Another scam for indie writers to watch out for

I get a lot of AI generated book promo spam, the kind that seems like an interview request until asking for money several emails in, wasting lots of time I could be writing. So when I got a message a few days ago with the subject "Editorial Interest in Your Contemporary Fiction", I shot off my typical response: "Be specific. Are you selling something?" The reply was no. 

"To answer your question directly, I’m not reaching out to sell you a marketing package, promotional service, or paid author campaign. My interest is in your books themselves and the possibility of exploring them from an acquisition perspective."

I used google to determine this was a real person from a real publishing house.  Linked in said she had just begun looking for fiction. I made an apology and dusted off a version of my query letter. 

Then came her reply. It came quickly and was very long and complimentary. It asked me to send her my full manuscript. Perhaps what was most notable was the use of active listening, responding with lines from my email only slightly reworded. This was clearly AI. But was it a real person, using AI to help them write an email, as I keep hearing people are doing?

At this point, I looked closer at the email address. Initially, it seemed to come from the publishing house, but when I clicked to expand, it did not. Luckily, I managed to catch this before sending a copy of my book or wasting a day while AI blew smoke up my ass. Here's what the publisher says to look out for:

Be cautious if you receive an unsolicited message that:

• Comes from a Gmail, AOL, Outlook, Yahoo, or other personal email account rather than an official organizational domain.
• Uses an email address that closely resembles a legitimate company but contains extra words, unusual punctuation, misspellings, or altered domain names.
• Offers publicity, book club placement, interviews, reviews, awards, publishing consideration, or film opportunities that lead to a request for payment.
• Requests banking information, payment details, or other personal information.
• Creates a sense of urgency or pressure to act immediately.
• Contains language that seems generic, overly flattering, awkwardly written, or inconsistent with professional publishing communications.
• Claims to represent an employee but originates from an unofficial email address. 

Please leave comments about similar experiences and advice to handle it. My typical response is to send along my favorite curse. I know they won't get it. I just like to put it out into the universe:

"May the flees of a thousand camels infect your crotch by dawn." 

Book review: Whistler

 

I don't have that much to say about this book, other than that it was so good. I started to read Bel Canto years ago and gave up for some reason I don't remember. I enjoyed this so much, it makes me think I should give it an other try.

 The audiobook is read by the author and  she nails it. I am so often turned off when they pick the wrong narrator and I wonder why more authors don't make this choice. (Which is funny to say because I have created audiobooks and would never use my own voice.)

What I loved most about this book was the characters, who feel like real people and stick with you. The story itself is pretty simple: an adult revisiting events from her past and understanding how her parents are just humans who did their best. 

Book Review: The Nightingale

 

When I heard Dakota and Elle Fanning would be starring in the movie remake of this book, I looked it up. I was disappointed to find out the plot would be about WWII because it seems to me that nearly 50% of books that exist are about WWII and it's pretty impossible to tell an original story on the subject.

That said, if this was the only book I'd ever read about WWII, I would have found it compelling and meaningful. As it is, it is a hodgepodge of every WWII era story ever told. It includes just about every trope: the husbands sent to war, the spies working for the resistance, the young German soldiers wrestling with their humanity, family heirlooms exchanged for food, Jews who hide but are ultimately caught and sent to concentration camps, a list of orphans kept to reunite families after the war, and, of course, romance that is accelerated by the fact that no one knows if there will be a tomorrow. It has all the hits.

In the end, all of the main characters survive the war and it teaches them what is really important in life.

I’m sorry if it makes me a jerk for saying this and I should stress that this is well told story about an important subject. It might be perfect for younger readers who haven't spent their lives reading these stories. I'm always shocked to hear that there are people, technically adults, who never read Osama bin Laden's Letter to America and never heard of Aushwitz. But for anyone in their forties or beyond, this will not feel like a new take on an old tale. I should have just waited for the movie, which I'm sure the Fannings will give the proper care it deserves. 

