"If only!" (Marketing and public relations division)

[Catrin Lewis]

The message below showed up in my author inbox this weekend. Hope it's not too fuzzy to read:


I have to admit, whoever produced this is a lot more clever than the typical miracle-marketer/scammer. Either they've actually read some of my novel (which I doubt) or they had an AI scan it for them. Because ye gods, isn't that first paragraph the most seductive of ego-boosts? Who doesn't secretly believe her novel is a "masterpiece" full of "depth, tension, and moral complexity"? Who doesn't want to see herself as an author who can capture the imagination of her readers so they can't get her story out of their heads?

It scares me that, just for a moment, I wanted to believe this blather. Could it be true? Did they actually read the book and do they really feel that way about it? Is it really all that, and a bag of chips???

Of course not. It's total rot, a romance scam for gullible authors. A real offer of marketing services wouldn't have a copy-and-paste signature (all tiny down there in a different font like she's ashamed of herself) from a random person with no title. It wouldn't omit the name of the firm, or fail to link to their website, or offer no references from satisfied clients.

But again, I give them credit. This is much more sophisticated than the fishing expeditions I get in my Facebook DMs. Those people don't even know what my book's called.

What book marketing scams have you seen (and avoided) lately? Have you, as an independent publisher, worked with anyone who actually helped your sales, at a reasonable cost?

 

[Homer Potvin]

They just swapped your character names into the boiler plate statement, easily obtained for a Kindle look inside, if you're on there, which I believe you are. I get 10 of these a day at work, usually from web developers. It reads identically with the adjectives flipped from the literary to the culinary. Most aren't "scams" in the legal sense, just crappy services.

 

[Catrin Lewis]

They just swapped your character names into the boiler plate statement, easily obtained for a Kindle look inside, if you're on there, which I believe you are. I get 10 of these a day at work, usually from web developers. It reads identically with the adjectives flipped from the literary to the culinary. Most aren't "scams" in the legal sense, just crappy services.

It did smell of template to me, yes. And their taking the "specifics" from the Amazon Look Inside/Preview--- that makes sense.

From what I read (like on Writer Beware), they're scams in the sense that they render no or marginal services in return for a lot of money upfront. Though they could say marketing's always a gamble, right?

 

[big soft moose]

yeah they've not read the book or even scanned it, all they've done is take the character names and title from the blurb... you can tell because it doesnt say anything unique about your book or what happens to sandy and eric etc,

the standard rule of thumb here is to never buy markeyting from someone who relys on spam/cold calling to sell you their services, becauyse if they can't effectiverly sell their service why would you want them to sell your product?

Also the margins are so smallon books that even with a fully legit markett8ing service its hard to break even when their fee is factored in

 

[Homer Potvin]

spam/cold calling

Yeah, that's the wiener. You can't get a plumber, dentist, or tailor to even call you back these days. Anyone who knows what they're doing has more business than they can handle.