Writers in the Storm

by Ellen Buikema

Recently, I received an email that got my heart thumping. Someone was charmed by one of my children’s chapter books and wondered if I would be interested in joining a challenge that his group was having in conjunction with a larger group. Since he was part of a legitimate Goodreads group, I thought this might be for real.

After rereading the email, I wondered if he might be one of the many people trying to separate authors from their hard-earned funds. Being an author is not cheap. It is a business involving editors, formatters, marketers, distributors, and in cases like mine – illustrators.

It was hard to tell if this was a scam. The Goodreads group that was mentioned, actually exists. The information about the story included in the email made it seem as though this individual had read my book. But upon further checking, the larger group he mentioned in the email didn’t exactly track.

Since I completely trust my fellow writers at WITS, I checked with them. Turns out this was a scam. The individual sent a follow-up email after I did not respond to the ego-stroking, letting me know that there was still time for me to enter the challenge. I asked him to remove me from his list, blocked him, and reported the scam to Goodreads in case they are tracking such things.

Scammers Tap into the Writer’s Emotions

The most effective scams are well-written and start by triggering emotions. Scammers are aware that writers are committed to their work and many are still navigating the twists and turns of finding and marketing to potential readers.

Flattery can temporarily short-circuit your ability to be cautious. This is psychological warfare. Scammers exploit and manipulate their victims into making decisions on impulse. If the compliment feels off somehow or too good to be true, take a breath and step back.

Common emotional triggers:

• Confusion — “Here is your metadata survey / analytics ranking.”
• Fear — “Your book / account is at risk.”
• Hope — “Your book is perfect for our award/ book club / interview.”
• Urgency — “Act now or you’ll lose readers / visibility.”

Identifying this emotional strategy makes it much easier to avoid scams.

The Book Club Scam

This is the typical pattern:

First, a cordial email arrives from someone unknown. They state wonderful things about your book. They might mention that they “just finished reading it” or their club “voted” to read it.

The tone is effusive and personal, often using phrases like “we love your work,” “it’s perfect for us.”

Details are vague, but praise is heaped aplenty. The club may claim to have “thousands” of members — highly unlikely.

Drumroll, please! The ask lands.They need you to pay:

• an “administration fee”
• a “coordination fee”
• an “honorarium contribution”
• a “spotlight fee”

If you ignore, decline, or question, they either disappear or try to pressure you by mentioning you may “miss a valuable opportunity.”

This scam has been documented by various author watchdog groups, writing magazines, and publishing-industry writers. Reports are increasing. Some writers receiving several scams per week. Even though names, locations, and book club titles vary, the script is almost always the same.

Why This Scam Works

We want other people to love our books as much as we do.

When we receive a message that seems thoughtful and real, it gives us hope. Maybe a book club actually found your work. This could be the start of something big!

Writers are easy to find via websites and social media. Millions of self-published books come out every year, many needing help with reader-reach, making the writer easy to manipulate.

The scammers count on that excitement. Then move quickly from connecting with a writer to convincing the writer to pay them. Using cheap AI tools, they can generate hundreds of variations of these personalized messages to unsuspecting victims.

Example Scams

The following book club scam came to one of the WITS team members the very day I questioned mine:

Dear Ms. Windrow,

Warm literary greetings from … Book Club. My name is … , and I am reaching out on behalf of our vibrant international community of readers who adore romance infused with mythology, humor, and a touch of supernatural mischief.

(The scammer goes on to give immense praise for the book series. Note the warmth in the first paragraph as well as mention of international community, making the group sound huge.)

Because The Redeeming Cupid Collection generated such enthusiastic discussion and delight among our members, we would be truly honored to invite you as our featured guest in an upcoming Virtual Author Spotlight Session. This is a fully online, relaxed, and thoughtfully moderated conversation where our members engage directly with authors about inspiration, mythological adaptation, character arcs, and the emotional core of their stories.

Our sessions are informal, conversational, and scheduled entirely at your convenience, with questions shared in advance to ensure a comfortable and enjoyable experience. Our members would especially love to explore:

(Scammer goes on to list five points derived from book summaries.)

If this invitation resonates with you, we would be delighted to coordinate a date that fits your schedule and provide further details. Thank you for creating a series that blends mythology, romance, and wit into something truly memorable for our book-loving community.

Warmest regards,
…
… Book Club

This is the intro letter. More would follow to obtain “fees.”

More information on Book Club scams may be found here.

