Reality Writes
The Reality Writes Podcast stars bestselling mystery author Ellie Alexander and her Tech Guy husband as they reveal the ins and outs of writing. Ellie, who has written for big names like Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, and indie publishers like Storm, shares her journey from story ideas to publishing. Together, they dive into the highs, lows, and funny moments of creating captivating stories. With a blend of humor and honesty, Reality Writes offers a behind-the-scenes look at the writing world. So grab your coffee (or wine) and join Ellie and the Tech Guy for some story-spinning secrets.
Reality Writes
Writer and Reader Scams—How to Avoid Them
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Online scams are getting smarter—and both writers and readers are being targeted.In this episode of Reality Writes, the Tech Guy and I break down the most common scams we’re seeing right now in the publishing and book world.From AI-generated emails inviting authors to fake book clubs, to scammers pretending to be literary agents, to bots impersonating authors on social media—we share real examples of what these scams look like and how to avoid them.We also talk about why we stopped running giveaways on social media after one of my accounts was spoofed, how scammers trick readers into sharing personal information, and why you should never pay for an advance reader copy of a book.Have you experienced any of the scams we discuss in this episode? Any others that we should know about? Help spread the word by letting us know in the comments!
🎉 Join me on Patreon for bonus content.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Rights. I am author Ellie Alexander. This is the podcast where we talk about all things bookish, writer-ish, and life-ish. And I'm here with the tech guy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, and I'm excited today because we're talking, we're getting techie. We're getting techie on reality rights. I mean, not really, but this this is as you know, and a lot of the darlings out there probably do too. This is a subject that's near and dear to my heart because like it just like I I I like to educate people on this, and so I can't wait to dive in. Um, but first, before we get but before we get to today's topic, um we're still buzzing about the release of the Whisking Hour, book 22 and the Big Shop Mysteries. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You believe it.
SPEAKER_02So fun. Thank you all for all of your support and sharing and posting and DMs and emails. Like it's just it's such a delight. It makes me beyond happy that, darlings, you're still coming along for the ride 22 books later. Like, I never fathomed that that would happen. So seriously, like huge gratitude.
SPEAKER_00And be honest for the darlings out there, how many times have you played that Taylor Swift song in the past month?
SPEAKER_02You know, we shouldn't talk about it.
SPEAKER_00You're gonna be number one on Spotify. Number one fan. Gonna get an invite, Taylor. If you're listening, uh, number one fan right there, right there, right next to me, right next to me.
SPEAKER_02I mean, she just set it up so perfectly. How can I not?
SPEAKER_00I know. Um, yeah, a quick segue. I've for some reason, um, on my Instagram feed as of late, uh, there have been a couple of instances of well-known Instagram accounts. Like, you know, there's one husband and wife team, and then another was uh another uh woman who's like a um she does like comedy and stuff. Um, and their reels were about Taylor Swift liking their post. So every time I see one of those, I think of you. I think, oh, it's gonna happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. So, Taylor, if you're out there, please, that would be the best gift in the world. Can you just like one of Tony's posts? That'd be awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Fine.
SPEAKER_00Or start following reality rights.
SPEAKER_02Totally. I'm sure that'll happen. Definitely.
SPEAKER_00Right. But so the whisking hour, um, still buzzing about that, but like as is always the case with you, we've got another book coming up uh that's going to release not too long from now, right?
SPEAKER_02Not too long. Coming up in April, we have A Death in the Dark. This is book two of the novel detectives. And I cannot wait to share this one because Sky Guy and I brainstormed this concept together on a road trip a year and a half ago. And he was a runner in high school and college. And so I had had this idea that a track coach, that the local high school track coach would stumble into Annie and Fletcher's office covered in blood and with no memory of what happened the night before. Is it his blood? Is it someone else's? Is someone hurt? Like, we don't, we don't know. None of these answers we know. But then uh Sky Guy helped me map out all of the running piece, the track stuff behind it. So um, I I had a lot, I mean, I always have fun writing, but I really had fun collaborating with our kiddo on this one, who also just turned 22.
