The AUDACITY of These Book Publicity Scams
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- I've come across two particularly egregious book publicity scams that at first glance almost fooled me. With a bit of digging, I uncovered the shadiness... but the slickness of the execution compelled me to make a video to warn people what to look for.
An important disclaimer: I am not implying ANY fault on the part of any website builder or host for these fraudulent websites. These sites violate the terms of service of most website builders, so when you come across one, report them!
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Introduction
02:15 A Rise in Scams Warning
03:15 An Overview of 2 Scams
05:59 Legit at 1st Glance
08:03 Website Builders
09:42 Case Study 1 Backstory
11:18 Fake Employees on LinkedIn?
15:03 Website Red Flags
17:18 Google SEO Red Flags
20:10 Instagram & Fake Coverage
25:21 Key Takeaways from Case Study 1
26:07 Case Study 2 Backstory
28:41 Initial Red Flags
30:32 The AUDACITY
36:51 Instagram Fake Followers, Stolen Posts, Made Up Podcast
42:55 Red Flag Review & Predatory Practices
47:48 Instagram Aesthetics
49:21 Too Cheap to Be True
50:30 Conclusion
Add Pretty Dead Queens on Goodreads: / pretty-dead-queens
Add The Ivies on Goodreads! / the-ivies
MERCH
alexa-donne.creator-spring.com/
+BUY MY BOOKS+
Buy The Ivies from your favorite book retailer!: bit.ly/3mkxyYj
Buy The Stars We Steal from Book Depository (ships worldwide!): www.bookdepository.com/Stars-...
Buy Brightly Burning from Book Depository (ships worldwide!): www.bookdepository.com/Bright...
Buy BRIGHTLY BURNING on Amazon: www.amazon.com/Brightly-Burni...
Get Brightly Burning on Audible.com! www.audible.com/pd/Brightly-B...
AFFILIATE LINKS:
Shop Clever Fox Planners: cleverfoxplanner.com?aff=54
Use my code "ALEXA10" to save 10% on your order!
+LINKS+
Goodreads:
/ 16817128.alexa_donne
Twitter:
/ alexadonne
Instagram:
/ alexadonne
Newsletter Sign-Up:
alexadonne.com/newsletter/
Website:
alexadonne.com/
Wattpad:
www.wattpad.com/user/alexadonne
+FILMING SPECS+
Camera: Canon 90D
Mic: Rode VideoMic Pro+
Lighting: Limo Studio Soft Kit
Editing Software: Magix Movie Edit Pro - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![ความรักไม่ได้น่ากลัวขนาดนั้น (TRUST ME) - LYKN [ OFFICIAL MV ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9np-lAtCRpQ/mqdefault.jpg)
This is why she writes mysteries.
Wow. Please turn this scamming authors into a thriller. I would read that in a heartbeat
It would also make a good knives out style mystery where everyone has motive to kill the victim
@@ayajade6683 yesssssss! I would love that!!
"catfishing for business" - the LinkedIn aspect BLEW my mind!
Your sleuthing skills are majorly impressive. Along with your storytelling flow. I'm so intrigued by this conspiracy you've unraveled it feels like it should be an audio novella or short story.
The queen has returned! 🎉🎊 (runs off to make popcorn)🍿
😂❤❤❤
Same 😂
Period 😂❤
As an aspiring author myself, I've been often wondering exactly how would I be able to tell which publishers are legit (and interested) and which aren't. I'm glad I clicked on this video as soon as I saw it, so at least I know what to look for to avoid being scammed!
41:52 - "But then the cherry on the cake...was the podcast Instagram account...isn't real."
So you're telling me that not only was the cake a lie, but the cherry was too?! Devious!
Thank you, Alexa. I'm an indy author, and I was thinking of going with one of those inexpensive outfits, because I just am not good at self-promotion. So now I'll check much more carefully. My author friends have used much more expensive services that I am not able to afford at this time, so I'll remember the motto "Google is my friend." 🙂
I'm an indie author who fell in love with book marketing (I know, very odd) and I've got a playlist about things you can do to market your book. Most of the ideas are free so I hope that might give you some good ideas to get yourself out there more!