This is the basis of the scam sent to me:

“The Obsidian Laureate Award email is a phishing scam designed to steal personal data or money through fake recognition. Scammers often pose as legitimate organizations, asking you to click links, pay a "processing fee," or submit personal information for a "prestigious" award. Do not reply, click links, or pay fees.” Sourced via Social Media search.

Lynette Burrow’s experiences with scammers and what she has done in follow-ups:

I’ve found all of these emails have some part of it that appears to be legitimate: a website, a group, etc. However, if you look carefully at the wording they use describing your book you will find not one original word of praise. Every phrase is scraped from your book page or reviews. There’s not one word that indicates the writer has actually read your book.

I have even engaged with a few people, asking them “why do you need my permission?” Or what could you possibly need? Or “what’s your favorite part” or a specific question about a pivotal scene. If they answer, their answers are vague and sometimes outright wrong. Occasionally I’ll get someone who admits they are trying to get money for some service they think I need. 

Legitimate awards don’t need things to get you into the running for their award. They might need “things” from the author IF your book is in the semi-final list, but I’ve never heard of one that “needs” anything to consider your book.

What To Do If You Receive One of These Emails

• Ask for proof that the club is legitimate. A real club will send it. A scammer will circle around the issue, coerce, or not return email.
• Consider copying or taking a screenshot of the email to send to author sites to warn others, mark the email as spam, and delete it.
• Do not send funds. Once you do either the scammer disappears, leaving you with nothing in return, or tries to upsell.
• Don’t send free copies or manuscripts. Some scams use tools that extract data.
  • If it’s a scam be sure to report it. You can report to: your email provider, anywhere authors can be found online—Goodreads for example, the Authors Guild, or other writing community groups. The more that’s reported, the faster the pattern becomes recognized.
  • While on the Authors Guild site I found a detailed explanation with examples of a book scam similar to the “Nigerian Prince” scam.
• Trust your gut. If it feels wrong, it likely is.

If you receive a tempting invitation step back, take a breath, and look again. Caution now may save you time, funds, frustration, and heartache later. Your time and your work are valuable.

Have you ever received scam email? What clued you in that it was a scam? How did you decide whether or not the email was truly a scam?

* * * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written Parenting ... A Work in Progress, non-fiction for parents, and The Adventures of Charlie Chameleon chapter book series with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works in Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and The Crystal Key, MG Magical Realism/ Sci-Fi, a glaze of time travel.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Top Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

I think it’s important to be realistic about the state of your literary skills. I certainly try to be. I can build worlds well, but I’ve read plenty of authors who do it better. Likewise for dialogue or magic systems or any number of the other things I’ve written about on this very blog. I’m proud of how far I’ve come with each of these, but I’m under no delusions that I don’t have further to go. Whatever success I’ve had as a writer, though, has unmistakably come from one key skill.

Gosh darn it, I can finish things.

Whereas more than one of my friends and family members have tinkered with writing projects for years upon years, until very recently I was putting out full novels at a regular cadence, generally around three per year. Recently, I slowed down to focus on other things for a bit, and in that time I assessed my past methods and those of my friends who are still working on their first books. The goal is to learn what helped me, and what could help them.

Small changes can mean big differences.

There are two aspects to book completion that I’ve found people struggle with. Ninety percent of the difficulty is staying motivated, the other half (as Yogi would say) is actually bringing it home. The methods I find myself going back to again and again to surmount these obstacles boil down to two simple elements: Making Progress and Measuring Progress. And tempting as it would be to break this article up into the former and the latter of those two elements, what I’ve generally found is the real way forward is to constantly bounce between them, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do here.

Plan the Road Trip

There are other, better articles and books on planning a story, so we’ll stay surface level on this part, but one of the surest ways to stay motivated is to make steady progress, and one of the surest ways to make steady progress is have a clear idea of where you’re going and how to get there. I’m an advocate for plotting—that is to say, having at least a basic outline.

Know the path

You don’t have to stick to it, but having at least the next few beats planned out does double duty. It gives you quick context as to what is happening in the story now (even if your last writing session was months ago), and it lays out a path forward so you can spend all of your writing time heading roughly in the right direction instead of mulling over where to go.

