Welcome Back – to the Dark Side: Exposing AI-Driven Book Marketing Scams

Hi all, Alesia here. I’ve come back refreshed after a hiatus from professional writing, excited about the new stories from Menelon that Michael and I are telling. As you have probably seen, we are working on a new character-driven “romantasy” series built on what we learned from writing—and marketing—the first two books of the old Raven & Iris series. The second draft of the new book is almost complete, and we hope to have the book published by the time you’re looking for your next summer read!

As for the Raven & Iris series, their sales pages have languished on AMZN ever since we set them aside. So, you can probably imagine my utter astonishment when an email hit my inbox at the end of 2025 expressing interest in Raven’s Tears and offering to place it on “curated discovery lists and reader spaces” in order to get it seen by more readers.

The email was unsolicited, but it looked good. Really good, in fact, but there were some things about it that triggered alarm bells. As I went through the process of verifying what was in the email—and what wasn’t—I learned that these kinds of scams have become all-too-commonly experienced by indie authors and small press publishers. That was disappointing, but it did inspire me to write this post about the latest predatory practices in book marketing scams.

Buckle up, it’s time to take a dive into the dark-side uses of AI to part authors from their hard-earned money—and to talk about what we as authors can do to protect ourselves from them.

Understanding the AI Marketing Boom

True confession time: I have not been a huge fan of AI to date. But, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape various industries and the world of literature is not exempt. While AI offers innovative tools for effective content creation and marketing, its potentials for abuse by bad actors have surpassed even my worst speculations. But facts are facts: The Pandora’s Box of artificial intelligence has been opened, and there is no going back.

AI has transformed the way we approach everything, including marketing, and it does hold promising potential. From predictive analytics that identify reader preferences to automated content generation that can help authors streamline their outreach efforts, smart use of AI can make some marketing chores easier on authors and small press publishers. We can harness AI tools to analyze data, generate drafts for engaging social media posts, and even personalize email campaigns to target sub-groups in our audiences. But—and it is a huge “but”—the legitimate uses of AI in book marketing give easy in-roads to bad actors and their deceptive practices designed to exploit authors’ feelings and aspirations.

Let me show you how one such attempt recently went with us.

Spotting the Bright Red Flags

As I mentioned above, the initial outreach email was unsolicited. Its arrival was a surprise and came from a “consultant” using a Gmail address. That was the first red flag. Any legitimate consulting firm will have its own domain name and email addresses for its employees. Using a Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, or other “throwaway” addresses, as this sender did, made me suspicious almost at once.

Bemused, I read on. The email was well-written and very flattering. The sender spoke of Raven’s Tears in terms that warmed my heart, I’ll admit. Their summation of the characters and the plot seemed so genuine that it took a second reading for me to notice that some details were just wrong. These were details that a human being should not have missed, but that an AI scraping the book’s sales page probably would. They described it as a “historical romance,” which it is not. It’s “fantasy romance,” or “romantasy” if you like—an adventurous love story set in a fantasy city on a fantasy world. If you’ve read Raven’s Tears you may have noted its similarities to 19th century London—apparently, so did the AI that this person used to scrape the web for reviews. Unlike that AI however, you probably realized right away that those similarities did not make the book “historical fiction.” They were merely a tonal bridge, a “seeming” that we hoped would make the setting relatable and hopefully easier to understand.

The next faux-pas was neglecting to include a way for us to verify their claims. A website, a presence on social media outlets, a listing on sites like TrustPilot, or even professional references would have gone a long way to prove that they were who they said they were, and that they could do what they promised to do. However, it took three email exchanges before the sender at last “remembered” to send us a web link. In the meantime, a few web searches on the sender’s name turned up nothing related to book marketing or consulting.

As my grandmother always said, “If it doesn’t smell right, don’t eat it.”

By this point I was pretty sure this was a scam, except: The sender did not once ask me for money. They mentioned an offer, but without undue pressure. I found this curious because most scammers want to get a credit card number as soon as possible, before their target realizes they’re being scammed. They promise phenomenal results for their target price, then will even offer to discount it “specially for you.” And in the face of delay, most resort to the standard pressure tactics: an offer expiring in mere days, if not hours; only a few more slots available for the offer, etc.

So I continued to play along, and when the website link finally arrived in the third email, I visited it. The reason for the delay was apparent almost at once. For someone who’s been creating and maintaining websites since the days of Geocities, it was painfully obvious that this site had been slapped together in a hurry on a “no code” site. The sender’s name did not appear anywhere. In fact, no employee names appeared on the site. The images were stock, and pointless at that. The testimonials were so fake I actually LOL’ed pretty hard.

All through the email exchanges, the sender attempted to keep me engaged by offering a “personalized, no-obligation outline showing which platforms, lists, and visibility channels would be the strongest fit for Raven’s Tears.” They finally sent it along with the link to that fake website. That outline was so vague, so packed full of jargon that it was the unnecessary “final nail in the coffin” that they had tried to sell me.

Needless to say, they did not receive any response. 🙂

How to Protect Yourself—and Your Book

After going through that, I put together a list of tips that any author can use to keep from falling for AI-assisted book marketing scams.

1. Do Your Due Diligence: Investigate any marketing service before committing. Do the web searches, study the content on any links they provide. Look for reviews, testimonials, and discussions within online authors' communities about similar offers to see if the scam has already been exposed by other authors.
2. Seek Recommendations: Connect with fellow authors and ask for recommendations based on their experiences. First-hand accounts can guide you towards trustworthy services and point you away from scam artists.
3. Stay Informed: Subscribe to newsletters from sources that keep track of the latest AI book marketing scams. Sites like The Authors’ Guild and Writers Weekly are trusted sources that provide the kind of reliable information you need to keep yourself and your work safe from predators.
4. Trust Your Instincts: As my grandmother always said, “If it doesn’t smell right, don’t eat it.” Be skeptical upon receiving unsolicited emails, especially from “book marketing consultants” using a throw-away address. If what they’re promising doesn’t “smell right” to you, “don’t eat it!”
5. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is: Don’t let praise or flattery blind you to what is often right in front of you. And most especially, think twice and then thrice before handing over your credit card information to anyone, especially if they promise fantastical results.

Conclusion

In the end, I do believe that using AI in book marketing has the potential to elevate authors and boost literary careers. It’s just that, as with any technological advancement, there are always going to be those who try to exploit the vulnerable for a quick profit. Stay vigilant and educate yourself about book marketing scams, especially AI-assisted scams. With just a little extra work and some diligence, you can navigate this complex landscape and still focus on what truly matters: sharing your story with the world.

Always remember, effective marketing is built on authenticity and engagement, not AI shortcuts or gimmicks. Stay safe out there, and if you have a similar story to share, tell us about it in the comments!