Some people will always be more interested in dishonest ways to make a living, but it seems like things are getting worse. Thank you for covering this.
I've missed you, Alexa! Thanks for saying hello and putting us on alert. Your foxy shirt is adorable. Good luck with your burnout, mental health, and publishing deadline. You keep taking care of you, and I'll hope to see you again when things simmer down.
thank you for the helpful warning. a newbie like me would surely not have seen the signs.
A writer with high hopes + ignorance + desperation = the perfect meal for predators like these. 😥
An Alexa Donne new video? THIS NOT A DRILL FOLKS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! And she's here to school us about publishing scams and how to better protect ourselves!
It's also perfect timing because I think I encountered a tweet from Angie Thomas saying that someone is threatening to sue her because something about ghostwriting or something?
So excited to see the new video! Honestly, this video is fantastic for detailing any kind of internet sleuthing, not just related to books. There are so many scams in all fields, though they are especially prevalent in creative pursuits. As a college student, I'm already dealing with the job search dilemma, and scams only complicate things further. I will definitely be using some of these tricks for vetting opportunities.
This was a masterclass on avoiding these kinds of scams. Thanks for taking the time to do it.
It's so frustrating how vigilant we have to be about absolutely everything we see these days. With AI use, you can't even trace back images or text to other sites where they might've been copied from.
Kicking up my feet, grabbing my sewing, and settling in for the rage
Oh my god I missed you so much!! I keep rewatching your book reviews and your process videos, soooo bingeable! Also if you ever feel like doing the whole process of Pretty Dead Queens-video, I would goble that up, too!
“now you know, i’ve been both living my life and struggling a lot” GIRL, same, thank you for the perfect summary of my current existence lol. glad to see you and wishing you luck on your current projects, hope to see you again soon and thanks for all the tips to point out scams to us aspiring authors and faithful readers
No, you don’t owe us a proper update. Post whatever you want! Nice to hear from you!
Such great advice. Thank you for going so in-depth. Just want to chime in that I'm also a Squarespace user for my professional (day job, not author) blog and I HATE them. Hate. Hate. Their software development team is a clown show, and the blog compose page is particularly bad. Sometimes it takes 8 seconds for a keystroke to show on the screen when I'm typing. But the worst part? No autosave. The company's been around for over a decade, and they haven't built autosave? Every time you accidentally hit "back" or "reload," every time your internet has a hiccup, every time they push a software update... poof! Your work is gone. And good luck trying to get any sympathy from support. They're basically like "too bad, so sad, go kick rocks and maybe think about saving frequently." This is 2023. You don't have to live like this. Choose a different web host. No stars. Would not recommend. Thank you for listening.
oh yeah! Good to see you!
This reminded me of a coworker... he bought something online, i can't even remember what and was complaining that the company wasn't responding to him. I checked the website and the About-Section was literally lorem ipsum... dude...
That was an expensive lesson for him. He lost like 500 or smth.
Thanks for giving at least one more clear number on the billboard costs. It's always annoying to me when people say "it's way more expensive than that", "I paid way more than that", "I'd never earned that much" without giving numbers to really compare. Are we talking a few dozen bucks difference? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? It's rarely clear. (Also annoying when people talk sponsorships and other salaries...)
I'm more familiar with the old scams of "Wow, you are such a good author, we will publish you for $$." The whole AI generated documents thing is a truck load of maggots. I don't know who ordered it, or what they ultimately want it for, but it's not good.
Omg we missed you Auntie Alexa!
I have a book coming out this summer. I was approached by a “legit” magazine via my website asking me to pay for a spread/coverage in their magazine, that they had “openings” for just 2 more weeks. I emailed my agent and she’s like… yeah, no. We all, as humans, need to be extra vigilant about scams!
Also… any chance you’re coming to the northeast anytime soon?
Glad to see you back! Been missing your content.