Every step forward feels like success

Nothing feels better than making progress, and having an outline gets you on track fast and keeps you on track. It can get you into a flow state more quickly, which means more words in a given sitting, and also gives you a general idea of how much further into the story you’ve progressed once the day’s writing is complete. In other words, it gives you milestones, which feeds nicely into…

Set Goals

Making progress can give you an endorphin rush. Once you’re feeling good about your writing progress, you’ll find yourself looking forward to future writing. Thus it would behoove you to define what progress is. Enumerating your novel–or even your daily writing–into key goals or todo items is tremendously useful. These goals can be defined in a number of ways. It could be something as mathematically precise as “today I will write 1000 words,” or it can be as nebulous as “today I will reach a logical breakpoint.” The key is to have a target, and define it well enough to be sure that you’ll know if you’ve hit it.

Be smart about your goals.

If I feel like I’m not being productive, and thus I start feeling unmotivated, half the time it’s because I’ve failed to properly set or keep track of goals. For the longest time, I had a daily quota of 3000 words. It served me well for quite a while, but it’s simply not sustainable sometimes. Maybe the story is too complex, maybe life is too busy. And just as meeting goals is motivating, missing goals is defeating.

Don’t be afraid to reassess

When I started falling short of my quota, instead of beating myself up, I re-calibrated. Some months “three writing sessions a day” was the goal. Even if I barely got any words in, just knowing that I had put my butt in the seat and put my mind to work in the story was enough to remind myself that slow progress is still progress. That’s the importance of setting goals correctly.

Set up the scoreboard

Tracking goals correctly is just as important. I like to keep a spreadsheet of daily word counts when I really need to know how I’m doing. Other times I’m more motivated by the streak. How many times in a row did I hit my goals this month? How many days total? And what did I do besides words? That’s an aspect that’s too easy to overlook.

Writing is more than just words

There is real danger to using just word count or just plot progression as your measure of productivity. So much of writing is done in the back of the mind, untying knots, exploring new avenues, and building up characters. Especially if you feel like you’re slipping, give yourself an afternoon to go over what you did off the page. Did you rule out plots? Did you run a few versions of character dialogue through your head? Did you daydream within the setting? These things aren’t nothing. Count them up. Measure the unseen accomplishments and give them space alongside things that fit nicely into charts. All of that will make sure that you feel the progress.

Slow and Steady

Let’s take a moment to make sure we’re all learning the right lesson from our fables, shall we? In the story of the tortoise and the hare, we’re told the moral is, “Slow and Steady wins the race.” This is not quite right. Fast and steady wins the race. But just as crucially, slow and steady finishes the race. The steady part is really the key here. It’s not true that you need to write every day to be a writer. But if you want to reach the finish line, you’ll want to at least take a step as often as possible. Some of the best stories ever told were written in fifteen minute fragments.

Little pieces add up

One of my favorite makers on YouTube talks about how sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’ve done anything in a given day, but then you look down and you see the sawdust or metal chips you’ve been making. If you’re making chips, you’re making progress.

You don’t need to finish chapters. You don’t even need to finish sentences. But if you lay down the ink or tap the keys regularly, you are going to move forward. And each step brings the finish line that little bit closer. It doesn’t have to be fast. It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to be. And every bite of the story gets you closer to cleaning your plate, and after that comes dessert.

Give yourself treats

I’ve made it clear by now that I’m highly motivated by finishing steps, crossing things off the list, giving myself the gold star and the mental pat on the head. But sometimes everyone still needs to satisfy their sweet tooth. Don’t forget to give yourself little treats to keep you going.

Do you enjoy dialogue? Maybe reward yourself for getting through some world-building by indulging in a nice, meaty bit of banter. A fan of fight scenes? Throw in a real slobber-knocker as a prize for weaving that exposition in so nicely. I’ve gone so far as to complete whole novellas by writing juicy scenes I was looking forward to and then going back and writing the connective tissue later. Whatever keeps you coming back. But if even that isn’t getting your motor running, it might be time to top up the fuel tank.

Build an Inspiration list

More than once in my writing career I have found a song which provided enough motivation to get a whole book across the finish line. For those curious, the soundtrack of the climax of the Book of Deacon trilogy was “I-E-A-I-A-I-O” by System of a Down. It has nothing to do lyrically with the plot, but the battle that formed in my head when I listened to that song is the exact one that made it to the page.

Find your story’s tone and match it

If you’re struggling to find the motivation to continue your story, give yourself some time to think about what your characters and story mean to you, what gives you the same feeling you’re trying to create in your writing, then gather together as much of that as possible and immerse yourself in it. Make a mood board. Make a playlist. Watch some movies, or even clips of movies. Soak up the flavor and pick apart the elements. Make a music video in your mind starring your characters. Whatever can dump gasoline on the flames of your passion.

