A Life Full of Quarks

"Heartbreaking and hilarious" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Hey, scammers...

Oct 04, 2026 by C W Johnson

Many independent authors such as myself are deluged by 'offers' to help publicize your book, often masquerading as some sort of book club, although I have also had scammers pretend to be real life agents or publishers or even famous authors. At first you are told such offers are free, but of course, deep down there is always a fee for this, that, or the other thing.

Pro-tip: real book clubs don't ask for money. Real agents and heads of publishing companies don't ask for money. 

The real clue is that they all sound the same. It's clear it's AI-written, with stuff taken from publically available reviews.  Also, the return e-mail address is almost always Gmail. 

Don't bother. I'll see through it.

(Of course, genuine inquiries from actual fans, agents, producers are welcome!)