The Book Promotion Tease

Plus: Next Book Club Selection - Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter (February 3)

I hope everyone was able to enjoy some good reading and/or writing time during the holidays. I’m still working on my next novel, In Happier Times. I’ve completed about two-thirds of the first draft, with a lot of writing and a massive amount of editing left to go.

I also did some fun interviews about writing and reading. You can check out a conversation with Keith Rohman and Cathleen Watkins here, and one with Nora D’Ecclesis here.

As I continue to promote the recent publication of Open Bar, I’m constantly reminded how challenging book promotion is. There are so many novels out there, more than ever before. How does one break through? For authors without huge platforms, there’s no easy answer. I very much appreciate fellow authors who commiserate with me as we share ideas about what works and what doesn’t.

And with so many writers yearning for the right book promotion opportunities, authors are growing targets for book promotion scams. I receive these emails on almost a daily basis. They tell me how gripping, engaging, and compelling Open Bar is. They are almost all sent from gmail addresses, and none of the senders has an actual website or any other real footprint that can be used to assess their credibility.

These emails also appear to contain detailed, thoughtful analysis of my novel. With a quick read, they seem real. They feel real. How could a scammer know so much about my book, unless they actually read it? How could they offer such specific praise unless they really liked it?

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

The answer, of course, is AI. When my debut novel Final Table was published four years ago, I didn’t receive emails like this. Sure, I got a few sketchy-sounding emails offering miracle book promotion success in return for payment. But these emails weren’t that sophisticated.

Now, just a few years later, my book’s Amazon description and Kirkus Review are enough for AI to draft a seemingly complex, detailed, and effusive analysis of Open Bar.

Here’s one example:

Impressive, huh? Here’s another:

I knew “Debra Stephanie” was another AI-drafted email looking to take advantage of authors craving effective publicity. Nevertheless, because the (AI-generated) intro said, “Open Bar gripped me from the first line,” I wrote back simply, “Have you actually read the book?”

Here’s the response:

So, short answer: no. “Debra Stephanie” did not read Open Bar. But at least she “did spend quite a bit of time studying the blurb…”

Next, here’s an email from extremely successful and famous author James Patterson. Yes, that James Patterson. I’m excited to share that he sent me the following:

Okay, so maybe this is not from the real James Patterson. What gave it away? Well, there’s the space before the comma in the email subject. There’s the fact that he used a capital “J” in “James” but a lowercase “p” in “patterson.” I’m also skeptical that James Patterson would send me an unsolicited email and write, “You can check out one of my books here.” And do famous authors feel a need to put the word “author” in their email addresses, just in case someone didn’t recognize them? So many signs this was not legit. Do better, AI!

But I decided to reply anyway:

Then “Author James patterson” ghosted me. No response. Yet another book promotion dead end.

Even more reason for me to just stick with Substack…

Quote of the Week

“The great thing about fiction of course is that you take whatever you want from reality and then fuck with it in any way you want.” - Bill Maher

Next Book Club Selection

Our next Book Club will be via Zoom on Tuesday, February 3 at 8pm ET, when we’ll discuss Ripe by sarah rose etter. Registration is open here.

I just finished this novel and thought it was one of the best books I’ve read recently. It may not be for everyone though. I’m really curious to see what others think of it. There’s definitely a lot to talk about. Here’s the Goodreads description:

A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. In addition to the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Startup burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men set themselves on fire in the streets.

Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever-closer as the world around her unravels.

When her CEO’s demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through a late-capitalist hellscape and offers an incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.

Feel free to attend even if you don’t read the book, and please pass on the info to anyone else who might be interesting in joining!

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). The American Fiction Awards named Open Bar as this year’s Winner in the Thriller: Political category, and the Firebird Book Awards selected Open Bar as its Fiction Winner.

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

Welcome New Subscribers!

Thank you so much for joining me on my reading, writing, and publishing journey. I welcome all of your comments, questions, and suggestions for future newsletters. If you already subscribe, please share with other readers and writers: