January 7, 2026 — 4:00pm
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Morgan Blake sounds like a lovely fellow. He came across my novel Murder in Punch Lane and thinks it really deserves to reach more people, maybe via the BookTok community. “I have an exciting idea that could help your book gain some serious traction,” he writes in his email. “Want me to share the details?”
My writer friend Stephen Downes got a much longer and more effusive email from Jenny Conwell (note the name) about his book The Hands of Pianists. “Your novel sits at exactly the intersection that serious readers seek,” she writes. She’s proposing a visibility campaign: “The book exists. The prize exists. What’s missing is the bridge between them and the readers who would champion this work.”
Scammers using AI tools such as Chatbot are increasingly targeting authors with flattery and extravagant promises. iStock
Isn’t that fantastic? Offers from out of the blue to promote the bejesus out of our books and find the hordes of readers who will really appreciate them. But we aren’t bothering to reply. Because we reckon Morgan and Jenny don’t exist.
We reckon they are AI creations pushing the latest scam flooding hapless authors’ inboxes. I can’t count how many offers I’ve received lately that are eager to promote books I haven’t actually written. One came in the other day from Raji Mariam, “online visibility reputation specialist”, written entirely in German. He wants to promote my steamy love story Baccara Weekend Band 56. Sorry, Raji. Wrong Jane Sullivan.
But these messages are becoming more and more sophisticated. I don’t believe any of the senders have read my novel or Downes’ novel, but they (or their AI tools) are getting very good at hoovering up book blurbs and reviews and judges’ comments. They play shamelessly on authors’ emotions with outrageous flattery and extravagant promises. And let’s face it, the writer who believes his or her book didn’t get promoted enough is an almost universal figure.
The Australian Society of Authors says there has been a “marked uptick” in these kinds of scams, as well as emails purporting to be from publishing houses, agents or Hollywood producers falling over themselves to adapt your book into a film.
“With the increased availability of AI tools, email scams are becoming more personalised, realistic and targeted, using AI-generated copy to address you by name and provide details of your book, giving the impression they are a real person who has read your work,” says the post on the ASA website. If authors follow up on the invitations, sooner or later they are asked to pay upfront fees for work that is never done.
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One highly convincing email I received claimed to be from the Melbourne-based Classic Book Club, very interested in selecting my latest novel for their club discussions. There is indeed a Melbourne-based Classic Book Club, but when I enquired, they hadn’t sent me an email. Not surprising: my book came out in 2024, which hardly qualifies it to be a classic.
Recently, The Guardian reported on a website using various names to promote an apparent international network of publishers, with AI-generated images of the CEO, the fiction and non-fiction editors and the head of publishing operations. It looked very real, very professional and succeeded in getting unsuspecting aspiring writers to hand over their money to attain the dream of getting published. Other websites have used fake testimonials from real authors.
So how should authors protect themselves? Be very wary of unsolicited emails. Look out for descriptions of your book that seem somewhat vague, or over-reliant on comments already in the public domain. The ASA lists links to helpful services such as Scamwatch or the Writer Beware blog. And remember: if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
Janesullivan.sullivan9@gmail.com
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Jane Sullivan is a books columnist and reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.From our partners