A Fraudulent Finale

Welcome to the third and final post exploring one of many book promotion and publishing scams that target authors. These schemes involve online fraudsters posing as notable figures in the publishing world and falsely promising writers enhanced exposure and success in return for financial payment. (Full posts available of part one and part two.)

To recap, I received a scam email that purported to be from Jen Loja, the “President Editor with Penguin Random House.” She wrote that she had come across my novel Final Table, really liked it, and wanted to re-publish it with Penguin Random House. She also expressed a lot of interest in working with me to develop and publish my next novel. Jen then connected me via email with fake literary agent Mary Andrew and wrote, “Once representation is in place, I would be very happy to continue the conversation through your agent, should there be mutual interest.”

Mary then pretended to review the full manuscript of Final Table overnight in thirteen hours, and she offered to “fully represent” me “throughout the publishing process.” But she first needed me to work with her expert Kathryn West on strengthening my query letter. I exchanged emails with Kathryn, who agreed to perform these services for $510, and she sent me an invoice via Upwork.

So this was quite the elaborate scheme - pretending to be the president of Penguin Random House, then my new literary agent, and then a query letter expert, before finally asking for payment. Maybe authors are less likely to think this is all a con if the process takes so many steps, and writers don’t want to believe they’re being scammed after spending this much time corresponding with individuals who appear be promising (and delivering) dream-fulfilling success.

I looked at the Upwork invoice, but instead of showing the name Kathryn West, it displayed the name Jumoke Olanipekun from Ibadan, Nigeria, which is a known hub for financial and cyber fraud activities.

This seemed suspicious. Why would query letter expert Kathryn West send me an invoice in the name of another individual in a faraway country? It clearly wasn’t safe to send payment, and I wrote Kathryn to warn her about my concerns.

Was this explanation reassuring? Kind of, but I still had my doubts. I knew the best way to confirm whether this was all legit would be to have an actual videoconference with Kathryn. If this was a fraud, she would certainly not agree to that.

Now this was really concerning. Kathryn’s invoice wasn’t in her own name. She was completely unavailable to ever have a “face-to-face meeting.” Cleary, something sinister was taking place. I needed to warn my fake literary agent Mary Andrew immediately:

But Mary didn’t seem to be concerned at all:

Mary’s explanation was somewhat comforting, but I felt that with all this drama and uncertainty, a quick Zoom with my fake literary agent was needed.

There was only one logical conclusion - whoever hacked Kathryn West had gotten to Mary Andrew too! I needed to warn Jen Loja immediately:

And Jen responded very quickly:

Note the absurdity of the president of Penguin Random House scolding me for not promptly paying her recommended agent’s query letter expert. Why would someone in her position get involved in stuff like this? And how would she know the billing contact of her recommended agent’s query letter expert so well? Also, if Jen already really liked my novel and wanted to re-publish it with Penguin Random House (where she was president), why would she care about me paying to revise a query letter?

Was it possible that this was all a fraud? Could Jen Loja, Mary Andrew, Kathryn West, and all of their exciting, encouraging gmail account messages be one big scam? There was one last way to find out for sure:

And I never heard from her again. They all ghosted me - Jen, Kathryn, and Mary. They disappeared from my life, along with the hopes of working closely with the president of Penguin Random House on my upcoming projects.

Looking back on this whole adventure, I wonder how successful these frauds are. How many writers are falling prey to them? How much money are unsuspecting authors paying to faux publishers and agents? It must be a significant amount to justify such detailed and time-intensive planning.

I had been receiving these types of emails virtually every day, but since I started this Substack series, they’ve almost all stopped. It’s nice to be less targeted by scammers, but I also miss the entertainment value these emails provide. So for the fraudsters reading this, feel free to continue to write me. Not every day, but every week or so is fine. I promise to read them all, and to also periodically respond. But there’s no need to send me an invoice because that will go unpaid…unless you’re ready to jump on a Zoom with me.

Quote of the Week

"The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.” - Robert Heinlein

Open Bar Info

My second novel Open Bar is published by SparkPress and distributed by Simon & Schuster. Based on my experience as a New York sex crimes prosecutor and a sexual misconduct investigator for educational institutions, Open Bar follows the chaotic fallout when a high-profile sexual misconduct scandal rocks a prominent university.

You can find more information and links to order here and here. Kirkus Reviews calls Open Bar “A timely and absorbing novel that asks what it costs to tell the truth” and says, “Schorr’s prose is clean, fast-moving, and often laced with dark humor” (full review here). Open Bar is the IBPA Book Awards Silver Winner for General Fiction, the Eric Hoffer Book Award 1st Runner-Up for Commercial Fiction, the American Fiction Awards Winner in the Political Thriller category, and the Firebird Book Awards Fiction Winner.

You can also listen to the first chapter of the Open Bar audiobook, narrated by Moniqua Plante.

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