By: Sarah El-Chaar

There’s something strange happening in the book world. Authors are receiving seemingly promising offers to publish or promote their novels. Some contain such detailed compliments specifically tailored to the author’s work. The only flag that warrants suspicion is when the offer requires a deposit or fee upfront for virtually no reason. Come to find out, it was an AI-generated email. 

Some authors make the innocent mistake of replying to that first scam email, not knowing this would set off a number of subsequent scam offers. These fake propositions have been so numerous that Nimbus Publishing, a Halifax publishing company, sent a newsletter warning authors.

“These emails often have to do with opportunities such as international book clubs, film deals, promotions consulting, or getting books into lists and publications that would purportedly reach large audiences,” Nimbus Publishing wrote.

The newsletter goes on to list a few questions for authors to consider when receiving opportunities that seem too good to pass up: Do they recognize the email address it was sent from? Are they being asked to provide personal information, a subscription, or payment for services? Does the opportunity actually seem like a good fit for their work? And does the offer say anything unique about their work?

Delores V. Mullings, author of Black Girl in the Ring, has gotten multiple scam offers after replying to that first tempting email. The email address appeared to belong to a reputable and known company, until Mullings spotted the subtle letter switch in the name. After she started asking questions, she was told she would have to pay £170 to secure her spot. Knowing this company was not based in the UK, Mullings never responded. 

What surprised her the most was how professional and personalized the emails appeared. In another message, a sender praised her book specifically, claiming that the issue wasn’t the quality of her work, but how it was being marketed. The sender stated that this was a problem they knew how to solve, and highlighted exactly how they could solve it. 

“It’s really scary because if you don’t pay attention, you can really get dragged in,” said Mullings.

“Scamming is not new,” she added. “This is just another level.” Mullings said she is completely disgusted with “humans who choose to do things like that.”

And she’s not the only one. 

Tiffany Morris, a Mi’kmaw author, received a long marketing email praising her poetry. The message said “your poems found me in the middle of a season where everything felt too heavy to carry alone.” It then goes on to point out the book’s performance and how it can help, saying “the gap isn’t quality; it’s positioning in a market that has changed significantly. Three specific moves would shift this.” 

It even mentions the Mi’kmaq language used in the book, saying “the mi’kmaq language pulsing through your lines and restorative wisdom in the face of doom are still with me. That’s the rarest thing a book can do.”

Morris said this reference was especially upsetting.

“It was upsetting to have the AI spam mention Mi’kmaq language specifically, because my journey of Mi’kmaw language reclamation is shared in the spirit of restoration of culture and making room for its presence in a genre space. The language is millennia old and is not for mass consumption by billionaire spam machines or the slop they generate.”

Carol Bruneau, a Canadian author, has lost count of how many AI-generated spam emails she receives, sometimes getting several a day. This began after she was caught off guard by an offer that seemed exciting and legitimate: an opportunity to speak to a book club, after the sender wrote a thoughtful and in-depth review of one of her novels. 

She was asked to provide a list of questions for readers, along with her own responses. Bruneau spent a few hours working on them and asked whether she would be compensated for her time. However, the sender responded by sending a quote for their fees in organizing the book club. That was when she realized it was a scam. 

“I was mad at myself for getting duped into wasting a couple of hours of my time giving them what they’d asked for,” said Bruneau.

Since then, the offers have only become “more and more sophisticated, and seemingly knowledgeable — too knowledgeable” about her specific books and her body of work. 

“The senders do a scary good job of appealing to a writer’s vulnerability/urge to have her work widely read,” she added.

Now, Bruneau can easily spot an AI-generated offer. She said the messages are “far too thorough for a human with a life to write, and the pitch itself is always far too good to be true.”

Unfortunately, authors now have to be skeptical and suspicious of any offers that come their way. Bruneau said a strategy should be developed to expose scammers on a regular basis. Yet, she fears that wouldn’t be enough, as scammers are “endlessly inventive.”

Sue Murtagh, author of We’re Not Rich, said these AI-generated emails tend to be formulaic, combining “flattery and marketing jargon with a mixture of phrases from cover blurbs and reviews.”

She said scam attempts are “a nasty reality of the online world, and we all need to be vigilant.”

At the end of the day, AI isn’t sending those emails by itself. Real people are behind these messages, choosing to use AI to further manipulate authors for monetary gain. It is those people who should be held accountable for taking advantage of this tool in order to gain authors’ trust.

The Writers’ Union of Canada republished a statement from the Australian Society of Authors, saying, “It’s an upsetting reality that there are those who wish to exploit the passion of authors, and capitalize on the excitement that comes with being offered a chance to get published.”