If you are a published or soon-to-be published author, there’s a good chance your inbox has recently been flooded with scam “media opportunities” emails, making it harder to connect with readers and collaborate with your teams. These emails might promise exclusive radio interviews, guaranteed reviews, book festival placements, or marketing packages that will make you a bestseller. Unfortunately, they are not genuine opportunities.
We spend years writing our books, so it is natural to crave visibility for them. Scammers count on that, preying on an author’s worry that they are “not doing enough” to get their works out there. These predatory schemes, disguised as media opportunities, are designed to take your money without delivering a single real reader. They’re also incredibly sophisticated. So much so that journals, media outlets and major book festivals have issued fraud warnings after scammers impersonated their staff.
First, we’ll dissect the various types of scam emails and show you how to identify them. Then, we’ll set up some digital guardrails so these emails can stop ruining your morning.
How to Identify a Targeted Scam
Fraudulent marketing emails generally fall into one of a few distinct categories:
The “Mad Libs” Pitch: This is the laziest version. It usually opens with something generic like “Hello Author [Your Name]” and praises “Your Great Work.” There’s no mention of themes, characters, or even the title of your book! It’s a mass email sent to thousands of scraped addresses in the hope that the scammer will get a handful of clicks. If they can’t even name your book, delete it.
The Data-Scraped Flattery Campaign: This email names your book, summarizes character arcs, and cites your Amazon or Goodreads star rating, sometimes down to the tenth of a point. All of it using public data that’s been scraped from your product page in seconds. This one is so personalized, it may make you pause. But it is designed to lower your defenses so you start a conversation… and open your wallet.
The Impersonator: These emails appear to come from real journalists or media outlets. Or they may come from book festivals, book clubs, or other events. They use real staff names and offer services those outlets genuinely provide. Because of this, it’s one of the more dangerous types of scam emails, which we discussed in more detail in last month’s article “How to Spot and Avoid Phishing Emails Targeting Authors.”
The “Free . . . Until it Isn’t” Pitch: These pitches offer podcast bookings or media placements at no upfront cost, with a fee due only after a booking is confirmed. This is usually paired with some slight manipulation. They may use emotional phrases like “There’s a reader who needs your book right now” or they’ll add a layer of urgency such as “Reply yes and we begin immediately.” If a cold-call marketing opportunity is pressuring you into a commitment, it might be a scam.
The “Growth Expert” and Book Club: These have been quite popular lately. You might get a message from an “Amazon Book Sales Growth Expert” who promises SEO optimization, algorithm manipulation, and targeted reader acquisition… for a fee. Or, you might hear from an online book club that promises reader engagement and free reviews from their large reader community. This might sound tempting, but often the only thing you’ll receive is a package of fake reviews. Even if the email sounds legitimate, take caution. Fabricated reviews are a violation of Amazon’s and Goodreads’ terms of service, which can get your book penalized or removed entirely.
Here’s what to check for before you reply to a marketing opportunity like this:
- The email domain. A national radio producer or magazine editor won’t contact you from a personal Gmail or Outlook email address.
- Any mention of fees. Legitimate media outlets or podcasts will never charge authors for coverage. Mention of “participation options,” “promotional packages,” or “handling fees” usually means a scam is heading your way.
- Cold calls to your inbox. Major media outlets will usually contact you through your publicity team or agent, not the email or contact form on your website.
- Emotional urgency. If the email feels urgent, and the sender makes you feel pressured to act, it’s probably a manipulation tactic.
- A company you can’t verify. Search the company name in a browser. Do not click links in the email. If there’s no track record or client history, report it.
How to Protect Your Inbox
You shouldn’t have to start every writing session by clearing out ten scam emails. Here are a few technical steps you can take to filter out the noise.
Mark as spam, don’t just delete. Deleting an email only sends it to the trash. Marking it as spam will train your email client’s internal filter to block similar messages in the future. Do this consistently, and in time, you’ll see a big improvement.
Remove plain text email links from your website. Check your website to see if your email address is written in plain text, such as “Email me at author@email.com.” To stop bots from scraping it daily, replace it with a CAPTCHA-protected contact form. This will drastically reduce how much spam comes your way.
Set up keyword filters. Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail all let you set rules that will make flagged emails skip your inbox entirely. If you set up rules for these specific phrases, many scams will be sent straight to the trash:
- “participation options”
- “promotional packages”
- “guaranteed reviews”
- “book visibility strategist”
- “bespoke optimization”
- “zero upfront cost”
Block the entire email domain. Sometimes, you’ll receive requests from different email addresses, but the emails will have the same domain. In these cases, just create a rule in your email client that blocks all future mail from that domain.
Verify suspicious outreach. Don’t reply to the email. If the request looks like it’s from a real outlet or book festival, but your team isn’t involved, a good rule of thumb is to forward the request to your publicist or publishing team for verification. They will be glad to help verify any requests.
It’s frustrating and unfair that our authors are being targeted in this way, but hopefully the information above will help keep you safe from scams. Put up these guardrails and let us know what’s still slipping through. We’ll update this article periodically with the most up-to-date tips. And as always, trust your publishing team, lean on your genuine marketing strategies, and send those fake “opportunities” to the trash where they belong.
Phil Stamper-Halpin is Director of Author Development at Penguin Random House.