THIS IS A SCAM ALERT!!!
I was almost taken in by a scam the other day—something I never thought would happen to me, because I am fairly paranoid when it comes to online interactions. If you so much as DM “hello” to me, I am going to get suspicious.
Over the years, I have had to deal with my fair share of scammers. My most popular post to date, in fact, involves Olympia Publishers and how they tried to get me to pay to publish my book. More recently, I was being inundated by AI-written emails praising my work and offering to help me get reviews by “tipping” reviewers at $10 a pop. I have helped dozens, possibly hundreds, of struggling writers avoid these shenanigans, and so I figured I could sniff a snake oil salesman from a mile away. Not so!!!
Apparently, in addition to the flood of AI-written trash ruining storytelling, we now have to deal with AI-powered scammers impersonating agents and publishers. Here’s what happened to me: I was contacted by someone named Sharona Williams, who claimed to represent Magabala Books. Williams was interested in optioning The Princess of Aenya, and her email sounded well-informed and professional. I even checked her website to make certain the publisher was legit. What I failed to do, however, was double-check that anyone named Sharona was employed by said company.
Sharona directed me to an agent named Alyssa Ruebens, who, as far as I can tell, is a legitimate agent working in New York City. Rueben’s agency, fact, represented SenLinYu’s Alchemised, a popular Harry Potter fanfic turned original novel, and I figured that the same agency would make a great fit for the Aenya Series. Mistake #2 was querying Alyssa using the email Williams gave me, instead of the email listed on her website. After weeks of back-and-forth correspondence with an agent who sounded sincere and well-informed, I realized I was actually talking to an imposter. This became obvious after “Alyssa” rejected my book but suggested I reach out to Mike Bennet, a “query letter specialist” who could help me fix my query, so long as I paid him $200.
I am embarrassed to have allowed myself to be taken on such a long ride. But I guess I simply could not imagine the depths some scammers will go to in order to steal your money. Before AI, you could easily spot these conmen by their lack of proper grammar. Now, they rely on ChatGPT to do the writing and, more egregiously, to convincingly play the part of an agent. I imagine some guy in the Philippines running my query and manuscript through an AI system and asking it to critique the work the way a literary agent would.
While this might sound scary, it’s still fairly easy to protect yourself from scams. We have only to do our due diligence, and if you’re serious about the craft, you already have what it takes to sort the truth from the lies. If you receive an email from someone claiming to be an agent or publisher, visit their website, look up their name, and check that they have an actual social media presence. Anyone working in the publishing industry should exist online! (Mike Bennet did not). Secondly, DO NOT hit ‘reply’ to unsolicited emails. Look them up yourself and continue your correspondence via the business email listed on their website. If all else fails, request a phone conversation or Zoom meeting.
Becoming a successful writer these days is more challenging than ever, but if Dostoevsky could write his book on toilet paper while serving time in prison, we can overcome AI. With a bit of forethought, we can guard our wallets from scammers and protect the most precious human invention in history: storytelling, from those who would exploit it.
The Art of Storytelling 
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