LOL I, an infrastructure planner who writes for some obscure professional publications on the side, *also* get these! They’re focused on a book I wrote 15 years ago. It’s about installing and maintaining green roofs, yet I am apparently supposed to believe that some normal non-architect/landscape architect/roofer/student somehow picked up this technical manual (or, hilariously, read it *in a book group*), illustrated with photos of failing roofs and combined sewer outfalls, and was enchanted by it.
I loved The Fabric of Civilization and constantly recommend it to my fellow knitters (and anyone who enjoys interesting history).
I recently received an endearing email from someone who had read a fantasy book I wrote several years and who wanted to republish it under some vanity press umbrella, meaning, of course, that I would pay for the privilege. They gushed their praise. Except, my new fan didn't do her due diligence, and I didn't write the book. My other two published books are 30+ years old nonfiction works, so I doubt I will be receiving any offers for them.
Pat Wagner is not an uncommon name, so I don't blame the author of the email 100%. But it did have that slick tone one finds in AI-produced writing. So I assume it is a vanity publisher looking for new clients and using AI to increase outreach. Okay, can deal with that.
I also write fan fiction, which is great fun; have connected with talented writers from around the world. However, my inbox on the excellent Archive of our Own (AO3) platform is receiving similar shiny offers from artists to illustrate my works, for a price of course. I can tell they are new to the platform, so I assume positive intention and politely warn them that commercial activity is against the rules, and if someone complains, they will be blocked. And they disappear.
Friends who are familiar with online scams tell me that the goal of the phony love letters is to engage the target in conversations - a long-game con - and, at some point, the requests for money and access to accounts will begin - maybe a request for a charitable contribution to some group that does not exist. A friend of ours, a brilliant engineer whose business had fallen on hard times, had his life savings wiped out after weeks of innocent conversations ending with an offer of financial assistance, requiring access to his business bank account information.
Even smart people can fooled. Flattery is a powerful tool.
Yes, I think that's a good theory. "Pig butchering" scams are based on cultivating the trust of a target, often by offering them something they want (a job, a lover, etc). I guess some pig butchers out there assume that authors are desperate for the attention!
Yes, many pig butchers play a long game--can be months before the scam moves are made. Some reason is given for why the target needs to share key information--SS#, bank account #--and then in the long term scams, some money is returned to keep the fish on the hook.
Closely related is the book club scam. I got one of these recently for an abstruse book on decision theory I wrote 30 years ago. Apart from the absurdity of this, it would have looked legit.. There's a real-looking website with some actual reviews, and the request for money comes later
I received one recently. It took my footer from my author email account & wrone me an email referencing all my work asking if I needed someone to market them for me.
I got one this morning, and I'm nobody. It was for a short story I posted about in Notes a week or so ago. I have it up as a standalone on Amazon, but no record of it being sold recently. It contained no details about the story you couldn't get from the product description. And it was from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who is one of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers, and has been dead almost a year.
For me, the really big tell was that the whole story is all about anime and anime fandom, and the "review" barely mentioned it.
Hum, obviously a dastardly plot by skynet; AIs corresponding with established authors in order to master creating suspension of disbelief. 'We've already learned from Stephenson not to go off half cocked, and from Postrel that to control humanity we need flashy textstyles (Curious, her spelling of the words and running them together.). None the less, Today Fiction, Tomorrow the World is Ours!' ;-)
And I got yet another scam email today, which sounds a lot like what Amy Alkon mentioned in her comments. The Rejoice Book Club has a website here: https://www.rejoicebookclub.org/
Dear Virginia Postrel,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is John Jesley, and I’m the Team Coordinator at Rejoice Book Club, a reading community that engages thoughtfully with books exploring culture, society, identity, and the forces that shape how we see the world.
Your book, The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion, has sparked fascinating discussion among our members. Your exploration of glamour—not merely as style or surface, but as a powerful form of nonverbal persuasion that reveals our inner longings—resonated deeply with our readers.
We were particularly intrigued by your breakdown of the essential elements of glamour and how they create that distinctive sensation of projection and yearning. The way you connect glamour to everything from architecture and consumer products to politics and cultural narratives opened up rich conversations about aspiration, illusion, identity, and influence in modern life.
We would be honored to invite you to be a featured guest at one of our upcoming Author Spotlight Events, a virtual conversation centered on cultural analysis, visual persuasion, and the psychology of desire.
We are currently scheduling sessions for the coming weeks and would be delighted to feature The Power of Glamour as part of our nonfiction and cultural discourse programming.
