Hours after emailing a biographer friend about the dearth of opportunities for me to talk about my new biography (about a writer famous in her home country of Ireland but virtually unknown in the U.S.), I received an email that made me smile.
A book club in a nearby community wanted to feature my book at their upcoming meeting. I could choose to participate in "an informal Q&A," or "drop in for a casual chat," or "simply have [my] book featured during the session." The signature included a slightly blurry photo of the book club's "organiser" (yes, I should have noted the British spelling) and a plausible email address.
I will confess that I began writing a grateful response. But the first name of the person who wrote to me was so odd ("Colln" rather than "Colin") that I decided to google him. Sure enough, he didn't exist.
Then I reread the email. While "Colln" seemed excited about my book, he mentioned only the first word of the title and employed such generic terms that it sounded like a self-help manual. Other red flags: the rather odd time of the meeting (1:00 p.m. on a Wednesday) and the unnecessary addition of the time zone.
The book club, it turns out, does exist but meets on a weekday evening and of course has chosen a different book for its next discussion. On the club's website, the real Colin warned authors about the scam. Had I shown interest, I would have learned that payment via bank transfer was involved for the privilege of . . . being scammed.
Writer Beware [https://writerbeware.blog], a website I hadn't known about, has more information about Nigerian AI-generated "book club" invitations and other scams. These include the constant proposals I receive—couched in delirious praise for my biography—asking for a PDF to be sent to a supposedly vast community of book lovers eager to write a review for a "tip" of 20 to 30 dollars.
Of course I am not about to send a PDF to an unknown group of people. So I always dispatch those emails to my spam basket without a second thought. On Writer Beward I learned that had I been asked to send a copy of the published book instead, this would have been just fine . . . because the object of this scam is not dissemination of the text but getting me to pay for the review "opportunity."
What is especially troubling about this experience is the panopticon effect of constant surveillance—in this case, nefarious bots scanning every blog post, website, and email for potentially spamable information. So, yes indeed—writer, beware!
©Cathy Curtis 2025
[A version of this post was published in the December 2025 issue of The Biographer's Craft, a newsletter distributed by Biographers International Organization (BIO).]