The Fake Book Club Scam

The Newest Scam: Book Clubs That Definitely Don’t Exist

You know you’ve made it as an author when scammers start treating you like a gullible ATM with a keyboard. Lately, I’ve been getting hit with a new variety of literary spam — the Fake Book Club Shakedown.

These emails all follow the same script.

First, they address me like I’m the next Hemingway. “Your moving, heartfelt book touched our members deeply.”

A lovely sentiment… except they always reference the same book: Hit Your Second Shot First.

A book which...and I cannot stress this enough...is neither moving, nor heartfelt. It is sarcastic golf advice thinly disguised as wisdom. Nobody has ever read it and thought, “This book changed my life.”

The most emotional response I’ve gotten is, “Hey, this made me snort iced tea out my nose.”

But scammers don’t let things like reality get in the way.

According to these emails, their book club of “over 25,000 passionate readers” (translation: zero) wants to feature my book… for a small fee.

Always a small fee. Always payable today. Always with the desperation of someone who’s being held at gunpoint at a server farm in a former Soviet republic.

I’ll admit, a tiny part of me feels flattered. Someone thinks I wrote something heartfelt! Sure, it’s a criminal with a laptop and questionable grammar, but still ... praise is praise. Maybe next they'll tell me I'm a good dancer.

So if you’re an author and you suddenly get love letters from book clubs that don’t match your genre, tone, or basic human reality… don’t fall for it.
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Unless, of course, they also want to buy the coloring book. Then we’ll talk.

​In personal news, I have a new hairstyle, in support of someone close to me who is going through medical stuff. See photo below.

​I like it. May be back cover author photo for my thrillers.

​Early reviews of photo: one guy says I look like a bad dude. Another guy says I look like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family...all I need is a light bulb in my mouth. On balance I'd call that mixed reviews.

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