The scourge of AI author spam

26 August 2026

Back in the golden days before 2023 I enjoyed receiving emails through the ‘contact me’ page on my website. I didn’t get that many, but the people that did bother to get in touch were usually readers who enjoyed reading a book of mine and wanted to tell me so (a sure-fire way to make an author’s day) or an enterprising marketeer touting their genuine services for book promotion. I never took them up on it but fair play, if they’d bothered to research me and take the time to get in touch then I’d send them a polite no thanks in return.

Now nearly all of the emails I receive through my website contact form, and also via my personal email address that scammers somehow have got hold of, are AI slop spam.

The first time one arrived, asking whether I wanted to be interviewed by a global book club, I was nearly convinced until I googled the aforementioned book club and it didn’t exist. Since then more and more spam emails have come flooding in. All it takes is for a scammer to type my name into an LLM and out comes a precis of my books, which enables them to sound like they’ve actually read them and send me over-gushing praise. The exception was the emailer who waxed lyrical about my series of spicy cowboy romances. Sorry love, that’s not me …

What they want of course is my money. If anyone falls for it and replies they’ll be hit with a request for payment to be featured, which of course will never happen. The scammers are becoming more sophisticated too, moving from touting non-existent book clubs/fairs/groups to pretending to be from real people and organisations.

Earlier this year my heart rose for a couple of seconds when I saw an email from a very well- known crime festival asking me to be on a panel. This is a prestigious festival I’d love to be a part of. The name of the sender matched the festival director’s and so did the email address … until I spotted it was from a free email account, which is a telltale spammer sign. Literary festival organisers secure their authors a long time in advance and usually via a writer’s agent or publisher. This email was sent a couple of months before the festival. Fake!

Thankfully none of the scammers have got past me but I feel for those who may have been fooled. Scammers search the internet for authors, usually new or less well-known ones, because they know that these are the demographic who are desperate for opportunities to progress in their careers. A reply from an author elicits a request for money to secure their spot, or for publicity, or whatever reason they think they can get away with, which will lead to, yes you’ve guessed it, the scammer wanting even more money for absolutely nothing.

My best advice is to delete these spam emails straight away.

Recently, however, I was so annoyed with another tranche of spam plopping into my email account that I did the wrong thing and replied to one.

Here’s the email I received. I’ve removed the name of the book club:

‘Hello, 

I hope you’re doing well.

My name is Charlotte, and I serve as an organizer with The ** Book Club, a North Carolina, USA-based reading community dedicated to bringing readers and authors together through books that encourage thoughtful discussion, meaningful dialogue, and lasting engagement.

As we prepare our upcoming editorial features, we are inviting a select number of authors to collaborate with us on showcasing a book that deserves deeper reader attention. Rather than simply promoting a title, our goal is to create a professionally curated feature that helps readers connect with the ideas behind the book while giving the author greater visibility, discoverability, and meaningful reader engagement.

If this opportunity interests you, we would be delighted to learn which of your books you believe would resonate most strongly with our community.

Each feature is developed as an editorial and design-driven collaboration. Our team manages the complete planning and creative production, including editorial preparation, professionally designed promotional materials, reader discussion guides, engagement questions, presentation assets, and a post-event summary that reflects the conversations generated throughout the feature.

To ensure every feature receives the time, attention, and creative resources it deserves, we work through a shared collaboration model. While our editorial and design teams invest their expertise in producing the feature, participating authors make a collaborative contribution that helps support the development of the event and its accompanying creative assets. This partnership allows us to deliver a polished and meaningful experience that benefits both our readers and the featured author.

Above all, our objective is to help exceptional books reach new readers, encourage authentic discussion, and create lasting interest that extends beyond the event itself.

If you feel one of your books would be a good fit for this type of editorial feature, simply reply with the title you would like us to consider. I’ll be happy to share the next steps, explain how the collaboration works in greater detail, and answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We would be delighted to explore the opportunity of featuring your work with The *** Book Club.

Warm regards,

Charlotte’

Here’s my reply:

‘Dear Charlotte (if that really is your name) 

Thank you for your AI derived email to me that took you absolutely no time or effort at all.  I always love to engage with readers but never pay for publicity. Please be aware that my minimum fee is £500 to reflect the time and effort I’ve spent on my writing my books rather than producing some LLM vomited up content that’s been scraped from stolen work on the internet, and to renumerate me for the time I endure sifting through spam AI emails when I could be writing a new book.

If you’d like to pay my fee then do get back in touch! 

Kind regards

Penny’

Should I have replied? No. By doing so scammers know the email address is an acitive account and I’ll probably receive even more spam in the future. No doubt ‘Charlotte’ will delete my email and carry on scamming. But boy did my sarcastic reply feel good!

As of yet I haven’t received a reply …