For authors, one of the (these days, increasingly few) positives of social media is connecting with other authors. Especially if no one else in your family/social circle is involved in the arts (raises hand), it’s great to be able to find a community where you can discuss craft, business, the ups and downs of querying, the challenges of self-publishing–both sharing your own experiences and learning from others’.
But…what if that friendly author who just DM’d you on one of your social media accounts isn’t actually a writer, but someone who wants to sell you worthless “marketing” services?
I’m getting an increasing volume of reports from writers who’ve been targeted by this bait-and-switch scheme. It starts with a private message from a profile that appears to be that of another writer–often, a real writer whom the scammer is impersonating–just saying “hi” and claiming to want to connect. A short back-and-forth follows, with the scammer quickly getting to the point: a referral to a terrific marketer or “agent” who, they claim, produces fantastic results! If the targeted author reaches out the recommended person, they receive a heavy pitch for some sort of marketing package or service…for which, of course, they have to pay. If they do, the odds are high that they will never see their money again.
The Scam in Action
This DM contact happened on Instagram. Since the scammer is using a real author’s name/profile, I’ve redacted that information, as well as the profile pic of the targeted author. The scammer’s DMs are on the left; the targeted author’s are the shaded responses on the right.
After a few more exchanges, the scammer gets down to business: the terrific marketing person they’re happy to recommend.
Oooh, conversion enhancement campaign! That’s some sexy jargon right there.
The name on the marketer’s Instagram account (which no longer exists) was Ashley Wallace of Ashley Digitals. You can see the author’s conversation with her–including an unconvincing excuse for why her website URL doesn’t work, an elaborate sales pitch, and false claims about clients–here, but the bottom line is this:
The author, who’d really just been drawing things out to see what the payoff was, checked out at this point, but my guess is that anyone who bought into this scam never heard from Ashley again.
(Also, just to note: in marketing and PR, you’re looking for a personalized service–which involves much more information and many more questions than Ashley asked–rather than one-size-fits all; and you really do get what you pay for. Good marketing, by qualified providers, is expensive. While Ashley’s $500+ price tag isn’t cheap from most writers’ perspectives, it’s bargain basement from a PR perspective, and thus a warning sign, if not of a scam, then of questionable professional competence.)
Here’s another example, this one from Xitter. Again, the scammer is using the profile of a real author (hence all the redactions) who is repped by a successful literary agent. You can see how similar the initial outreach, again via DM, is to the other scammer’s approach.
![Screenshot of approach by social media scammer: "Hi, I'm [redacted] a fellow author. I see that you're an author, and would love to connect. It would be great to exchange ideas or discuss our current projects if you're open to it. Looking forward to your thoughts."](https://writerbeware.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Social-media-marketing-scam-agented-author-approach.png)
The targeted author smelled a rat and contacted me to report. I asked if they’d be willing to request the “agents'” names.
I couldn’t pin down Lucy Stella, but here are Eviee Fisher (on Fiverr–note the single one-star review, where the client says they were prevented from canceling and then were ghosted) and Scarlett Leah (on Facebook)–both (surprise!) book marketers:
As noted above, I’ve gotten multiple reports of this kind of scam, which appears to be a growing problem across most of the main social media platforms, including Xitter, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. It’s also not the only social media DM scam around.
Some Final Thoughts
How much does it suck that even DMs from fellow writers are suspect? How shitty is it that you have to be that much on your guard?
If you’re new to writing, or to seeking publication, and just started reading this blog, it may seem like there are so many scams out there that everyone is potentially a wolf, and you can never be sure what’s real and what’s not. I often hear from writers who are deep in this mindset, and it can be profoundly dispiriting and demotivating.
But I think you can look at things from a different angle. Yes, there are scams, and it’s important to be aware you may encounter them–especially if you’re self-published or considering self-publishing, because that’s where most scammers’ efforts are focused these days. But the purpose of scam awareness (and Writer Beware) isn’t to convince you that you’re lost in a dark and dismal forest with predators lurking behind every tree. It’s to help you acquire the tools you need to identify and de-fang the wolves, so you can traverse the wilds unscathed.
There really are reliable markers that can help you dismiss scams when you encounter them, sparing you both confusion and heartache. For example, as you are no doubt sick of seeing me say, the red-flag warning sign of solicitation. That out-of-the-blue email from TriStar Pictures expressing interest in your movie rights or from Macmillan Publishers offering you a book contract is NEVER going to be genuine, no matter what that tiny, treacherous spark of hope that just this once it might be the real thing will try to make you believe. Once you know this, you don’t have to give such offers even a moment of consideration. They’ll never not be annoying–but they will stop being dangerous. And once you know that, the would-be wolves are revealed as sheep after all.
