In Today’s Journal
* Why Do They Keep Sending This Crap?
* Of Interest
Why Do They Keep Sending This Crap?
A few weeks ago, I received an effusive email from none other than Lee Child, praising my work and proclaiming how glad he was that I was writing in Blackwell Ops in a manner similar to his Jack Reacher series.
Of course, it was a scam. Had I responded, eventually “Mr. Child” would have recommended this or that book-promotion service because they do such a wonderful job with his series, etc.
I know that would’ve happened because I received a similar email a few months ago, albeit one from another successful British author I’d never heard of until I researched him.
That was the first scam of that particular type I’d received, so I answered him, asking how he knew about my work, etc. And eventually he fed me the line about a promotion company, complete with the mailing address.
I looked it up on Google Maps. It was a legitimate address and located in the part of London he said it was in. But when I switched to Google Earth Street View and read the sign hanging over the door of the address, it was a butcher shop.
So I was inoculated when Lee Child emailed me. Of course, I didn’t respond to that one, but I still have the email because I like seeing “Lee Child” in my inbox.
More recently I received two different emails from an American author named Donna Tartt. Some of you have probably heard of her. She turns out a new novel every several years, but praised my “similar” work ethic, etc.
Yeah, I didn’t bother responding to that one either. After I looked her up in Google just out of curiosity, I learned she writes considerably different stuff than I write and from a vastly different world view.
She’s one of those who has a host of readers to check for the latest PC terminology, etc. and is very careful with her pronouns. ‘Nuff said.
Me, I’m of the sticks-and-stones generation, so I’m not overly concerned about either glowing praise or what are meant to be barbed epithets flung my way. Water off a duck’s back.
Most recently I received a new kind of offer: A “gentleman” was interested in Blackwell Ops potential value as a Netflix series. The vast array of characters, all working under the central command of TJ Blackwell but with different personalities and interests seemed “real” to him, and he’d LOVE to talk with me more about developing blah blah blah.
Yeah, I looked him up too, and his “Studio.” The actual real person who owns [His Last Name] Studio was a painter of landscapes and portraiture. Nothing on his website even hinted that he has anything to do with grooming or even representing potential series for Netflix or anyone else.
Sigh.
Anyway, this is all to say be careful out there. We no longer have to worry only about vanity publishers or some “prince” from Nigeria offering us millions of dollars for a small fee. AI is here and it isn’t going away anytime soon.
I’ve become largely immune to such inane attempts to scam me. But I have to admit, I sometimes do waste a few seconds in a row wondering why these people continue to bait writers with all that nonsense.
Of course, one reason they continue is that it costs them absolutely no money and very little time.
After all, most of the scam emails these days are generated by some dweeb sitting alone in a dark room (or crammed with a few dozen other in a crowded scam center) tweaking prompts for AI, which then scrapes your bio and your book descriptions and generates an effusive email.
So again, please be careful out there. As a general rule of thumb, don’t send any money to anyone to fulfill your dreams. In publishing, it doesn’t work that way. And then the old rule of thumb is still valid: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I did get one good thing from another scam recently. I think I mentioned it before.
A guy emailed to invite me to be interviewed on his podcast. The podcast was legit (I checked) but the guy had never heard of me (I emailed him via the contact info on the podcast site).
Anyway, in the obviously AI-generated email, the AI went nuts and asked several questions more than one time as example of how the live interview might go.
Some of the questions were pretty good, so I copied and pasted them into a Word document, then answered them over a few days in a faux interview. The whole thing ended up being around 6000 words.
Originally I was going to post that on Chopped Livah, but instead I’ll be “airing” that interview soon here on TNDJ in a series of probably three or four posts.
Of Interest
A map that lets you include more stops than Google Maps. Great for spot-research.
I Hate The Assumption of Stupidty