SPEAKER_00That is true.
SPEAKER_02So 22 is my theme song this year.
SPEAKER_00That is true. And for the darlings out there who don't know, Sky Guy is our son. Um, so the reason we refer to him as Sky Guy is you can look him up on Instagram at Sky Guy Customs, all one word. Um, he is an incredible artist and designer and makes very Star Wars specific um uh creations. Not not all Star Wars. I mean, he has branched out to other stuff, but his Sky Guy Customs uh account is full of absolutely incredible creations. Uh, I'm still amazed every single time he comes up with something. He's making he makes cosplay stuff, so helmets and armor and and things of that nature. And I think now what is he on like his fifth or sixth wedding that he's made helmets for now?
SPEAKER_02It's the coolest thing ever. And then yeah, when the the happy couple sends in the pictures after of you know, like all the groomsmen or you know parties involved in the wedding in their helmets and attire, and yeah, it's so cool.
SPEAKER_00He made one uh re recently for a wedding um kind of last late last fall, uh, where he made helmets for the bride and the groom, and he was working with them independent of one another so that they were designing each other's helmets, and so they couldn't see their own helmet. It was, you know, they were uh they were working with him uh separately, and and it they turned out amazing. It was it's so fun to see. So um all born from a COVID era hobby that he started himself and grew it into a business.
SPEAKER_02I know, and I was gonna say, obviously, we're slightly biased since we are his parents. I know I do want like everything I always hear from Darlings, and then anyone who's seen his work, he is genius level when it comes to design and art. So it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I have totally forgotten about what we're talking about today because we got sidetracked. We started talking Star Wars and I just go blank. That's that's so I know.
SPEAKER_02Well, we will get back on track, but I will say for years, the reason the other reason that we called him Sky Guy is because especially when I was early on in my writing career, he was just a little guy. He was in like kindergarten and elementary school when I was first like going out and doing public events. And I never wanted to share him like publicly on social until he had a say in whether or not he wanted to be involved. But I do always, especially, this is especially true during the COVID years when we would do live streams, which reality rights is kind of the evolution of that. I would always ask him, Do you want to come be a special guest? And this is so weird. He always said no. So one of these days, he did do a special guest appearance one time on May the 4th in a helmet.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he was wearing a helmet. Yeah, that's true. It's weird.
SPEAKER_01He doesn't want to be a special guest. Go for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we've we've tried we've tried to and and that actually ties into today's today's episode. Although I will say that when he was three or four years old, like I had him uh in the Sunday New York Times. Um so that's true.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. Like we'll talk about that in the after party. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we'll talk about that in the after party. Uh over on page. Speaking of the after party, uh, for patrons out there, head over to Ellie's Patreon after this episode for the after party, where we have some uh more fun stories about today's topic, and we'll talk a little bit more about Sky Guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_01But today we digress.
SPEAKER_00Right. A lot. A lot. Um today we're talking about scams. Scams. Scams. Uh yeah, so these are things we're gonna talk about scam internet, internet mainly related scams that both writers and authors and readers should look out for and ways to avoid them. And so we're gonna talk about it from things that we've experienced ourselves, and this is not meant to scare anyone, but it is meant to spread awareness and to maybe educate people a little bit so that you can protect yourself and stay safe online and still enjoy content and interactions with your favorite authors. So that's right. Yeah. Yeah. So let's dive into it.