In other words, scam awareness is empowering.
UPDATE 8/14/25: This scam began on social media, and it’s still happening there, but increasingly I’m hearing about these approaches in email. Increasingly, also, they’re from well-known writers: John Green, Thomas Keneally, Susanna Clarke, Dan Brown, Penelope Lively, and more. Slightly different M.O., but they all wind up in the same place: a referral to a shady marketing service.
I hope it’s not too late to post a comment, as I see some were posted back in 2025. I wrote a historical fiction novel centering on the forming of West Virginia during the Civil War. That was three-four years ago. I’ve been trying to connect with an agent or publisher and cannot get anyone to champion this project.
I keep seeing on FB all of these ads from these fake publishers who say you pay one flat rate for a publishing package. I almost got taken in by one, telling me that there would NEVER, under any circumstances, be any hidden costs, and any royalties from the sale of the book would be paid to me. After I researched them, I found that they keep adding costs and keeping the royalties unless the author pays more money. I’m getting so discouraged. Self-publishing for me, is not an option right now, because I have limited funds.
Thank you, Victoria for this blog!
I see this all over Tumblr. I’m a member (and Moderator) of a large writing group on that site and these snakes show up nearly all the time along with ‘Agents’ to sketchy beta readers (with avatars that reeks with gen AI if they have one) who use Fivver or Whatsapp/or Telegram or some totally- not- sketchy google email address from a brand new blank blog.
I am so glad that I found this, because I was right about these jerks whenever they show up in comments of users/members of the group.
A lot of the users are teens (and adults) who are mostly writing for AO3 or Wattpad and these losers would show up in their posts giving them ‘praise’ or some generic message that was probably done with AI. I just blocked someone pretending today.
And what makes it worse, these creeps just steal posts from the REAL authors and re-posts them onto their crappy blog. I can’t remember who this scammer was pretending to be, I blocked them months ago. But they reposted a message the real author made years ago on their Facebook account about their kid heading to college, and it was a heartfelt message I believe and this scammer had it posted on their blog (this year) and people were responding to it and this creep replying to them. It made me sick, so I called them out before they blocked me.
I don’t know if you allow this, but here’s a scammer’s blog here: https://www.tumblr.com/nitaproset33/
This is another account that blocked me after I called it out.
This is the first time I’ve heard about this scam infesting Tumblr, but I’m not at all surprised. It’s really awful.
I wanted to comment and let others know this happened to me from a famous author impersonator (Robin Wall Kimmerer) through Gmail/Website contact form. I was unsure if it was real for a while, and I was vague in my replies, never agreed to anything or sent money, and never clicked links to be sure. Sure enough, Gmail bounced back the email, and I’m now certain this was fake after checking this post. Scams are becoming increasingly harder to spot, especially when it’s as vague as “I’d like to connect” which sounds innocent at first and then they increasingly email you often. Looking back, I shouldn’t have replied at all (waste of my time really) and will ignore these kinds of emails in the future. Thank you to Writer Beware and Victoria Strauss for these posts! I appreciate all this blog/site does for writers.
Isn’t Victoria Strauss a star!
Thank you so much, Victoria. It’s not the first time I have been approached by a scammer. I am almost off of Xlibris but their marketers are calling me regularly since they have to pull my last two children’s book off of their site and Amazon’s this fall. They are probably panicking(lol). I am republishing them on KDP instead, although their marketing system is a bit complicated, but I trust them more than this one saying she is Sarah Penner. The scammer did not show a return email, just a title about Connecting with Writers they probably have sent multiple emails from.
Just shared this on LinkedIn. Very eye-opening. Aspiring writers everywhere should check this out 😊🙏
I loathe this scam. They’re not just posing as authors. Among my other works, I write serial online fiction (Webnovels) and I cannot tell you how many times a so-called “reader” has posted a comment asking if I want to hear ideas on my story. Well, naturally, I say yes, because what author doesn’t love to engage with readers? Then they ask to connect with me on Discord when they pitch me their services.
I am not hiring someone who has already proven they can’t be trusted.
Glad to read these many messages on your site.
LinkedIn is notorious for this. I no longer read any of my messages. When I first joined, I received a connection request from a “fellow author” who wanted to discuss writing. She even gave me a link to her author page on Amazon. But it didn’t take her long to begin recommending her publicist. I’m sadly now one of the people who doesn’t trust any social media interaction.
