Category: Internet Dangers

Gain some insights into the many hidden traps that exist when it comes to building an online platform. Learn about the scams that are out there. And learn how to protect yourself and your loved one online.

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Don’t respond to reviews

Reviews are a necessary part of the business. Without good reviews, a book never sees the positive side of the algorithms that promote your books for you. Without reviews, many readers will turn away from your book, particularly if it is an old book. And reviews help to build SEO traction on a book.

However, as important as reviews are, reviews can also be a dangerous area for writers.

Writers have lost their publishing contracts because they badmouthed a review on social media. Writers have been review bombed because of such deplorable behavior. But writers have also been attacked because they left a negative review on a competitor's book. In some cases, those attacks were warranted. In other cases, they weren't.

The most important aspect with reviews is to remember that reviews are NOT for the benefit of the writer. They are for the benefit of the reader. It's readers telling prospective readers what they thought of the book.

And when it comes to reviews, it is a very bad idea to respond to any reviews (or comments on those reviews) regardless of what you think of the review.

If you want to share those reviews with others, then cross-post it on your feeds. Acknowledge the good reviews that way, but DON'T RESPOND.

It's time to take a closer look at how responding to reviews, good or bad, could land you in hot water.

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Ding, ding, ding. We have an AI scammer!

The number of scams is on the rise. Systems like ChatGPT have made it super-easy for the charlatans to craft the perfect emails.

Scrape this website here of that information. Scrape that bit too. Oh, and get ChatGPT to run its own high-powered search. And tell the system to craft the perfect email that will suck the unsuspecting doop in.

As many of us start to see more and more of these emails, we’re starting to see patterns that seem to be the Hallmark of scams. But, it’s getting harder and harder to spot the scams. And for a freelance editor (and writing coach) such as myself, what might look like a scam on the first inspection (as it’s an email that follows the telltale signs of an AI scam), the email might indeed be a prospective client that I need to start courting.

In today’s post, we’re going to look at the tactics that scammers are now using. I’ll even attempt to provide tips on how to identify the AI scams for what they are (though the AI scammers are quickly evolving and they are wisening up to their own failings.)

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Social Media: Is it the end of society?

Walking through the mall and heading to the grocery store, one thing has become blatantly obvious to me: smartphones are everywhere. And it's not just the youth.

Some years back (when my daughter was in her early teens), my husband, my daughter, and I decided to enjoy a nice lunch out together. At the table next to us was a couple in their 60s, and both of them were busy texting—or doing whatever—on their smartphones. Even my daughter commented on how they weren't talking to one another.

"Don't they like talking with one another, mum?"

I just shrugged in response and continued on with my conversation with my husband.

But that interaction got me thinking. Are smartphones and social media the end of our society?

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Private Message Marketing Reeks of Scams

If you’ve been around on the internet long enough, you have likely received unsolicited messages via direct messaging, be that through social media or email. It seems to be a rite of passage, telling you that your profile is starting to garnish attention. But after you get a few of those messages, you start to see the patterns of those who are pretending to be interested in what you are doing, only to try to sell you something.

I don’t know what it is about the publishing industry, but we seem to accumulate a lot of these. Some of them are obvious scams. And some of them are from people who are just starting out in whatever support role they have chosen to take on board to support writers. But those who are starting down the new business road, they clearly don’t understand marketing or how their tactics are making them look like a smarmy used-car salesman.

In today’s post, I want to discuss this type of marketing tactic and explain why it reeks of a scammer. And I want to explain why we should avoid using it ourselves, regardless of what we’re selling (be that books or services).

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Using stock images doesn’t mean your covers are AI-generated

I'm not going to argue that the introduction of AI-generated material has changed how we view things. From copyright to the quality of images and writing, systems like ChatGPT and Midjourney have been a game-changer. I'm not going to even talk about the ethics that revolve around using such systems. No, that is a discussion for another day.

But the technology, or more appropriately the lack of understanding of the technology, has led to some ludicrous statements.

How would you react if someone tried to tell you that because your covers used images found in a stock photography website catalog that your covers were AI-generated? That because the fonts used on your covers were in a catalog on the internet that your covers were AI-generated? Oh, and because the graphic designer used Adobe Photoshop to create the cover makes that cover AI-generated?

Well, if you were me during that conversation, you would have had a field day.

Let me set the stage.

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