Tattle on yourself

Another trait of mine that’s anything but unique is my tendency to prioritize other people’s needs above my own. Thus, it can be profoundly helpful—though maybe a little anxiety-inducing—to turn your own writing project into something someone else is aware of and keeping track of. Commonly you’ll hear these folks referred to as “accountability buddies,” though I’ve found that even an imaginary source of accountability works.

Simply put, you tell someone that you’re writing, what you’re writing, and what your goals are. Often, that’s enough. Now someone else out there knows you’re working on something, and that gremlin that gnaws at your brain when you’re shirking your responsibilities will start “helpfully” letting you know if you goof off, someone else will know you’re not getting things done.

The angel on your shoulder

I say that sometimes an imaginary accountability buddy works for me because the simple act of writing something on a todo list makes me feel as though I’m somehow beholden to the todo list.

But on the off chance you don’t share that particular neurosis, a far healthier and more helpful version of this is to find someone (or a group of someones) to effectively “trade accountability” with. You tell them your writing plans, they tell you their writing plans, and you both resolve to check in with each other to see how you’re doing. You would never believe the lengths I’ll go to avoid having to tell someone that I didn’t do what I said I was going to do. Even, dare I say, actually doing that thing.

Whatever It Takes

The methods above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to keeping yourself focused, moving forward, and striving for that finish line. No one method works for everyone, and most people will need a slate of methodologies to break through especially intense periods of self-doubt, waning motivation, and simmering frustration. But progress, however small, is progress. Every step forward is a step closer to the end of the story, and every finished story is another brick you can use to build the bridge to the next stage of your writing journey.

About Joseph

Joseph R. Lallo hails from Bayonne, NJ--the fabled birthplace of George R. R. Martin. He has written dozens of novels and novellas, including the international bestseller The Book of Deacon and the critically acclaimed Free-Wrench series. In addition to writing, he has helped run run the Six Figure Authors podcast with Lindsay Buroker and Andrea Pearson. Find Joseph and his books on his website at bookofdeacon.com.

Top image from depositphotos.

How writers end up in Spam Mode (and how to rescue them)

by Lisa Norman

This is part 2 of my posts on author spam. Read part 1 here.

Opening: Observed in the Wild

A client once emailed me in a panic.

She’d finally done it. After weeks of working up the nerve, she’d written a newsletter and sent it out. She’d followed a whole stack of “best practices” she’d read about newsletters. She’d hit send. It was out there.

And now something was wrong.

No one was opening it. No one.

At first she told herself it was probably timing. Then she refreshed again. And again. Still nothing. That’s when she discovered the real problem: no one was getting them. So she called me in to see what was wrong with her website.

Nothing was wrong. Her hosting company had simply flagged the email as spam.

Her crime was simple and painfully human. She’d used the word Free in the subject line, and then she’d committed the even more horrid sin of adding an exclamation point after it. She was genuinely excited to give away that free book and thought her readers would be happy to get it.

Email companies decided she was a spammer and that email went nowhere.

She hadn’t done anything sneaky. She hadn’t bought a list or tried to trick anyone. She’d done what she’d been told worked. What everyone else was doing.

The systems disagreed.

That moment stuck with me because it revealed something uncomfortable and oddly freeing at the same time. Sometimes what feels normal, even encouraged, no longer lands the way we expect. Not because we’re wrong, but because the environment and the technology has changed.

No one sits down at their keyboard thinking, Today I will mildly annoy strangers. And yet… here we are.

Spam happens.

Note: email is still the writer’s most powerful sales tool. I’m not recommending dropping your email list!

Entry One: The Reluctant Spammer

Classification: Common
Disposition: Well-meaning
Primary trait: Surprise

The Reluctant Spammer is not a villain. In fact, most writers who find themselves here are thoughtful, generous people who care deeply about their readers.

What makes someone a reluctant spammer isn’t their intent. Writers don’t set out to become spammers. Spam happens when there’s a gap between readers and the writer.

We mean to invite them to join us, but inbox software is more interested in how much email we’re sending and how much the reader is receiving.

We mean to connect with them, but spam filters see patterns: How many people actually opened that email we sent? Did that reader rush to open the email or drop it into trash without even peeking?

We mean to give readers a gift, but anyone opening their email inbox these days is suspicious.

Being a spammer, in this sense, isn’t a personality flaw. It’s a mode. It’s something writers can slip into without noticing, often by doing exactly what they were taught to do. Collect the reader’s email. Keep all of the good stuff behind a paywall. Keep showing up frequently. Stay visible.