Why this event could be a strong fit
Discuss the three essential elements of glamour and how they operate across industries
Explore the relationship between aspiration, identity, and persuasion
Examine glamour’s role in politics, marketing, architecture, and media
Engage in a thoughtful live Q&A with readers interested in culture, communication, and influence
Coordination & Support
Our team manages scheduling, promotion, moderation, and technical support to ensure a smooth, professional, and engaging event. We are happy to work around your availability and provide any additional information you may need.
Thank you for writing a book that reframes how we understand desire, ambition, and cultural influence. We would truly appreciate the opportunity to host you at Rejoice Book Club.
All of these AI generated fishing expeditions share a "tell." No concrete examples just a flow of generalities. Because they're all machine generated. And if they were to be concrete or specific they would smell like the paint job on a dodgy used car.
For now.
The porn novels being industrially produced by the Ministry of Truth had settings on the machines to vary the Kink.
I don’t like either cover of “The Lost Library,” but disliked the pictured “The Fabric of Civilization” cover even more, not that it makes any difference to anyone. I hope J.K. Rowling (“ “) continues to write to you, so that you can expose the prematurely-revealed supervillain’s plans just before it is too late!
The worst is when they are from authors I really love and admire. A recent one from Richard Ford, who I have been reading since I was a kid, was especially sad.
I've been receiving a slew of these author emails as well as non-existent book clubs soliciting me to get involved with them because they love my writing. It's so weird to get spam/phishing emails from "well-known" authors that are obviously AI.
Thank G they are easy to recognise for a native english speaker, maybe AI bots should compose in a different language and have google translate render it into sth that sounds human, anyway don't tell them. Thanks super interesting,
The ones that claim want to have an event featuring your book are a scam that require you have a book trailer and lo and behold, they have just the person to make it for you, and they won’t charge you too much. And then they let you know that it really does need to be by that person because that will be an approved trailer and anything you do might not be approved.
I'm not even a famous writer and I have been getting "personal messages" from Robert Reich. If you subscribe to someone's Substack, it's likely that you will get a message like this. So writers on Substack are now getting them from each other! Some people don't have enough to do!
LOL I, an infrastructure planner who writes for some obscure professional publications on the side, *also* get these! They’re focused on a book I wrote 15 years ago. It’s about installing and maintaining green roofs, yet I am apparently supposed to believe that some normal non-architect/landscape architect/roofer/student somehow picked up this technical manual (or, hilariously, read it *in a book group*), illustrated with photos of failing roofs and combined sewer outfalls, and was enchanted by it.
I loved The Fabric of Civilization and constantly recommend it to my fellow knitters (and anyone who enjoys interesting history).
This made me laugh. Thanks!
I recently received an endearing email from someone who had read a fantasy book I wrote several years and who wanted to republish it under some vanity press umbrella, meaning, of course, that I would pay for the privilege. They gushed their praise. Except, my new fan didn't do her due diligence, and I didn't write the book. My other two published books are 30+ years old nonfiction works, so I doubt I will be receiving any offers for them.
Pat Wagner is not an uncommon name, so I don't blame the author of the email 100%. But it did have that slick tone one finds in AI-produced writing. So I assume it is a vanity publisher looking for new clients and using AI to increase outreach. Okay, can deal with that.
I also write fan fiction, which is great fun; have connected with talented writers from around the world. However, my inbox on the excellent Archive of our Own (AO3) platform is receiving similar shiny offers from artists to illustrate my works, for a price of course. I can tell they are new to the platform, so I assume positive intention and politely warn them that commercial activity is against the rules, and if someone complains, they will be blocked. And they disappear.
Friends who are familiar with online scams tell me that the goal of the phony love letters is to engage the target in conversations - a long-game con - and, at some point, the requests for money and access to accounts will begin - maybe a request for a charitable contribution to some group that does not exist. A friend of ours, a brilliant engineer whose business had fallen on hard times, had his life savings wiped out after weeks of innocent conversations ending with an offer of financial assistance, requiring access to his business bank account information.
Even smart people can fooled. Flattery is a powerful tool.
Thanks for sharing this
Yes, I think that's a good theory. "Pig butchering" scams are based on cultivating the trust of a target, often by offering them something they want (a job, a lover, etc). I guess some pig butchers out there assume that authors are desperate for the attention!
Yes, many pig butchers play a long game--can be months before the scam moves are made. Some reason is given for why the target needs to share key information--SS#, bank account #--and then in the long term scams, some money is returned to keep the fish on the hook.
