Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

I decided to take a week off from tech as best I could.

I came back to over 300 email offers from Gmail accounts. Everything from the short “Dear Author” to elaborate and detailed emails about my last book.

I guess I should shout to the world, once again, that I don’t answer emails from Gmail accounts.

I may be missing that “most important opportunity”, but I think that will come via a business or personal email account.

Time to block all Gmail.

If you block gmail, a pretty big chunk of your friends will not be able to email you.

Robert, I get them all day every day! It's monotonous now! I don't block Gmail or Hotmail but I block the individual letters. These scammers are a real pain in my arse!!!!!

Mubyhin Digital wrote, ... using Gmail for outreach ...

Whom do you think he is trying to block?
Before you answer, first take a quick look in the mirror.
Ya, that's a hint.

Clearly you don't take hints.  But here's a classic:

        Mene.
        Mene.
        Tekel.
        Upharshin.

The remaining scammers will feast
upon the bones of your outreach.

Mubyhin wrote: "Ok!"

You're missing the point. These are not personal appeals from caring book lovers. They are AI-generated messages from bots that scrape Amazon or Goodreads for authors. I get several per day. They're not dangerous as long as we don't respond.

Mubyhin Digital wrote, ... sharing my opinion based on my own experience ... there's no need to assume I'm a scammer or make personal attacks.

Not I.
I am not sharing my opinion.
I am giving you fair warning that your ticket is about to expire.
Make other plans, if you're smart.
Ignore the warning to your cost.

Correct – it's no mere assumption.
There's ample evidence.
No need to assume anything.

This is no attack, certainly not a personal attack.
This is an attempt to raise awareness of the GR community
including the scammer community:

        Bright sunlight kills germs.
        Smug silence lets them fester.

The light is getting a little bit brighter these days . . .

Robert Firlotte wrote, I decided to take a week off from tech ..."

Robert!  You trouble-maker!
Do you see what you've stirred up?

And long overdue.  Welcome back to the most
comical conflict we're ever likely to engage in.
We counter nuisance with nuisance –
like biting a mosquito for revenge.
Incredibly unsatisfying.

But that's just the surface.  Inside, intel begins to flow.
The rules are changing, as of course they always must,
but in less predictable ways.

On with the show.

I am fascinated by the Gmail's I get that are obviously AI-generated, but are filled with incredibly detailed accounts of my book. Then, of course, the email asks me to respond and discuss ways my book can be optimized for greater readership.
Where do they get the details? Not from the blurb at the back of the book.
Does Amazon sell "Cole's Notes" of books to generate more money without supplying a residual cheque to the author?
How else do these emails get details that can't be found anywhere else but in the book?
You may now think, "Maybe they are real".
They aren't. Overuse of the same phrase and AI-speak throughout the text is more than obvious.
Use of a name followed by a number then the @ and Gmail is the typical format of the sender.
If you own a company, you would use your company email and not a Gmail account.
Funny thing is that these emails started as soon as I made a profile on this site.

Robert Firlotte wrote, How else do these emails get details
that can't be found anywhere else but in the book?

Google.

They look up title and author and get links to all the reviews,
including ones you were never aware of.

When an email seems unusually specific, what’s the first detail you check to tell real reading from scraped public material?