Was nice to see you back in my YT feed -- and I (we!) appreciate you looking out in this way. Way to be!
PS -- got later in the video and you mention Carnegie Mellon. Let me tell you ... I had to co-sign loans for my daughter to go there, and they grilled ME for 5-10 minutes about my background, education, earning capability, and credit.
Spot on.
Aaaaaahh I'm so excited to see you upload Alexa!! I was really missing your content. I've been going through the publishing and debut journey, and I always came back to watch your videos relating to whatever stage I was in.
I appreciate your return, and I always love hearing your opinions and useful tips on how to avoid getting screwed over
Good to see you’re back and providing amazing content as always
I've missed your videos so much! Thank you for posting! This is fascinating!
So good to hear from you!!! Thanks for the valuable clarity. Can't wait for your next book. 😊
You are wonderful to help us learn about this. Thank you and welcome back to youtube. I've missed you.
So glad you’re back to posting!! I love your videos ❤❤❤
So nice to see another video of yours! I’m super impressed by your research skills and process, not sure if I could ever be that dedicated! Thanks for the information, it’s so important to know this stuff and have the right tools, you’ve inspired me to do more sleuthing about all this!
I'm an aspiring author who wants to get her first book traditionally published- and, being on draft three, I'm getting really close to pitching myself again. This is a warning I didn't even know I needed and now I'm worried, lol. Thank you for taking the time to make this!!
It's so wonderful to see you!😊 And loooved this video. How you go to check in the nooks and cranies👏 Good luck on your book deadline!
I've missed your videos, they always help me find the motivation to write. I reckon this video could have been a bit more concise but I'm glad you posted again. You're amazing and good luck with your book! ❤
CANNOT WAIT. I’ve missed you so much. I want to tell you how much I loved “Pretty Dead Queens”!
My favorite authortuber is back! Yay! 🎉🎉. Take your time with things but happy to see a video!
Thank you for this!! Hope to see more videos soon!!
Great information and insight as always. I missed your face! Can't wait for your next book and for you to return to TH-cam. You were my inspiration to write my book in the first place and I greatly miss your tough love and the craft knowledge that you share.
Glad I found you. Loving your videos. I'm on my third novel and your tips are helpful AF! ❤
So glad I found your channel! Very informative. Thank you for all your all hard work putting this out there to help, especially for new writers.
So glad to see this video. I was worried something might have happened since there has been no video or other update so long 😭
Alexa--you and me both on the YT break and audiobooks! (Like 75% of my 2023 reads have been audiobooks so far lol) Loved hearing from you again and your deep dive tea into this new scam. Good luck with your deadline! Sending you all the best! ❤
Welcome back!! I used to watch you from my old account, recently started watching authortube videos again from this one because I got a book idea after ages. Glad youtube recommended your video to me :)
WOOOOOOOW!!!! So glad to see you back!!! Don’t even know what the topic is, I just clicked!!! Needed this!!! 🏁🏁🏁🏁
Glad to see you back. And love this. So hard to catch some of the fakes, and so hard to convince some writers that they are fakes. Thanks.
Good to see you, Alexa! Thanks for the warning and yay for reading!
oh my god i was just thinking life was getting too dull and i open youtube to see an hour long alexa video 🤩 glad to have you back!
Great video! I love a scammer mystery 😂 Also, when I was feeling burnout, audiobooks were such a saviour. I’d go for a walk after work, put my headphones in and get through so many audiobooks from my local library’s app. Hope you’re feeling more rested!
I literally know nothing about this stuff and randomly found you by chance, but I must say - you're fun! I like your vibes! can't wait for more industry tea
An hour long video? I've been blessed! 😍
This rabbit hole you went down is the same sort of thing I do for my job every day.
People have no idea how easy it is to find highly detailed information about them and their loved with very little to start with and with no specialized starting knowledge. God help them if someone who does have specialized knowledge starts digging.
So this was fun from a professional point of view but I’m so glad you called it out so especially debit authors are aware of the lengths people are going to for scams these days.
Thank you for the heads up! That is so yucky of scammers.
