Too good to be true? I’ve got the scammers blues - My New Crime Novel ‘RETRIBUTION’

Good morning dear reader and welcome to a slightly subdued day at Comb Towers. All has not been well in my Yorkshire Wolds world. Here, in a quiet, rural corner of North Yorkshire, the bad side of the internet rears its extremely ugly head. A very clever literary scam has been tried on me and possibly an attempt to steal my book. So I have put the cover up on my website and an extract from the book to let everyone know that it is mine and no-one elses.

I received an email pretending to be from a famous crime author. It was cleverly constructed with his photo attached to the address. He says he is keen to encourage new crime writers. He then gives me some advice on developing my novel and keeps in touch re. my progress.

Then… the scammer offers to introduce me to his literary agent. She, (same scammer), contacts me full of encouragement; asks for a synopsis of the book, future plans for the series and the finished manuscript. I put my thinking cap on and come up with a further five books in the series and send everything off. Encouraging emails from alleged crime author and literary agent. Then it is alleged the book needs a good copy edit, proofread and final edit. A referral is made to a named 60 editorial service. Guess what? The cost would be one thousand dollars upfront, to a bank in America and not in any name that has been mentioned so far, but with a very complicated foreign surname.

Somehow, I don’t think so. I realise I am being had for an eejit. So, my dear reader, I am starting on my second, improved draft of the book and might not even get it out for Christmas, but when it does come out, it’s going to be cracking good. If you see a book called RETRIBUTION for sale on the internet, it has been pinched from me and I would like to know about it.

When I publish, I will let you know on here and it will feature on my ‘Books’ section on this website. In the meantime, onwards and upwards. I wish you a lovely week my dear reader.

Stay cool and stay safe and we will meet under more cheerier circumstances next week.