Guest Post: The Book Marketing Scam That Went the Extra Mile

In the super-crowded world of publishing, authors must fight for readership and exposure. That makes marketing and promotion a top concern–which makes for fertile ground for scammers.

PR scams are among the most common of the many solicitation scams that target writers. Often appearing to be reasonably priced, they promise services like social media posts, reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, blog posts and interviews, and similar low-cost-to-provide, low effort methods that sound impressive but in reality are next to useless for book promotion–even if the services are delivered, which often is not the case.

At best, this kind of “marketing” is a waste of money. At worst, the scammer will simply take the money and run…like the scammer that’s the subject of today’s guest blog post from author Alina Adams. This scammer went the extra mile to cook up an appearance of authenticity…but as you’ll see, Alina wasn’t fooled.

Note: There are several names associated with this scam. Be sure to read the postscript and the updates.

The Book Marketing Scam That Went the Extra Mile

by Alina Adams

Whether traditionally published by one of the Big 5, a small press, or self-published, promoting your book is the most important part of the writing process. As someone who’s done all three, I knew that as well as anyone. And as a regular reader of Writer Beware, I knew that there were plenty of people out there delighted to prey on the dreams of aspiring authors and con them out of their money without providing anything of value.

Like most writers, I get several solicitations a week with tantalizing offers like: I am a Digital marketer and SEO Expart [sic]. I can promote your Amazon book. I will promote your book on all social media. Do you want to discuss about work?

Usually, all I need to do is ask for the contact info of previous, satisfied customers to receive the stock answer: We would like to tell you that we cannot share our clients’ details as this is against our policy. We would like to tell you that we have been doing this for many years. We have so many clients who regularly avail our packages. But we assure you that our team will work to the best of their ability so you can trust us for once.

When they realize I won’t budge from that one requirement, they leave me alone.

At first, Spring Book Reviewers Club seemed like it would follow the same pattern. They contacted me via Direct Message on Instagram (their handle: @srbofficial1) with this tantalizing, if ungrammatical, offer:

Hey. We’re providing a bunch of services main being guaranteed sales for books, posting reviews on various platforms and publishing articles and blogs on top global magazines. Interested to know more?

When I first asked for references, I heard back:

We work with commission based agencies across the globe having a chain network of hundred thousands of readers. They broadcast your book and its description in their networking chain and thus we provide a guaranteed seller/buyer for your books. Our reviews are from best selling authors so they increase the click to buy ratio. The blogs and articles in top global magazines increase the sales as they’ve a readers database of more than 20 million across the globe. We’re verified on all distributor sites like amazon, B&N etc. as a marketer. The books that are submitted through us are added in the algorithms to the new readers that visit those sites. So it’s like an AI base algorithm in which a certain book is added in suggestion of every reader who searches for books on those sites.

But when I refused to proceed any further without someone to personally vouch for them, they reluctantly sent this:

Our recent project with @martha_teichner. He [sic] got more than 3500 sales through us in three weeks and still counting.

I reached out via the @martha_teichner IG address provided, and instantly heard back:

“Martha” added:

I was a bit nervous initially but I had an inner feel or gut that this would work and it worked. I invested and got the returns. Somewhere sometime we’ve to bear the risk. They published articles for me in The NY Times. They have some great connections and offered me the services. Who doesn’t want to get their book featured in those publications?

My research did turn up a NYT feature article on Martha. But when I reached out to the author who wrote it, she told me: “I’ve never even heard of [them]. You’re absolutely right — coverage in the Times cannot be bought, and everything must be approved by an editor.”

When confronted with this fact, my friendly neighborhood scam artist got a little testy:

We directly worked with Martha T. You should confirm from her. Yes we sent the order for an article for Martha to be published in that.

Likely sensing that I was wriggling off the hook, they sent me the contact info of another author they claim to have worked with, Susanna Clarke. She’s even featured on their website, with a testimonial that reads like it was created by a self-published author rather than a writer with a Big 5 publisher whose debut novel sold 4 million copies:

“Susanna” (fake IG address: @susannaclarke) assured me that:

They’d initially offered me a choice of three different promotion packages, one for $175, one for $350, and one for $499. But when I asked to see the contract for the $499 package, they explained that no, it wasn’t either/or, it was all of them, for a total of $1024.

In the meantime, the contract they sent me contained no identifying information about the signatory, including company name, address, or contact information beyond the name “Joan Wilson” (“Joan” being possibly another of SRB’s many typos, since the digital signature looks like “John”) and was in a format where the text could be edited after the fact.

When I asked about that, I was reassured:

We’re not a company. We’re a group of freelancing authors and editors working for various magazines and newspapers. We’re working as an intermediary and the agreement is signed by our marketing team CEO. He [sic?] is Chief Editorial Officer.

