"Hello! I hope you are doing well."  

And so it begins. A tempting line in my inbox that tugs me in for a closer look.  A Senior Editor of a major publishing house, or a marketing expert, or a coordinator for a large reader community- from Goodreads, no less!  They're all fake. Scams.  The temptation to fall for their pitch is real. First, he/she gives me a delightful synopsis of my book, up to two full paragraphs. As I read, the description of my book and its many wonders sounds a little too familiar.  Their best friend, Mr. AI, has been turned loose on the words I wrote for my blurb or synopsis and turned them into a lengthy treatise on what a timely, fascinating, flawless book I have written.  Surely, I'm in the same club as Harper Lee - it is wonderful!

If my ego survives hearing what a great author I am and how fabulous my book is, then I get treated to what the editor, agent, marketer, etc is offering to do for me and my book - to make me famous - to earn the awards I deserve  -  to draw the attention of movie producers- to make the New York Times Best Seller list, and more, so much more.  I get treated to the wealth of their knowledge and experience, with an action plan, complete with bullet points, as I wade through another four or five detailed paragraphs.  Some email fakers also tempt me with the promise of publishing my next book, waving the banner of a glowing career in my face, tempting me with the one thing every aspiring author desires - THE TWO-BOOK DEAL WITH A NEW YORK BIG 5 PUBLISHER - accompanied by a massive four-figure ADVANCE!  What could be better?

I started out trying to be nice. If I responded at all, I wrote, "Thank you for your interest. However, I don't pay book clubs to read my book, or I'm under contract, so you can't mess with my Amazon keywords or my ' positioning '. "  I learned quickly this only eggs them on. I get another email, offering more delights, a payment plan,  or trimming the action plan if necessary, etc., etc.  I'm learning to hit the delete button without even reading the dang email. I know how it will go, and I know how it will end.  I only wish I knew how to make them stop cluttering up my inbox.

It's a shame that authors are bombarded with such emails. I must get four or five every day, sometimes more. I read that before trashing them. I should mark them as spam. But it's like all the scam phone calls we receive. They constantly change the sender's email, name, tagline, and the tempting hooks keep flying into my inbox. I also read that I shouldn't publish my email on my website or anywhere else. Well, that's a problem. I want to be available to the legit people.  I have a tracker on my website, and I see I get views from all over the world.  So, to all of you out there in the AI ether, I have one message I want to share:

I'm sorry you need to make a living by stealing from vulnerable people and not delivering on your promises. Please find another line of work. Dig ditches, hustle hamburgers or fancy coffee, or deliver the morning newspaper.  Those jobs may not pay much, but they're honorable, and you can feel proud of yourself at the end of the day.  

I write not for a living, but for the joy of it. A wise publisher once told me. "If you want to make a lot of money from writing books, you're in the wrong business."