It’s good to see you again! You look lovely! Can’t wait to hear reading wrap ups!! 💗🫶🏻
Thanks for taking the time to post all this. It's not PR companies or 'publishers' that do this. Lost of businesses do this type of thing (especially ones selling popular breeds of puppies), As Alexa says: snoop & be skeptical.
I’ve been rewatching lots of your videos lately, so I did a double take that this was a NEW video!
Awesome job of detective work and presenting your evidence of fraud!! I'm trying to finish the last stages of writing a book on how to identify manipulators quickly. You said some things that are relevant about scammers of any type, including online or in-person romance/finance fraud. It can be harder to detect lies when you don't know the detailed technical aspects of an industry, but other clues exist.
Oh, welcome back! I was surprised to see your videos on my timeline again. It's been a while.
I've missed your videos!! Thanks for the sleuthing. I hadn't heard of these!
The Queen🎉❤ thanks Alexa seriously going to start researching these fakes it's interesting and also worrying - have a bunch of writer buddies, sharing this video xx
I feel like the best way to fight against this is for authors to be honest and transparent like this. "These are what I've used, nothing else. If you see any other companies using me to advertise it is probably fake, send it to me and I'll let you know." The beauty community does that with scammers that use their photos. It's awful, and way to common
Really nice to watch an Alexa Donne video again! Hope your isolation novel is going well! I'm in no way, shape or form to need the advice in this video but it was still fascinating, thank you.
Whoah, I clicked on this so fast! I'm putting this on my to watch tonight before bed! Missed you!
This is some extremely useful content. Thank you!
This would be an excellent video to repurpose as a story on Medium. Thank you for taking the deep dive and sharing. Forewarned and all that stuff... 🙏🏻
Hi, Alexa! I'm an OG fan and seeing you succeding makes me super happy! Thank you for all the motivation and tips for my book :) Good luck for the rest of your journey!
Hi,
Thank you for educating me on this topic. Yes I am shocked!
My sister and I plan to self publish for the first time and in the middle of first rewrite of our book. We've used a verified editor and honestly publishing a book is scary.
We are new at marketing and business as well and are on a steep learning curve.
We will double check every contact and use the society of children's writers and illustrators website as advised by the editor we are working with.
That's all we need fake business con artists in the book industry 👁️🖥️👀😠👀
from Theresa.
I have appreciated so much your video today and the sleuthing you did to catch these people out❤️😊👏👏
It's honestly next-level dishonesty. Thanks for doing all that digging! Wow.
Miss you lots! I'm glad to get a mini update ^.^
Mad respect for this enlightening and honest video. As a self-proclaimed amateur sleuth myself (and recovering SEO 🙃), I can only imagine the time and effort you must have put into this investigation! Just curious: How long would you say it took you to gather the info you shared here? I'm going to send this to everyone I know. So many super intelligent people take these shady tactics at face value because they don't have the time and/or inside knowledge to dig deeper. THANK YOU for everything you do!
Nice to see a video from you again! I’m interested to hear your thoughts on AI and its impact on the world of fiction. Hope you’ve been well.
Finally you’re backkk I hope for more than one video haha (no pressure tho❤️)
So happy you're back! Thank you for the video. This is serious nonsense!
I used to work in social media. Paid engagement is available through some companies (I had an account that asked for it over ten years ago), but it costs quite a bit and there are tells. AI engagement might be coming soon, which will make it a lot cheaper, but that'll have its own tells. Looks like we've come to the same conclusions on the same scams from two different angles of work experience. haha
Anyway, many thanks for spelling this out for indie authors like me who just don't have the same connections trad authors have. This is a good resource for honing anyone's sniff test sense. You put in a lot of work here, and you deserve all the appreciation.
This is so incredibly helpful, even though a lot of it boils down to - just pay attention, basically. Everyone needs to know this.
Thanks for the heads up.
