Too Good to Be True: Publishing Scams in 2026 with Patricia Marshall
Patricia Marshall, owner of Luminare Press, explains the growing urgency of author scams that are increasingly convincing due to AI, and shares tools she uses to investigate suspicious offers. She describes common patterns: cold outreach by email/phone using flattering book descriptions, name-dropping recognizable entities (Amazon, Goodreads, major publishers), delaying mention of money, then escalating fees after an initial payment. She highlights post-publishing republishing/cover-redesign schemes and marketing scams, walking through real examples impersonating Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, including red flags like Gmail addresses, newly registered lookalike domains verified via WHOIS, and AI-style “strings of three” descriptors. She recommends checking Writer Beware, Writer’s Weekly, and the Alliance of Independent Authors, and recounts royalty/tax scams posing as Amazon and fraudulent high-value contract offers with confidentiality pressure.
00:00 Welcome And Mission
01:43 How Author Scams Hook You
04:23 Post Publishing Republish Trap
06:10 Screen Share Email Examples
06:22 Penguin Random House Impersonation
08:29 Tools To Verify Legitimacy
13:47 Simon And Schuster AI Scam
17:12 Insider Media Marketing Pitch
19:40 Royalty And Tax Extortion Scam
22:23 Fake Contract Big Advance Offer
24:33 Final Tips And Resources