SPEAKER_02Let's dive into it. Yeah. Okay. The first thing I want to talk about on this front, and every professional writer I know over the last six months to eight months has been inundated. And when I say inundated, I mean multiple emails every day that are most likely bots, they're all AI written for sure, um, asking for some kind of solicitation. And this might be that they've been so in love with my book, they want to feature it in their book club for the low, low price of X dollars. Um, or they want to connect me with this whole thread of readers, paid reviews. The list goes on and on. But um, I thought I would read just one because I have a stack of these. So what's great is if you have any sense of discernment as an author, and I really hope you do, because I have had authored friends initially that have fallen for them because they're written so cloyingly. But um, you know when the invitation comes in, an invitation to feature the Cozy Case Files volume 20 at the Literary Circle Book Club. Dear Ellie Alexander, I hope this finds you well. I'm reaching out on behalf of the Literary Circle Book Club, a community of a community community dedicated to celebrating engaging character-driven storytelling across genres with a special appreciation for mysteries that delight and entertain readers. Okay. What is Cozy Case Files volume?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's explain that uh for the darlings out there.
SPEAKER_02This is just a free collection that my publisher puts out that has, I don't know, like five to six first chapters of upcoming mysteries that are publishing in the next six months. So it'll be me and like Reese Bowen and Olivia Black, and you know, what have Vivian Chen, like whatever new mysteries are coming from McMillan, they'll do a collection of cozy case files that they put out for free. So I I can't even read you the rest. It's seven paragraphs of just blowing smoke up my ass of how the cozy case files has moved them. It's such compelling, still compelling, fine-tingling work. It's not even a book. Like and then those first chapters hit though.
SPEAKER_00They hit hard.
SPEAKER_02They really hit that sample. I'm in. Edge of my seat, up all night, couldn't wait to finish it.
SPEAKER_00Leaves you wanting more, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02That's true. You gotta give them that. This is just one example of many that I get every day, and it's always that. And the really fascinating thing is some of them come to my personal email, which is not associated with my Ellie Alexander work at all, too. And it'll be the same thing. I read the book, first book of novel detectives, and for the low, low price of $2,000. Okay, this is a scam. If you are a new writer and you're getting these, these are not real book clubs. Real book clubs are not going to ask you to pay them to come talk about your book. I run a book club at our mist at our local bookstore. It's free. Everybody gets to come. You can buy the book at the library, like or get it. You can, yeah, you please buy it from the store if you're able because you know we want to keep our indie bookstores open. But also like, oh yeah, it but it is a gauntlet. It's non-stop. It's every day, and it doesn't matter how many times I put them in junk. And then for me, the problem is we have an email messaging um set up on the website. And so then some of them come through that, and I can't just flag that as junk.
SPEAKER_00So I do often have to skim them, but yeah, we really gotta ride our yeah, we we really gotta ride our web our webmaster to get a better uh contact form set up to screen that stuff. I mean, that guy is dropping the ball.
SPEAKER_02Come on, man. Come on. Yeah, yeah. But my point is it is. It's not that because it's coming in through my personal and we're like, it's just it's insidious, it's everywhere. These are not.
SPEAKER_00These are all right. And and these are all written by AI.
SPEAKER_02All written by AI. They all sound the same.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02If I lined each one up, you'd be like, oh yeah, that's oh, they just copied that. And all of them are, you know, it's this glowing praise about how moving the story was, how these, you know, book clubs, reviewers, etc., are going to put your book in front of all of these readers and that you are going to pay them to do that. Do not do that. Don't even click on the links.
SPEAKER_00Well, okay. So so we're gonna get to I I have a couple of questions about this, but since you just mentioned it, I want to just I want to pause things for a second and talk about links in emails. So and this doesn't just go for bookish related scams. This is any email. Like if the darlings out there listening right now, if you receive an email from someone that you don't know and it has a link in it, don't click the link. If it has an attachment on it, don't open the attachment. Don't ever do that. Don't ever do that. Um but with links specifically, there's a super easy way to protect yourself. And that is in in emails, in is that if you just if you get the email and the email has loaded in the preview window and you just hover the mouse cursor over the link, it will show you a little context window will pop up and it will show you the actual URL that that link will go to because there are two different things. You can you can link any text in an email. So somebody can type out https colon slash slash www.google.com and actually make that text link to yahoo.com if they wanted to, um, you know, or to a site that will install malware or spyware or anything, any sort of nefarious virus on your on your computer. So if you just hover over the link, if you're unsure, and whatever pops up in that context window doesn't match what's written in the email, run. Just hit the trash can icon. If it's important, that person will call you, they'll get a hold of you some other way. Like there is no reason to put yourself at risk by clicking a link like that from somebody that you don't know. So that being said, um, with the the um with the these messages that are coming in for these, you know, great opportunities and these book clubs and everything, like what are some of the things that you, Ellie, um would advise people to look for that to spot these and and to suss them out as being sus for lack of a better word?
SPEAKER_02I mean, first and foremost, tone, right? You can tell right away that this is written by AI, um, as well as I because real book clubs will and have reached out, right? They're usually um gonna have a name attached to them. They're not gonna have, it's not gonna be 17 paragraphs long talking about a specific book. It's gonna be a personal request. It might be like our book club meets on Tuesday nights on Zoom. Could you join us then? But I mean, you know, the problem is AI is getting better. And so I understand. And especially as somebody maybe who's a new author, you might immediately think, like, oh wow, this is incredible. Like, I of course I want to meet with this book club because I want to have more readers read my book. So just really like using discernment. Again, no one is gonna ask you to, no book club is going to ask you to pay them money. I think this is the baseline for today's episode because this goes into the next few things that we're gonna talk about as well. The other email scams that are going around from a writer perspective are agents. So I got one a couple of weeks ago. Again, just cloyingly sweet about how incredible the bake shop mysteries are, what a huge opportunity it would be for me to get these traditionally published and into bookstores. And um, this agent had found my manuscript so many questions here, and was wanting to offer me representation. So the Big Shop Mysteries behind me. Uh, sorry, darlings, if you're just listening, 22 books. Uh, my agent is public. Like, if you look up my agent, you'll know that. And I already have a publishing contract with McMillan. But again, like I think these are the sort of things that a new author might get really excited about. Oh my goodness, I've gotten an email from an agent. Did you send this person your manuscript? Did you query this person? No. Does an agent or an editor ever ask you for money? No, that's a scam. An agent or editor should never ask you for money to read a manuscript. That's just in general. First of all, they're not likely going to seek out they're 100% never gonna seek out an unsolicited manuscript that they don't know exists. Let's say that you've been indie published. There's an there could be a circumstance where an agent or editor might reach out and go, wow, you know, I've seen your indie stuff. I'd love to have a conversation. Well, that would be legit. They're not gonna ask you to send them money to have said conversation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I so an easy way to look at these um these emails that come in and determine whether or not they're real. Um, you know, because with generative AI, it's getting better and better and better, and it's it's going to become harder, much harder to distinguish between what's real and what's not real. But an easy way to uh figure out if this is a legitimate offer or not, it a lot of the times is to look at the email address that this was sent from. Because many times, not every time, so this is not something that you should just go, oh, the email looks good to me. I'm gonna do this. Um, the the easiest way is to look at it and and see, like if it's Gregory 684279187, you know, like uh at gmail.com. Probably not a real dude. You know, probably not a real dude because seriously, who's gonna have that email address? Nobody. I mean, nobody, nobody's gonna have that email address. Um and it that that is more than likely there are thousands of accounts set up just like that, where the digits are different and the messages go out the same way because what happens is internet service providers start blacklisting those domains or the those email addresses, and they get they get sent to the to the spam folders and and just deleted. Sometimes not even they're not even able to be delivered to you. But so the scammers just generate thousands of these accounts and they just keep sending the same thing over and over and over again. So look at the email addresses, read the read the text, um, and don't pay money for services that you shouldn't pay money for.
SPEAKER_02Don't pay money for any services. And okay, so this segues us into scams that can impact readers. One thing that I've been seeing a lot of, especially on social media, is um these bots sliding into readers' DMs and saying, like, hey, golden opportunity, you get to read the new Ellie Alexander Bake Shop Mystery number 23 before it gets into the hands of any other readers. Just click this link to pay $500 and you're gonna get an early copy delivered to your email. No, that's never gonna happen. Again, much like with agents, editors, book clubs, from a reader perspective. Do advanced reader copies get sent out to readers? Yes. Do readers pay for those? No, never. So you're never gonna get a solicitation from an author, an agent, a publishing house, a publicist, et cetera, asking you to pay money for that. And if you do, it's either a bot or a scam, or it's a really unscrupulous author for whom you don't want to be connected at all.
SPEAKER_00Totally, totally. Well, and and that is also uh that's been happening with giveaways as well.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and and it is the reason a lot of people may have noticed that Ellie doesn't run any giveaways on social media anymore. And the reason for that is a year and a half ago now, maybe I don't know, a while ago.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, could be a little while, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we we because we used to do this routinely. We used to give always send copies of your latest books as they were coming up, and you know, we Do it across Facebook and Instagram and you know, Twitter at the time and stuff. But um, we had an incident happen where an uh your account got spoofed on Facebook and fooled some readers into filling out personal information and in one case payment information um on an account that looked like yours on Facebook but wasn't yours. Um and that you should never pay for a giveaway. There, there are there are legitimate contests that require payment, not in the reader world. I'm just talking specific, you know, like in general. But the thing, but the thing about those is that there are so many laws, both nationally and state-based laws, for uh contests like that, that most people don't do them because it's it's so difficult to, you know, fit uh a contest into um and and be in line with all of those laws. So giveaways are generally just like you don't have to do anything. You maybe it's leave a comment, like a post, whatever. But the problem is that the bots have kind of taken over social media, especially Facebook. Facebook is just a dumpster fire of bots and scammers when it comes to giveaways, especially because they're just constantly scraping the post, looking for keywords like giveaway, and then they just hammer it and and set up fake accounts and try to trick people into getting things. So that's something to be aware of. Um, we we've moved all giveaways to Ellie's email newsletter and her Patreon account because those are two official channels that we have full control over. Um and so if you want to get in on a giveaway, like the the easiest way is to sign up for Ellie's email newsletter or sign up uh to become a patron over at Patreon. Um and that way we can we can actually safely run giveaways and ensure that readers stay safe while being able to share new books and merch and everything with them.
SPEAKER_02I know, and it's such a bummer because I'd love doing giveaways and I always have a whole closet full of books. Um, and I just refuse to put readers at risk. And it's happened to so many of my author friends too. So that's just a no. And like in this, it's like, oh, you're gonna win the free book, but you know, you just have to put your credit card in to pay for the shipping. No, if you win a book from me, I'm paying for the shipping. Like you pay nothing, zero dollars. Today's theme. Say it with me, darlings. Zero dollars. Readers, writers, zero dollars. Um I think the other thing that I thought of in terms of social media that has an impact potentially on writers is that there are these places where you can go and buy a lot of followers. Can you talk about that a little bit?
SPEAKER_00I don't it's gonna make me angry. I'm getting angry. Okay, so it's simple. It's simple. No, I mean it's it's it's just dead simple. Like, you cannot buy followers, you just you can't, you can't for a number of reasons, but that is like you cannot buy followers, period, full stop. Like, even if the followers you buy from somebody who's offering to grow your Instagram account to 100,000 followers, even if they were real people, which they are not going to be, and I'll get into that, but even if they were real people, these are not people that found you authentically. These are not people who are interested in what you're pitching, interested in what you're creating. These are just random people that may never actually even engage with their social media account. So you're paying money to increase a vanity number. And that is like engagement is what grows your community, your reader community. As a writer, engagement is what grows your reader community. A vanity number is not valuable to you at all. Like at all. And I say that as somebody who's worked in the marketing and advertising industry for well, more years than I care to mention right now, but a lot.
