I’ve been inundated with spam aimed at authors. Spammers pretending to be publishers, literary agents, publicists, book club organizers, radio station honchos, movie moguls, library system administrators, etc. They all want to drool over my book. In fact a good 20% of them inform me that they came across my book.
Eudora spam filter instruction: change subject to “Ewww”
They want to feature my book or represent it or publish it (even though the only titles they ever mention are already published), if only I’ll sign up with them and send them a special reduced price for the privilege…
These parasites are disproportionately writing to me from gmail addresses. Out of over 1600 such spam emails that I’ve been saving in a “Book Scams”, 1359 of them are from gmail accounts and only 339 are from other domains. In contrast, looking at my non-spam email in various email folders from the current year I have 775 emails from gmail users and 5182 from other domains.
I’ve looked up ways of contacting gmail administration at Google and sent reports that included the email accounts and subject lines and dates: insert sound of crickets chirping.
Fuckit. New Eudora filter. If it’s addressed to my primary email address and comes from gmail, filter into Book Scams and delete from server immediately. I’ll fish out the legitimate ones and add them to my address book which will give them future immunity from this.
I’m surprised your own mail service’s spam filter lets all those emails through. I still have my almost 30 years old Hotmail address (now named, like everything MS email, Outlook), and though Hotmail once was notorious for getting spammed, for many years I have rarely gotten spam, and if yes, it lands in my personal spam folder. I also have a t-online.de and a Gmail address and don’t get spam there, either.
If they aren’t trying to scam you, they’re trying to get you to take their writing course so they can make some money because their own book advance didn’t cover the bills. It’s a whole racket.
But I bet you did not get spam from Reese Witherspoon! Ted Gioia writes about his experience with a similar spam wave hitting his inbox. I find that interesting:
It seems AI is taking spam to a new level. Fucking annoying indeed.
Why I am being spared those amazing offerings is starting to wear me down the more I read about what others get. My spam is so anodine by comparison. I am doing something wrong.
I think I’ve never received a valid Gmail email ever (maybe some spam mails, but those I don’t count). At least here in Germany, it’s the email address you got when you first signed up for an Android device, and then totally forget about forever and never check. At least that’s the case for me.
I have gmail accounts among my email addresses, and most of my spam is fake Medicare “kits” and the same Lowe’s/Walmart special. I’ve had one “Ooh, I’m an acquisitions agent, and your novel is just sooo [insert AI slop summary stolen from reviews here], so dooo let me knooow if you have similar manuscripts.”
I get some of this spam, too, but in much lower volumes. It all goes into my junk folder automatically; I have no idea why, no doubt my employer (a university)has appropriate settings. What makes the spam so hard is the honesty and accuracy of the pitch: “your book is a brilliant, etc. needed now more than, etc., of interest, even need, to a vast audience.” Finally, a reader who gets it! Sigh.
it’s my hotmail account (yes they still exist) that is getting spammed mercilessly lately. 63 new ones in the last 24 hours. My Gmail’s been pretty damn quiet in that regard.
Weird. Most of the time when I email clients, if they don’t have a company specific address it’s often Gmail. My main email has been Gmail for over 20 years.
I think it’s a regional/cultural difference. Gmail really never took off in Germany, and older people like me mostly still have their first email address and provider from the early days of the internet as their main email, when providers like T-Online, Hotmail, web.de or gmx.de ruled.