I’ve been getting emails promising to market my books. Each one is from a different name, but the format of the emails is exactly the same. They all look exactly like each other.
I deleted them as soon as they arrived, and I’ve not actually read any of them as I deemed them to be scams.
One advantage of not having any money is that
Sorry! My hand accidentally passed over the reply button and my tablet sent it!
Anyway, the advantage of having no money is that even if I wanted to, I can’t afford to pay them!
I get emails from these “marketers” all the time. I send them to spam. Because I’m rarely on social media, I haven’t gotten that type of thing messaging, but if I do, I cut them off right away. I still get calls from the author solutions group that split off and took my phone number with them. I block them and hang up on anyone who calls me about my book(s). I got caught in that when I was trying to learn self-publishing. HUGE scam.
My rule of thumb, if they are trying to sell me on marketing/publicity/reviews, I’m not talking to them. I don’t need their overpriced services for things I can do myself with minimal effort. They are all bottom feeders, doing their best to get your money and never fulfilling their promises. And you know it’s a scam if they are using a book that has been out over 5 years.
At least once a week I receive either an email or a phone call from someone telling me that my book is one of the most powerful, insightful books they’ve read, and their team wants to make it into a movie and that they guarantee I’ll receive over $200,000 in royalties. I file the emails in a folder called “They wanna make me famous” and that’s that.
One email that had me laughing, because it was so absurd, 1) asked me to send them the screenplay (the way it was worded sounded like they thought I had already written a screenplay), then (in the same paragraph) told me to write a screenplay and submit it to them (didn’t they think I already wrote one?), either one in less than a month, so they could submit it to their production review committee in Europe, submission deadline in two months. They also asked me to produce and send them a movie trailer of the book. Even if I had the financial wherewithal, skills (I have never written a screenplay), experience, and technology to do all these things, there’s no way anyone could write a screenplay and produce a trailer in less than a month.
If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
I’m so grateful for everything you do. As you might remember from a few months back, I was also dealing with a scammer that I found on your website. With this latest posting of yours, I believe this woman is the one who contacted me through my Instagram and ended up on my LinkedIn. She first wanted to be friends and talk to me as an author, then gave, I believe, those same names that you posted to get published. She gave me those names and a list of prices. I wasn’t interested in the conversation. She kept reaching out. I felt she was a scammer, and the weird thing is that her name showed up with a different set of URLs. I deleted her and blocked her from my Instagram. I thought at one point that she was a bot. Reading your post, I realized a real person was trying to scam me again. This sort of thing keeps happening to me. As you stated, it is happening a lot, making me nervous about who to trust. I am only interested in Traditional Publishing. I’m working on the last three chapters of my novel and it doesn’t make me feel good or confident that I will land a good publisher and one that is not a scammer. Thank you for everything you have given us.
If you’re looking for traditional publishing, there’s one easy rule of thumb: money flows _toward_ the writer. If there are any required fees or purchases for any aspect of the publishing process–including required purchase of finished books–it may not be a scam, but it’s not a traditional publisher.
If your goal is one of the bigger trad publishers, you do need a literary agent. There are also many good smaller presses that work directly with authors. The Writer Beware website (as distinct from this blog) has comprehensive, detailed information on both agents and small presses that will help , including good and bad business practices, scam cautions and warnings, and links to many helpful resources.
If you know how publishing _should_ work, you’re much better equipped to recognize bad actors when you encounter them. A very common mistake writers make is to jump into publishing their work without taking the time beforehand to acquire a knowledge base about publishing. That knowledge is your greatest ally, and your best defense.
I VERY often receive invites to join the platforms of writers’s, publishers’s and agents’, and it’s a dilemma as I’m aware that the publishing situation these days is difficult and not to the advantage of the authors. It’s wonderful that Victoria does so much to warn us against frauds, but still, it’s extremely difficult to walk the tight rope between one’s ambitions as an author and the shady business that exploits people like e.g. me.
It’s truly disgusting
Got a scam telephone call two days back from a guy saying that he was contacting me on behalf of LOGAN CRAWFORD and for “only $1500” my book would be all over the place and on TV
Wasted 15 minutes of my time
He was very knowledgeable about the book and its social media outreach
Scary and despicable
I get a lot of reports of Logan Crawford solicitations. Logan is real, but he’s an actor who allows multiple scammers to sell his interview services at a huge markup. You can hire him on Fiverr for less than $500.