SPEAKER_01But a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, you are going to get nowhere with a hundred thousand followers in countries where your book isn't even offered, where people don't even speak the language that your book is published in. You're gonna get nowhere. There it it is of zero value to you. Also, 99% of the time, those accounts are all going to just be bots. They're going to be accounts that if you go and look at them, they will have been created within the last month or two. They will have zero followers, they will have zero posts, and they will be following like a hundred to a thousand other accounts, most of which are going to be the other bots that are now following you.
SPEAKER_01Right. Bots following bots. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so as a writer, if I could get one message out there from an internet marketing perspective for new writers, do not pay to buy followers. Just don't do it. Don't do it. Agreed. I mean, and anybody who has followed you, us, you mainly you, uh, for any amount of time knows that we have worked very hard to grow the community that that we have built over the years. And we've done that through authentic engagement. Um, we've done that through fun content, fun activities, um, but always in the effort to pull in people who want to engage with you, who want to consume the content, who want to interact with us. Um and we've never paid to try and get a number to a certain other number on any platform.
SPEAKER_02No, you know. No, I you I and I say this to all of the writers who I coach. It's so much better to have 10 followers who are engaged and interested in who you're building a relationship versus 10,000 bots. Like it, yeah, it doesn't matter. But again, uh the baseline for this goes back to money now on the writing side. Do not pay money for followers. Do not pay money for a book club. I sound like a broken record, but um, yeah, I mean it's a lot that you have to pay attention to as a writer and as a reader now as well.
SPEAKER_00And there's nobody out there on the internet, and I will debate them one-on-one, anytime, any place. There is nobody out there on the internet that can tell you that for a thousand dollars they'll they'll grow your account to a hundred thousand followers and that can guarantee that those a hundred thousand followers are going to be authentic people who are truly, really, truly interested in your content. They cannot do that. That is done through hard work and effort. Um, that is done through treating writing as a craft, as your job, as your way of life, and engaging with people that uh you know are interested in you what you are creating. And that's it. That's that it's that simple. Um, you are going to get so much farther as a writer. If you have a hundred followers who spread the joy of your writing through word of mouth to their friends and family and post online about it, then you are with a hundred thousand followers, ninety thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine or whatever of which don't ever engage with your content.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02No, so true. I know we got we got the tech guy fired up today, darlings. Um, yeah, but I I think the takeaway should be no money, no money, no money. I'm just really using discernment in terms of thinking about like, is this real? Does this seem odd? Does this seem too good to be true? Did I submit a manuscript? Etc.
SPEAKER_00Right. And discernment, and just slow down. Like take take a beat and think twice, think 12 times about what you would be signing up for. Is that thousand dollars that this person asks that you know that they're asking for, is that gonna get you what you want? Um if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It definitely is online. Like if it sounds good too good to be true, it's a scam.
SPEAKER_02Um it's a scam.
SPEAKER_00100% of the time. Uh it's just, you know, just slow down, take your time, don't click links that you don't uh, you know, from any emails that you aren't expecting, and and don't pay money for services that you shouldn't have to pay for.
SPEAKER_01That's right. We're doing work.
SPEAKER_00And I mean, uh I started this out by saying, like, I didn't I didn't want this episode to be about fear for people. Like the, you know, there there are scary people out there on the internet. There are thousands of people that are trying to get your information, that are trying to get your payment info, that are trying to get your identity and do very bad things. But there are millions of people out there who are honest, happy readers and writers that just want to engage with each other and consume content in in, you know, a way that makes them happy. And so hopefully this episode will help some writers out there stay away from the scams and readers um and and just enjoy the books that everybody's trying to put out and uh and consume in the world out there.
SPEAKER_02And I already have a plan for Ashland Mystery Fest and these scammers. So if you're coming in the fall, get ready. That's my teaser.
SPEAKER_00I don't even know what it is, so I'm intrigued.
SPEAKER_02Yay. Well, you have to wait and see. On that note.
SPEAKER_00On that note, until next time. Until next time, I'm not sure.
