Q –

Good afternoon Angela,

Sorry to keep bothering you about these, I trust your word and know you’re a lot more educated than I am on these emails if they are scams or not… Would you mind telling if this one is a scam or not?

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A –

One hundred percent of the time, when someone writers in asking me if something is a scam, IT IS. The first clue with this one was the author got spammed.

I’m going to paraphrase the garbage email sent to this author below (with my snarky comments inserted in italics). ENJOY!

Dear (author first name, author last name),

(Who addresses an email that way??)

Good day,

(This greeting tells me it’s from a foreign company.)

I’m writing to you as a distributor that works closely with resellers in the literary sector.

(Cough Cough! B.S.!)

Your book, *(title removed)*, has piqued the interest of our resellers.

(More B.S.! Do you know why they put asterisks around the book’s title? So that they can easily find that part of the spam email when emailing other authors. Copy, paste, send! Copy, paste send! That job must SUCK!! And, trust me, this person has NEVER read, much less seen, this author’s book. It is probably somebody working in a spam factory overseas.)

I wanted to congratulate you for writing such a thought-provoking piece of literature (eye roll…). Many people have been drawn in by your captivating tale and the depth of your writing. As a result, I’ve received a substantial number of requests from resellers (liar!!!) wanting to stock your book.

(The B.S. has gotten so thick that I can’t breathe. Unfortunately, this type of false flattery actually works on some people.)

Given the increased demand (there is no demand!), I’d like to look into providing your book on
consignment to our reseller partners. Consignment arrangements have shown to be mutually advantageous, allowing us to provide a larger distribution reach (blah blah blah blah blah).

(Sounds good, right? Problem is, they’re going to make this author pay a LOT of money and she will likely earn absolutely zero in return.)

If you are interested in this offer, I would be delighted to supply you with further information (more blah blahs). Rest assured that the integrity of your book and your interests as an author will be our top concerns….

(Total garbage statement! They’re far more interested in diving into this author’s wallet than they are in being concerned with the integrity of the author’s book, much less the integrity of themselves!)

Just one peek at their website tells me all I need to know about this company. It says:

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