Publicist says she sees up to 20 scam pitches a day

Ascot Media Group CEO and founder Trish Stevens told the outlet that her company sees scam pitches targeting authors on a daily basis, including messages aimed at authors already working with professional publicity firms. Stevens said she personally can receive up to 20 such messages a day, and that fraudsters use publicly available information about an author and their book, combined with AI-generated language, to make unsolicited emails appear personal and to pose as publishers, marketing experts or other industry professionals.

Stevens listed warning signs for authors to watch for, including unsolicited flattery with little evidence the sender read the book, generic "book specialist" credentials, promises of guaranteed bestseller status or media coverage, generic email addresses, missing contact information, unverifiable testimonials, pressure to act quickly, and messages that are highly personalized but contain awkward phrasing or inconsistent tone. Stevens said authors need to verify who is actually behind a message before responding or paying for anything.

Here's the uncomfortable math: if one publicist alone is fielding up to 20 of these a day, then every book launch, every press release, every social post you put out is a lead generator for someone other than you. You did the work of building a public profile. Now that same profile is the raw material a scammer uses to fake interest in you.

Stevens' list of red flags is worth printing out and taping next to your laptop, because the pattern that catches people isn't stupidity, it's politeness. You get a warm email that name-checks your book, and your instinct is to be flattered first and suspicious second. Flip that order. Before you answer anything that smells like an opportunity, run it through three checks: does the sender have a business-domain email and a working website, can you independently verify any client or partner they name, and are they giving you time to think it over or pushing you to decide today. Legitimate offers survive all three. Scams usually fail at least one.

Ray Deptula's experience is the useful data point here — he didn't do anything wrong, he just started promoting his books, and the offers started pouring in. That's not a cautionary tale about him, it's a baseline for what happens to anyone who does normal, sensible author marketing. So this isn't a reason to go quiet online. It's a reason to build a five-minute verification habit before you reply, sign, or pay anyone claiming to have "discovered" your work.

This week: if you've gotten an unsolicited pitch praising your book, don't answer it yet. Check the sender's domain, search their name plus "scam," and ask yourself whether the praise could have come from a blurb on your own book page. If you can't verify a real person behind it, delete it.