One day, I got a follower on Twitter. Whenever I get
followers, I check them out, and if they look genuine, I follow back. Sadly,
those sexy profiles who are calling me sexy are bots. I know that because I
can’t be that sexy.
Anyway, this one is from an author. I created Twitter to
market my book. Obviously, I fail to do that because I don’t want to flood
others’ feeds with unsolicited advertisements. I only mention my books when it
feels natural and fits into the topic, which is not often. Fortunately, while
starting as a miserable existence, I enjoy Twitter now because I get to connect
with authors and readers. So, imagine my delight that this follow came from a
well-established author—or so it seemed.
With a lot of books and an avatar with a face (I don’t even
have that!), she has an underwhelming number of followers ratio. It didn’t
flinch me at all because I know how sucky it could be to exist on social media.
I followed back, and ding, a few seconds later, there was a DM from her. Wait,
what? I get to chat with a famous author? She has many successful books with
more than thousands of ratings while I almost sold my left toe to get one
review. It started with a simple ‘Hello.’
At that time, I had these influxes of book marketers
pestering me to use their service by flooding my DM without bothering to check
on my work. The process was similar: they followed, and I followed back; since
they were not sexy bots (I was a sweet summer child), I thought they were
genuine users who were there for their businesses. (After all, I am, too!).
However, a second later, I'd get a DM. They would then ask questions about what
kind of books I wrote, etc., mostly things they could find out by checking my
profile if they really cared. Of course, they didn’t. I assume they use
algorithms or some kind of premade responses because if I engaged with them,
the conversation would feel weird yet not totally detached. If you watch any
video about scam baiters, these are similar kinds of conversations: trying to
sound interested, but the conversation is all over the place unless they offer
their services.
Anyway, I eagerly wrote back to reply to her hello, and with
my gullible behind, I also included ‘I am so glad you are a real author. I was
afraid this was a DM from another persistent marketer. I had too many of them
lately’. She lol-ed and proceeded to ask what I wrote (fair enough btw, but I
assume one would check before initiating contact, just like when I checked her
profile and books before even following back). I answered and complimented her
books (which indeed look impressive) and where she was from (Japan, a country
with many things I’m impressed with). She replied, although she sounded a bit
odd (again, detached but trying to keep me on), and gave me links to her book,
throwing hints about how awesome they were. It went on for a bit.
Okay, I started to feel weird and unnatural. The
conversations are mostly one-sided, and I felt like we were talking about
different things that reset every time she DM-ed. So, like the civilized
anti-social ahole I am, I spaced out and stopped responding. Nothing happened
for a few days, and then it started again. ‘Hello.’ I recognized this pattern
with all the marketers and shady characters who had DM-ed me. The conversation
with the fake Japanese author probably took longer than usual because imagine
being fake and my first conversation was, 'I am glad you are not fake.' They
had to attempt to recover from that first, which also makes me think, most
likely, that these fakers are mixtures of bots and humans.
During this time, there were more and more posts on Twitter from
genuine authors about fake authors. These fakers personate famous/successful
authors, even adopting their links, bios, and avatars. They then initiate chats
with unknown authors like me. What is the purpose? Apparently, they will offer
their services (I am not even sure) because they are awesome and successful,
and we suck, basically, so we have to 'learn' from them. This sounds idiotic
and obvious, but sadly, most authors appreciate others' input, and we didn't
think there would be fake authors out there for this purpose. We are also over
the moon thinking successful authors are engaging with us. Look, I worship no
one, but I would probably shake in my boots if I had that kind of connection. I
haven’t experienced it that far, but some authors said these fakers would go on
to criticize and berate their work ‘nicely’ about their covers, statistics,
sales, marketing efforts, etc, and that we are in dire need of advice. It might
sound trivial, but most of the time, we question ourselves and our books daily.
Most of us are treading on shaky foundations because it’s hard to justify doing
this. We don’t need these craps.
Since then, I have ignored all similar DMs, especially from
those who would DM in seconds after I followed back (marketers, fake authors
and artists are flooding Twitter now). This industry continues to amaze me
because I thought struggling authors were already at the bottom of the barrel,
yet there are elaborate scammers out there still. Dang it.
Fortunately, after a long drought, I got a wonderful review
about my book, The Bet of the Monsters. It gives me the spark to remember I
should never give up. To think that there is someone who likes my book besides
me is exhilarating, especially when they really understand my story.
Review for The Bet of the Monsters
As
always, thank you for being here. I hope that for every doubt you have about what you do,
there is something that will restore your faith.
