As many of you know, I’m an old hand at the indie author game. Been doing this since 2015, I have lists of reputable reviewers and promoters, I’m running ads, my chops are good, and I know what to do.

But. A Most Malicious Murder is my first novel under my own name, and as a result I’ve had to do things like find non-romance promo groups on FB, use my own Twitter and IG accounts to promote the book, and do other stuff that my public persona hasn’t done before.

As a result, I’m getting offers. You know the kind — book tour companies asking to promote my book, random strangers on FB wanting to message me about how they can help me promote my book, et al. Luckily I’m an old hand at this so I have my promo game lined up, but if I’d been a newbie with no idea of the jackals waiting outside the door I might have handed over a serious wad of cash in the hopes that my book would be promoted.

And I would have been both 1) disappointed and 2) out a serious wad of cash. For one thing, most pro book promoters/reviewers/et al don’t go looking for customers (I say most because I found BookSirens when they followed me on Twitter. But they didn’t contact me or offer anything, and I did due diligence, researched them, and found them to be a recommended outfit). They’re already swamped with people wanting to hire their services — they don’t need to go after you.

And yes, there are small, hungry promotion companies out there that want to build a good reputation and will bust their butts to promote your book, but they’re few and far between. The bulk of the people who have been contacting me this week are some flavor of scammer who see someone they think is a newbie and are throwing their regular scripts at me in the hope of getting money out of me.

Ho ho ho. Yeah, no. Thanks for playing.