Book Review: The Girls From Corona Del Mar

 

I enjoyed Margo's Got Money Troubles so much that I decided to read more from Rufi Thorpe. I selected her debut, imagining that it would show the promise of the writer she has become, but not be quite as good. I was wrong though, because it was amazing. 

In this book, as in MGMT, she creates an elaborate lie in order to make the reader confront the truth about different issues. Here, she shows us the way doctors ignore women who are giving birth, and how this has resulted in permanent physical trauma to the women and defects for the children. The friends in The Girls From Corona Del Mar debate issues like the way society provides euthanasia for animals, but demands the infinite suffering of human beings. They argue about abortion, and although they come to an agreement that is different from my own, I found it fascinating. 

The friendship between the two women spans decades and it feels a bit darker than her newest novel, but I still recommend it highly. 

This book is narrated by Rebecca Lowman, who also narrates Heart The Lover, which was another book that I really loved. The voice actor for a book matters so much and has ruined my ability to read other books. I have actually returned books after slogging through a first chapter because it has a narrator I just can't get through.

Book Review: Margo's Got Money Troubles

 

I have a new favorite author: Rufi Thorpe.

I have already purchased her debut and downloaded a free short story and wish listed all of her other books. 

I have been watching the TV show on Apple. It was so good that I wanted to see the source material. It isn’t as though they have simply taken the premise of the author's work, as I imagine is done with a lot of streaming content. The TV show is the book exactly. The only changes are made so it fits the shape of an episodic. The best lines and all the dialogue and the big picture ideas are from the book. 

Rufi Thorpe is a writer's writer. She talks about how you fall in love with a book and whether you're falling for the character versus the author and how much truth fiction reveals. The narrative alternates first person and third person and talks about why an author selects different options for point of view. 

The big idea problems of this novel are real thinkers; it isn't preachy. It is sex positive, but remains slightly self-conscious about whether this is the right way to be. It shines light on the way poverty affects child custody, how social stigma affects treatment options for drug addicts, the way sex work is viewed as so much less noble than other ways you can let others use your body, your time, your mental energy. How do you know if you're a good person? Is anyone ever owed the absolute truth and can you ever really give it?

Here's one of my favorite bits: 

"There is a desperation to a novel that is unsettling: a world so painstakingly recreated in miniature, this tiny diorama made of words. Why go to all this trouble? It's almost easier to believe I'm real than to understand what's actually going on. The desperation that could have caused anyone to invent me in the first place, the urgency and need that would require creating an imaginary space of this size and level of detail. It really makes you wonder: what kind of truth would require this many lies to tell?"

 I feel like I have tried to explain precisely this to the non-writers in my life. 

Also, Elle Fanning does the voice acting for this audio book, which is lovely. 

Book Review: The Correspondent

 

The conceit of thia novel is that it consists of a collection of letters written by and to the main character during the last decade (or so) of her life.  Sybil prefers handwritten letters, something she reveres as a dying art, but some emails are included. The email address for this woman in her seventies ends with "aol.com", which I found very amusing as someone with an aol account. So old fashioned! 

The story end up being quite sprawling since it includes best friends, neighbors, customer service representatives, gentleman suitors, the ex-husband, daughter, stalker, autistic teenage boy, and an unnamed person she writes letters to that remain unsent.

The story was interesting but I didn't find Sybil particularly relatable. Perhaps that's because she's a wealthy, retired, divorced woman who struggles to have close relationships with her adult children or, really, anyone else. She makes progress in this area, but part of my problem might also be with the limitation of the form. Letter writing is more like reportage than a novel. It keeps the reader at arm's length, never giving the immediacy of a scene. 

Book Review: More Than Enough

 

I know I've read books by Anna Quindlen before, but this one was so good it makes me want to add all of her books to my wish list.

This is a first person narration with an imperfect, likable main character. There are several different plot points that are developed, a mystery, a challenge, a friend struggling with illness. All these threads get balanced attention and resolution.

The dialogue is particularly good and contributes to the feeling that you're reading about real people. I was kind of bummed when the book was over. Highly recommend.