting... which a i. checker did you use? 🌷"

Hi Liz,
Here's the link to the AI Checker, which is on Jonathan Emmett's article I've cited above.
https://copyleak..."

THANKS JOANNE- I SEE THE AI CHECKER IS ALSO PAY BY THE MONTH! $14 FOR AN INDIVIDUAL. I FEEL LIKE THESE DAYS EVERYONE IN EVERY DIRECTION IS TRYING TO GLEAM A BIT OF CASH OFF OUR SOULS! 🤦🏼‍♀️
JUST CURIOUS, HAS ANYONE TRIED ASKING AI TO CHECK FOR AI?? 😂🌷

People, we may use AI for light copy or line editing and syntax and grammar checking, but even for that, it is not reliable. A human is required to gauge whether the writing is cohesive and makes sense. Until AI becomes a person with its own mind, it cannot accomplish that. Moreover, books that are written by AI read as having been created by AI. The lack of human emotion and reasoning shows through the writing. Now, if the purpose is for the travel industry, investments, and banking, there is no escaping AI right now. Caveat emptor. Translation: 'Buyer beware.' :-)

Always report fake accounts to the site. But they just keep coming. So sad that this has become our reality. Dealing with AI and scammers.

It is annoying, D. I just got one of those emails today. "Your work has caught my attention," "Your voice has a real potential to reach thousands of readers." How can the person know without having read anything of mine? If the person actually quoted or referred to something specific that I wrote, it would have been a completely different email that I would have received, one that would have shown objectivity. Ambiguous praise denotes it as a scam.

D. wrote: "Always report fake accounts to the site. But they just keep coming. So sad that this has become our reality. Dealing with AI and scammers."

Agreed D.. I wish I could share a short video of my parrot dealing with phone scammers 😂 "who's dis?" "Whats your name?" I put it by her and it's a good chuckle how many ppl engage with her awhile b4 realizing!😉 Sometimes we have to try for the humor🌷

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Really interesting... which a i. checker did you use? 🌷"

Hi Liz,
Here's the link to the AI Checker, which is on Jonathan Emmett's article I've cited above.
h..."

Hi Liz,
I used the AI Checker for free, it only costs money if you're going to use it all the time.
I tested it both on the scammer's email and an email I know was written by a human. It correctly flagged the human made letter as genuine.
Good questiion where you asked, "HAS ANYONE TRIED ASKING AI TO CHECK FOR AI??"
The AI Checker does use AI to check for AI. It makes sense.
From their site, they say, "when a Large Language Model writes a sentence, it uses all its pre-training data to create a response or an output based on statistical modeling. AI detectors can recognize this pattern and flag certain content as AI-generated because it significantly differs from the way humans write."
So they're saying an AI knows the way an AI will express itself.
I will use AI in a case like this, it's a disruptive technology we're going to have to learn to live with, or at least deal with.

So true!! An a.i. can recognize a.i. hmmm kinda like you can't con a con?? Just kidding!🤷🏼‍♀️
But thanks for letting me know it was free for you☺️. AND that you tested it both ways. I put it in my bookmarks, hoping not to use it, but you're right.. we all will be dealing with it, so at least this is a good resource.
Liz🌷

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "So true!! An a.i. can recognize a.i. hmmm kinda like you can't con a con?? Just kidding!🤷🏼‍♀️
But thanks for letting me know it was free for you☺️. AND that you tested it both ways. I put it in my ..."

I am glad to help and pray you'll never have to resort to it!

I have been haunted these two months by fake book marketing professionals galore with the same photograph but different names & fake or bogus popular authors of the day like Neil Gaiman, Veronica Roth, Colleen Hoover & their ilk.

At first they were only rating my shorts & books with 5 stars, but now they or AI or whatever have even learnt to type reviews. They are bullying the vulnerable elderly & young author-teenagers below the age of 18.

I just asked GR what to do about it but they simply said report them as spam & then cut off the thread for my conversation. But reporting them will not help, there are just too many of them. What is to be done, the vulnerable & gullible are at risk, especially young teenage authors? Let me know. Thank you. :)

Unfortunately, Fiza, it's part of natural selection. We do what we may to protect a few but cannot save the world.

You'd think GR could get a handle on this. These fake accounts are out of control. I just reported another one to GR. I don't know what these scammers get out of it.