Always a great day when you grace my TH-cam feed ☺️
Yayy! Missed your videos so much!! 💝💝💝
Yaayyy! I've been binging all your videos and was dying for new ones. Also I have a question about AMM. I've been trying to access the website for a few months and I'm not able to. What to do?😢
@Alexa Donne I'm glad your people are reaching out to you to ask about companies and people because not only are you protecting them from scams but you are also being made aware that you are being used under false pretenses.
Missed your videos Alexa! ❤
Very interesting, and oh so helpful. So much. I've built up a consultancy business 100% organically, and will use this little platform to launch my books. I'm looking left at trad pub, right at DIY and ahead at Hybrid which could be the best way to go, as I'm outside the USA. I love this sort of sleuthing. Reminds me of the experience of being down in the bottom floor stacks of my old Uni, reading about Charlemagne's 5 concubines, one of them being a 13-year-old girl.
Looking forward to your next video, and good luck with deadlines what are you doing reading this get back to the book 🙃
I feel like I gained more media (is this the right term?) literacy from watching this video. Thanks so much for educating us on this!
A good way to identify fake linked-in accounts is the date one joined there. Your Linked -in tip was gold! Pornstar-names LOL
your day job + author experience makes you these peoples' nightmare and I'm thrilled about it
Loved Pretty Dead Queen was a wonderful book could not put it down can't wait for your next book
Hear ye, hear ye members of the writing community: Alexa, our beloved leader, is back! 🤩
41:50 "sneaky" I love how she sneak that in between haha :D
oooh another check for if a social media account is fake, if the follower count seems legit, check how many likes the posts have. they tend to forget there’s an average
well we,, well, look whos' back. I thought you forgotten about this place. Yes, scams are everywhere, and they are easy to spot and catch out and the industry is full of it. I hope we get regular programming from you again
In this video, you mentioned that forbes is pay to play. This information is presented as a known fact amongst authors and readers. This information is new to me, but unsurprising. Would it be possible for you (or those reading this comment) discuss other "prestigious" publications that participate in such under handed tactics. Thanks.
From what I know, not all Forbes articles are created equal and there are certain kinds that you can simply pay for them to write about you as like a promotional deal. I believe I heard about this context of the couple that tried that billion dollar crypto heist. As one of them was a """contributor""" to Forbes (so maybe it was one of those hustle bro people that I heard the pay to play thing for).
@@PinkCatsy thanks for the response. It's just wild that a journal/ magazine would participate in a pay to play scheme, as it instantly torpedoes their reputation if found out. Seems like ultra short sighted.
@@rokuronzoni6274 yeah like I think when you're aware, you can tell the difference between the real Forbes articles and the paid ones, but most people who pay for the articles are counting on people not looking closely or being aware. (Like there's a disclaimer on paid articles)
@@PinkCatsy wait, so when forbes publishes paid for articles, there are disclaimers that indicate that the article is paid for? Or is it up to the reader to determine that the article is paid for?
I don't read forbes, they've always seemed "propaganda ish" to me. Their track record of extolling "business geniuses" who turned out to be frauds is honestly quite comical.
@@rokuronzoni6274 I believe at the BOTTOM of the article, there is a paragraph that indicates that the article is sponsored/paid for. So a casual glance at the article might not catch that it's been sponsored content.
And yeah I'm not a big Forbes reader either for essentially the same reason.
Where did you get your shirt?! (Great video btw!)
It's a dress from EShakti! Though they have a shirt version too :) I just got it a few weeks ago so it's definitely still on the site.
this is so helpful to the know-nothing writers like me 🥺😅
I see so many of these in TikTok too, predatory scams aimed at indie authors, and I hope everyone does their due diligence with a cynical eye
Hello! I appreciate your TH-cam videos and TikToks. I was curious as to what is your opinion on co-writers/partner? What are the ups and downs? How does one find a partner? Etc. 🙏
My CP recently almost fell for one of these. On the bright side, she realized what it was before she handed over all her hard work. She's currently revising an awesome SciFi that I'm already a superfan of.
The Queen is back
Alexa, you should message Victoria Strauss (she runs the writer beware) with what you've dug up.