Closely related is the book club scam. I got one of these recently for an abstruse book on decision theory I wrote 30 years ago. Apart from the absurdity of this, it would have looked legit.. There's a real-looking website with some actual reviews, and the request for money comes later
https://writersweekly.com/ask-the-expert/book-club-scam-targeting-authors
I received one recently. It took my footer from my author email account & wrone me an email referencing all my work asking if I needed someone to market them for me.
I got one this morning, and I'm nobody. It was for a short story I posted about in Notes a week or so ago. I have it up as a standalone on Amazon, but no record of it being sold recently. It contained no details about the story you couldn't get from the product description. And it was from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who is one of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers, and has been dead almost a year.
For me, the really big tell was that the whole story is all about anime and anime fandom, and the "review" barely mentioned it.
Hum, obviously a dastardly plot by skynet; AIs corresponding with established authors in order to master creating suspension of disbelief. 'We've already learned from Stephenson not to go off half cocked, and from Postrel that to control humanity we need flashy textstyles (Curious, her spelling of the words and running them together.). None the less, Today Fiction, Tomorrow the World is Ours!' ;-)
Rebecca Stead emailed me, noting that "Glory" at Well-Read Black Girl is another impersonator, of Glory Edim.
WRBG posted on IG: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUVyDLZEcO2/?hl=en
And I got yet another scam email today, which sounds a lot like what Amy Alkon mentioned in her comments. The Rejoice Book Club has a website here: https://www.rejoicebookclub.org/
Dear Virginia Postrel,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is John Jesley, and I’m the Team Coordinator at Rejoice Book Club, a reading community that engages thoughtfully with books exploring culture, society, identity, and the forces that shape how we see the world.
Your book, The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion, has sparked fascinating discussion among our members. Your exploration of glamour—not merely as style or surface, but as a powerful form of nonverbal persuasion that reveals our inner longings—resonated deeply with our readers.
We were particularly intrigued by your breakdown of the essential elements of glamour and how they create that distinctive sensation of projection and yearning. The way you connect glamour to everything from architecture and consumer products to politics and cultural narratives opened up rich conversations about aspiration, illusion, identity, and influence in modern life.
We would be honored to invite you to be a featured guest at one of our upcoming Author Spotlight Events, a virtual conversation centered on cultural analysis, visual persuasion, and the psychology of desire.
We are currently scheduling sessions for the coming weeks and would be delighted to feature The Power of Glamour as part of our nonfiction and cultural discourse programming.
Why this event could be a strong fit
Discuss the three essential elements of glamour and how they operate across industries
Explore the relationship between aspiration, identity, and persuasion
Examine glamour’s role in politics, marketing, architecture, and media
Engage in a thoughtful live Q&A with readers interested in culture, communication, and influence
Coordination & Support
Our team manages scheduling, promotion, moderation, and technical support to ensure a smooth, professional, and engaging event. We are happy to work around your availability and provide any additional information you may need.
Thank you for writing a book that reframes how we understand desire, ambition, and cultural influence. We would truly appreciate the opportunity to host you at Rejoice Book Club.
Warm regards,
John Jesley
Team Coordinator
Rejoice Book Club
All of these AI generated fishing expeditions share a "tell." No concrete examples just a flow of generalities. Because they're all machine generated. And if they were to be concrete or specific they would smell like the paint job on a dodgy used car.
For now.
The porn novels being industrially produced by the Ministry of Truth had settings on the machines to vary the Kink.
I don’t like either cover of “The Lost Library,” but disliked the pictured “The Fabric of Civilization” cover even more, not that it makes any difference to anyone. I hope J.K. Rowling (“ “) continues to write to you, so that you can expose the prematurely-revealed supervillain’s plans just before it is too late!
The worst is when they are from authors I really love and admire. A recent one from Richard Ford, who I have been reading since I was a kid, was especially sad.
I've been receiving a slew of these author emails as well as non-existent book clubs soliciting me to get involved with them because they love my writing. It's so weird to get spam/phishing emails from "well-known" authors that are obviously AI.
Thank G they are easy to recognise for a native english speaker, maybe AI bots should compose in a different language and have google translate render it into sth that sounds human, anyway don't tell them. Thanks super interesting,
The ones that claim want to have an event featuring your book are a scam that require you have a book trailer and lo and behold, they have just the person to make it for you, and they won’t charge you too much. And then they let you know that it really does need to be by that person because that will be an approved trailer and anything you do might not be approved.
Disgusting.
Criminals are always among the first to adopt new technologies. Compared to some other uses of AI to scam people this seems relatively benign
I'm not even a famous writer and I have been getting "personal messages" from Robert Reich. If you subscribe to someone's Substack, it's likely that you will get a message like this. So writers on Substack are now getting them from each other! Some people don't have enough to do!