Writer Beware

Latest Posts

Production Companies, Literary Agents, Foreign Languages: AI-Driven Scams Continue to Morph

Header image: multicolored, backlit letters AI repeating diabonally on a yellow background (Credit: Steve Johnson / Unsplash.com)

AUG 28, 2026August 28, 202626 COMMENTS

When I first began reporting on the aggressive AI-driven email scams that have been plaguing the Inboxes of authors everywhere for well over a year now, they were limited to marketing scams offering supposedly expert "visibility" for writers and their books.

In the year-plus since then, the scams have adapted and expanded in response to writers' reactions and increasingly widespread reporting and discussion. In addition to marketing offers, they now include book club and review scams and a wide variety of impersonation scams, where the goal of initial contact is to steer writers through one or more referrals into paid editing or marketing arrangements. They've impersonated well-known writers, literary agents, editors at publishing houses, book festivals (with fake invites), and radio stations and hosts (with fake interview requests).

The one thing the scammers haven't changed or adapted is the set of markers that have characterized the scams from the start: hyper-personalization coupled with lavish praise (thanks to generative AI) that makes it seem the sender has actual knowledge of the writer's book; the almost universal use of Gmail addresses; banking/payment information that traces to scammers overseas; and extreme aggressiveness that paradoxically undercuts effectiveness (when you're getting multiple flattering yet suspiciously similar solicitations every day, they start to seen a tad inauthentic). It's a business built on volume, so only a small fraction of writers need to be fooled in order for the fraudsters to make money.

GUEST POSTS

Guest Post: A Narrow Escape From an Impersonation Scam

Header Image: funny fake face disguise: black glasses, nose, and mouth on bright yellow background (Credit: nito / Shutterstock.com)

AUG 14, 2026August 14, 202640 COMMENTS

In the early days of Writer Beware--back in the pre-digital era--scammers waited for writers to come to them.

Sure, they advertised (Writer's Digest used to have a Classified section that was full of scam ads; one notorious scam agency placed ads in their local Pennysaver). They had websites. And thanks to often lax oversight, they sometimes wound up in reputable market guides (cough *Literary Market Place* cough). But generally speaking, if you were scammed it was because you approached the scammer, not the other way around. (I don't mean to suggest that being scammed was the writers' fault; it was just the way things worked at the time.)

That's no longer the case. Starting in the mid-twentyteens with the first wave of scams from overseas, direct solicitation became one of scammers' main victim-recruiting techniques (the other: ads on Facebook). And increasingly, these solicitations involved impersonation--of literary agents, publishers, editors, film production companies, and more--to grab writers' attention and trick them into parting with large amounts of cash.

LITERARY AGENTS AND AGENCIES

The AALA Makes Significant Updates to Its Canon of Ethics

JUL 31, 2026August 17, 202616 COMMENTS

For the second time in four years, the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) has updated its Canon of Ethics.

The last time, in 2022, the major changes related to packaging and producer fees for clients' TV and film deals (with members prohibited from participating), and to the growing practice of agents doubling as paid editors. Where the old Canon included a blanket prohibition on paid editing, the update created guidelines designed to allow the practice but head off the more common abuses. Member agents were prohibited from making editing a condition of representation, and required to offer paid editing services only to writers who approached them for that specific purpose (i.e., no bait-and-switch conversion of prospective represntation clients to editing clients). And if they subsequently offered the editing client representation, they had to reimburse all editing fees.

The current update is more sweeping. Most of the revisions are focused on the rapidly-growing trend of agents offering paid services other than editing to clients and non-clients, and, the AALA explains in its discussion of the changes, are intended to establish guardrails to prevent these new practices from being abused, while not constraining member agents' ability to run their businesses and make a living.

Anthropic Settlement Update: Final Settlement Approved

JUL 23, 2026August 20, 202620 COMMENTS

On Tuesday, Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted final approval to the historic class action settlement in the Bartz v Anthropic copyright infringement lawsuit.

At $1.5 billion, it's the largest recovery ever in a copyright infringement suit, penalizing Anthropic for downloading, storing, and copying pirated datasets consisting of millions of illegally uploaded books in order to use them for AI training. (If you need a refresher, my past blog posts include a general overview of the settlement and the issues surrounding it and an April update.)

Judge Martínez-Olguín's ruling can be seen here.

Anthropic Settlement Update: The Opt-Outs Strike Back

JUL 17, 2026August 18, 20268 COMMENTS

We're currently waiting for Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin to issue final approval of the historic settlement in the Bartz v, Anthropic copyright infringement lawsuit. (If you need a refresher, my past blog posts include a general overview of the settlement and an April update.)

One of the interesting outcomes--so far--has been that while participation by class members has been extraordinarily robust (91.3%, with claims filed for 440,490 of the 482,460 works on the elgible works list), the number of class members who opted out has been quite small--just 350, according to a motion for final approval filed by plaintiffs in March (the opt-out deadline was February 9).

Opting out preserved those individuals' right to sue Anthropic on their own. And indeed, in recent months, several lawsuits have been filed, representing approximately a third of the writers who opted out. Each suit is interesting in its own way.

AI SCAMS

The First Clue to an Email Scam May Be the Address

Header image: partial image of an iPhone screen showing the email symbol, a white envelope on a blue button (Credit: Brett Jordan / Unsplash.com)

JUN 30, 2026August 24, 202676 COMMENTS

I doubt that there will be anyone reading this article who hasn't been targeted by a writing scam. That's how prevalent and aggressive they are these days.

Fraudsters who prey on writers employ a variety of methods to recruit clients: advertising (especially on Facebook, which is awash in ads for scam publishing service providers), sponsored links on Google (plug "find a publisher" into Google, and the top results will be for scam or vanity publishers), social media activity (watch out for seemingly friendly DM contacts)--and, most often, direct solicitation via email and phone calls purporting to offer publishing or agenting or film adaptation services...and, increasingly, impersonating companies and professionals in those fields.

Real, reputable literary agents and publishers and film production people, by contrast, rarely reach out to writers directly. But while that's true 99% of the time, you can't say it never happens. And for writerly activities like conferences, or interview or lecture invites, direct contact is common.