None of that is wrong. But when inboxes are crowded and trust is thin, those same habits can start to register differently on the receiving end.

The key thing to remember is this: spam is behavior, not always intent. You don’t become a spammer. You momentarily enter Spam Mode. And like most modes, it’s situational, reversible, and far more common than we like to admit.

Entry Two: Common Habitats

Reluctant Spammers tend to appear in familiar environments.

You’ll often find them around large giveaways, exciting reader magnets that you can only get to by providing an email address, or signups designed to make joining effortless and instant. These structures didn’t appear out of nowhere. They were built in a time when inboxes were quieter and attention was easier to come by.

They worked. And then the world changed.

What once felt like a friendly open door can now feel, to an inbox, like just one more thing to defend against. The behavior hasn’t changed nearly as much as the context has.

Spam Mode thrives in places where speed and numbers are rewarded more than intention. When we value the number of people on our list more than the connection we have with readers, we’re at risk of slipping into spam mode. I’ve seen writers with thousands of email addresses on their list where the open rate is 20% or less. That’s a lot of emails they’re sending that aren’t helping them.

And once you get a list that big, you’re usually paying to send those wasted emails out. Consequently, it's no wonder writers who’ve done “all the right things” get burned out on email!

Entry Three: Signs You’ve Entered Spam Mode

This is the part where writers sometimes get uncomfortable, so don’t feel picked on or called out. These things happen slowly over time.

Signs of Spam Mode aren’t dramatic. They tend to show up quietly. Open rates slowly slide. Replies dry up. You hesitate before hitting send, even when you like what you’ve written. Your email starts to feel less like a conversation and more like a broadcast.

None of these mean you’ve failed. They mean your connection to your readers has weakened.

And when that connection weakens, the solution usually isn’t sending more emails. It’s clarity, and intent. It’s remembering that those readers wanted to connect with you, but somehow they no longer feel that connection, if they ever did.

Entry Four: Why This Doesn’t Mean You’re Doing It Wrong

This is where many writers turn inward and assume the problem is effort, consistency, or enthusiasm. So they try harder. They send more. They push through the discomfort.

Or they just decide email doesn’t work and they stop altogether.

But Spam Mode isn’t caused by laziness or lack of commitment. Instead, it’s often the result of following advice that prioritized growth instead of relationship.

That advice wasn’t malicious. It was just a little out of context. Good advice for businesses or for growing a big email list is still good advice, but not necessarily for writers looking to connect with their readers.

And contexts expire and change. When email was new and any message from a writer was a delight in the inbox, we could get away with sending emails that were less about connection.

Recognizing that the world has changed is a power move that sets you apart from the hordes of accidental spammers filling people’s inboxes.

Entry Five: How Reluctant Spammers Adapt

Field guides don’t give you all the answers in the form of should and rules. They describe patterns and point out alternatives. So let me offer some alternatives for our accidental spammers.

Writers who step out of Spam Mode often start experimenting with small, human shifts. They let readers sample the work before asking for an email. They use calmer, clearer signup language. By sending fewer emails, they enjoy them more. They allow unsubscribes to be information, not rejection. They even make unsubscribing easy. (Although: making it easy for people to unsubscribe IS an actual rule these days.)

Instead of asking, “How do I get more people?” they begin asking, “Who actually wants to be here?”

That question changes the tone of everything that follows.

Entry Six: Designing for Desire Instead of Capture

Spam Mode is rooted in capture. Real reader connection grows from desire.

In contrast, designing for desire means trusting readers to choose you, not trapping them into staying. It means writing emails that feel like a continuation of your work, not a requirement attached to it. You’re a writer, which means you’re an entertainer. This means your messages to your readers should be entertaining!

This approach doesn’t scale as fast, but it lasts longer. And it feels better on both sides of the inbox.

Final Entry: Good News from the Field

Here’s the most important thing to know.

Real Spammers don’t worry about being spammers. They don’t pause to wonder how their emails land. They don’t write field guides.

Reluctant Spammers do.

If you’ve ever hesitated before hitting send and wondered if your readers would even open it, you’re already doing the most important part. Attention is the beginning of every meaningful change you can make. In a world where there are more bots hitting our inboxes than humans, intentional clarity and connection is something algorithms can't fake, and the one thing humans are desperate to find in that haystack of email.

Spam happens. And writers, being writers, adapt.

What is the one email newsletter that you open immediately every time it hits your inbox. Why?

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of No Stress Writing Academy. She also runs Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

Her next book, The Work of Joy is now available here.

Top image from depositphotos.