As an indie author, one of my biggest challenges is marketing and book promotion. Fact.
Warning- rant incoming!
As an indie author, my biggest bug bear so far in 2026, is the constant flood of emails that are cascading into my inbox, all AI written, telling me how much they enjoyed my book, how wonderfully written my books are, how strong my characters are, how emotional my storytelling is blah blah blah as they then try to scam me into signing up for some out of this world marketing proposal.
Cut the crap out, folks! I’m not believing a single ChatGPT word of it!
More recently, these chancers have tried another tactic and are claiming to be from book clubs around the country who are wanting to feature my book for one of their monthly meetings. I’ve looked into a few and they are fake. They don’t exist.
Cut the crap out, folks! I’m not believing a single ChatGPT word of it!
Perhaps the lowest of the low approaches is where they are pretending to be another author reaching out so we can support each other’s work.
Cut the crap out, folks! I’m not believing a single ChatGPT word of it!
What worries me though with all this AI spam is that perhaps in amongst this rubbish there is a genuine email and I miss a legitimate approach. How am I meant to tell in this messed up world where AI and not humans is generating the emails?
Answers on a postcard please. Yes- a literal postcard, with a handwritten message and a stamp in the top right corner and that has been sent through the mail.
(image sourced via Google- credits to the owner)
Coral McCallum 