I was approached by someone for a trailer creation and publicity for my novels. They were ambiguous as to where they were based but it wasn’t the US or Europe from what I could ascertain. A few other things didn’t look right so as an additional check I put her photo through Google Visual Search – it turned out to be a different name from a US university yearbook! Thank you, Google!
Thank you for your advice and warnings. I live in Australia and get about 6 offers a month to help market my books. 5 books. So many scams I can trust none of them. Margaret
One group I belong to (but seldom post on anymore) seemed plagued by authors talking about their great publishers, usually followed by a couple of members saying they had used them and loved them, how they did great things for them, etc. When I checked, they all turned out to be pay-to-play scams with terrible reviews. Nothing beats a little google action.
I received the email from TriStar. Since the person contacting me misspelled TriStar, I immediately though it was a scam. Then I read further, and the person who supposedly was interested in turning my book into a movie, no longer works at TriStar. Then I got the one signed by Steven Spielberg… If only it were real!
I am of the “skeptical of everything” mindset after receiving dozens of phone calls and emails claiming they love my book (but never mention which one it is) and can make it into a best-seller if only I give them however many hundreds of dollars they request. I recently submitted a book to a Book Life Fiction Contest (with an application fee of over $100, of course) and got my report back after a couple of months. I expected it to be a respectable contest since it was associated with Publishers Weekly. Not! It was apparent that the reviewer had not read past the first chapter and had no idea what the book was about. I checked on Writers Beware and learned that Book Life had been putting out such “reviews” for years. Many authors felt, like did I, that their book had never been completely read and that comments were the typical verbiage seen in generic reviews everywhere. Good thing I am not trying to make a living at this! I will continue to self-publish and take my chances.
Has happened to me 5 times in a month after returning to FB. I reported and blocked all of them and reached out to those who tried through their official websites and agencies or publishers to verify it actually was them. 100% that responded thanked me for the information that there was an impostor trying to scam people with their stolen identity.
Thank you, we know what you are saying is true, but it is still easy to be lured into a bad situation. Having you remind us is helpful, please keep reminding us to scrutinize every unsolicited contact. Jim
I was getting so many of these on my author page on Facebook, I had to turn off the messaging service on that page account. It was simply ridiculous how many of these I’d get (three to five a day).
Yup. There is definitely been an uptick in this kind of garbage. Loved the one I got on Linkedin the other day who said they were looking at my page and wanted to know if I ever considered writing.
–You know, the page that says I’m an author and lists all my publication…
Sadly, its the same grift as in writer/author facebook groups. The scam is to set up a group saying you’re an author – then over weeks/months they’ll have a group of several thousand authors from all stages of their career that they’ll use as a pool to grift from. The up-sell comes out with posts on the marketing services they offer, the courses, the ‘writers retreat’ they’re planning. ‘How to’ courses on AI are the latest BS course being shilled. I’ve joined many writers group and have seen this grift in action. I’ve been alarmed by how many authors are naive to the fact they’re being groomed by a scam marketer.
I’ve received dozens of these fake author DM’s on Instagram and one or two on Facebook. The conversations never progressed to the scam part, though. A quick search either on Google or Instagram revealed the fake identity quick enough.
I have recently published a book. You would not believe how many times I used the https://writerbeware.blog/scam-archive/ to wort off those scammers. 100% of the time these scammers have made the list. And when questioned, they denied scamming completely. I am so happy about the scammers list. I even wrote to Victoria Strauss and she was extremely helpful. I can not believe she had the time to respond to me (a new author). I was very pleased she did. Thank you so much for your time and dedication to this scammer’s list and other hints along the way. Sam Fields, author of “Learn English by Reading about West Coasting.”
Thank _you_ for the kind words! I’m so glad you’re finding the blog helpful.
The cartoon at the top really gave me a chuckle, as did the timeless phrase “smelled a rat.”
I got pulled into a casual conversation on Threads that seemed totally innocent until around the fourth exchange it became apparent they wanted to sell me a book trailer service. If you study these tactics long enough, they become transparent. Thanks for all you do.
I received a similar message on LinkedIn. Gave me a FREE SEMINAR (90 minutes) on how to market on IG and MAKE LOTS OF SALES. The guy sounded like the old OXYCLEAN ad, showing “real” testimonials and shouting, ARE YOU READY TO HEAR ABOUT THIS? After 10 minutes of BS, I clicked off and went back and blocked the woman who steered me to the scam. Beware, everywhere.