For literally two weeks, they reached out several times a day, hammering me about the value of their service. They insisted that this was a risk-free deal, since I would be paying via Venmo (fun fact: The contract they sent didn’t offer Venmo as a payment option), and could always get my money back by disputing the charge.

Finally, I offered to invest in the very lowest priced package: $175.

Considering the man-hours they’d put into the back and forth with me, I could not imagine how this could possibly be profitable for them.

They told me to go ahead and sign the contract they’d sent me. I did not sign the contract. But I did Venmo $175 to the address they provided. I was curious to see what happened next. (And if the IRS is reading this, yes, it was a legitimate business expense. It was research.)

I did not expect to sell thousands of copies of my book (they assured me the topic didn’t matter; they were so good they could sell anything at any time). I did not expect to receive thousands of positive reviews. But I did expect some token something on their part.

Instead what I got was radio silence.

Followed by their IG account disappearing. Followed by their Venmo handle disappearing. Followed by their website disappearing.

This blew my mind.

Had the entire fake social media presence been set up to scam ONE PERSON? Me? How inefficient is that? What is the revenue model in that?

The fake Martha Teichner and Susanna Clarke IG accounts are still up. Though, strangely, they aren’t getting back to me now with the same enthusiasm as when I asked for referrals. I reached out to both authors’ publishers to let them know they were being impersonated.

And I did file a dispute with Venmo, who ruled in my favor and refunded my money. But because the account I’d sent it to disappeared, I assume the money came from Venmo directly. So, in sum, the scammers did get away with it.

For what by my estimation was a good 20+ hours of work (for a detailed transcript of our entire interaction, please click here and here), they netted a grand total of $175. I realize that there are places in the world where that is a substantial amount. But, surely, there are more time-efficient ways to earn the same?

I also realize that I am in a privileged position, where potentially losing a $175 investment can be a tax write-off which does not hurt my overall earnings.

But that’s not the case for everyone. I wrote this post specifically to warn others to, well, Writer Beware! It doesn’t matter if they have what looks to be a robust social media presence. (My teen-age daughter tells me you can buy thousands of followers for ten bucks). It doesn’t matter if they seemingly have glowing recommendations from best-selling authors. It doesn’t matter if they promise you fame, fortune, and, most importantly, book sales. It doesn’t even matter if they spend so much time cajoling you that you start to think they must be legit – how else could they afford to waste so much time on sales?

They are not legit. They are liars and they are scammers and, what’s more, they’re not even particularly good ones. If they can’t effectively sell themselves, how can they possibly sell you?

I am curious if others have been approached by this particular outfit. One of their websites is still up, as are the two fake author profiles on IG, and the primary IG account they used to catfish me with. Are they getting ready to set up a new account and approach some other patsy? Please help spread the word to stay away!

Alina Adams is the NYT best-selling author of soap-opera tie-ins, figure skating mysteries and romance novels. Her latest historical fictions are “The Nesting Dolls” and “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region.” Visit her website at: www.AlinaAdams.com, or her Substack: A Literal Literary Loser.

Postscript from Victoria:

Just before Alina contacted me to offer this post, I heard from another author who was approached by the same scammer on Twitter, with the handle @bookpublicityhq (the account–which of course had a blue checkmark–has been suspended). The pitch was a bit different from the one Alina received…

…but the scammer’s initial outreach, as well as its response to the author’s request for more info, were identical to what Alina quotes above–and it too went the extra mile to “prove” its prowess, once again via a fake Susanna Clarke account. Below is what the scammer claimed was a set of screen grabs of their “most recent” DM conversation with “Susanna”–but as you can see, the whole thing is laughably bogus (traditionally published authors don’t “receive orders”, for example).

Solicitation scams are everywhere, and any writer can be a target. For any offer that comes to you out of the blue–whether on social media, by email, or by phone–extreme caution is in order.

UPDATE 5/5/23: I just got an email from a writer who was approached by another iteration of this scam, which is on Instagram as Book Library Media. They approached the writer with the same sort of pitch, including sharing the fake Susanna Clarke account.

UPDATE 5/22/23: Another name uncovered, thanks to a writer who was tagged by the scam on Twitter and responded. On Instagram, it’s BookstagramWC, aka Bookstagram Writers’ Centre. Here’s its Twitter feed; as of this morning it was reply spam after reply spam (“DM US, Let’s work together” [sic]) but by this afternoon all the tweets had been deleted. The writer who responded reported the exact same approach, including the same fake Susanna Clarke messages screenshotted above.

And another name, per another tip: Book Booster (@bookboosterwc on Instagram. @Bookboosterwc on Twitter). Hilariously, it has blocked me.

UPDATE 5/31/23: Another name, per a comment below: @booklibmedia on Instagram. They offered the fake Susanna Clarke testimonials, and also fake testimonials from Miriam Toews.