No, Colleen Hoover didn't email you. Authors face new barrage of email and AI scams.
No, Colleen Hoover didn't email you. Authors face new barrage of email and AI scams.
Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYSat, April 25, 2026 at 1:01 PM UTC
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For $200, your book could get a national newspaper feature in USA TODAY. Email your manuscript to bestselling author Colleen Hoover and she’ll help you get it published.
If it sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is. Those are real-life examples of recent scams plaguing the publishing industry that target authors’ wallets and original works.
Scammers impersonate well-known authors. Others pose as book clubs and offer to get your book in front of hundreds of readers for a fee. Some tease a shortcut to a Hollywood adaptation deal. These days, the emails often open with flowery, highly specific praise about the book. Artificial intelligence has scraped the book’s copy and polished its own words to seem like a real, emotional appeal.
Hoover, the author of books with A-list Hollywood adaptations including “It Ends With Us” and “Verity,” warned fans about a scam in late March. An aspiring author had sent Hoover their manuscript, also copying a fraudulent email impersonating Hoover on the email chain. The author had been communicating with the impersonator for three months, thinking it was Hoover.
“But any minute now, that manuscript is probably going to be uploaded under a fake name and put out into the world for sale,” Hoover wrote on Facebook. “This author spent a year writing this book and now they've shared it with a scammer and there's nothing I can do for them. There's nothing they can do to prevent it.”
AI makes publishing scams more frequent and invasive
Victoria Strauss, an author based in Amherst, Massachusetts, cofounded watchdog group Writer Beware in 1998 to sound a similar alarm. But she said it’s “just gotten worse over the years.” Last year, a federal grand jury charged three people with scamming elderly authors out of almost $44 million by convincing them they'd turn their books into Hollywood hits for a fee.
“Right now, most scams are coming from overseas, and the previous ones pretty much exclusively targeted self-published writers,” Strauss says. “This new wave of AI scams is targeting everybody. I’ve only ever published traditionally, so I never got the scam solicitations until now.”
Hoover and I emailed back and forth about the experience while she was on a family vacation (and yes, we verified thoroughly that it was really her). She said she’s seen scams like this for all 15 years she’s been an author, though “the added element of AI” makes it hard to tell what is real. She used to pay a company to thwart and report impersonators, but said it's gotten too out of control to keep up with.
"There’s one of me and thousands of them, and I’d be spending my entire career fighting it. I’m just trying to continue warning my readers and fellow authors about the scams. If no one falls for them, maybe that’s the best way to get it to stop. Awareness is key," Hoover writes.
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Those “authentic-seeming details” praising a book are exactly what causes some writers to fall for these traps. “These scams have a pretty good grasp of writer psychology, which is what makes them so insidious,” Strauss says.
Kathryn C. Kelly, an author based in Rosenberg, Texas, has been working to build back her readership after a period of health struggles, including cancer. Grappling with depression and “chemo brain,” her output of books – and her readership – decreased. But at the start of this year, her inbox became flooded with “promotional” offers.
One event in London offered to put her book in front of nearly 800 readers. As a “thank you,” she was welcome to contribute to their refreshment budget of €1 per participant. They told Kelly to “contribute any amount that feels comfortable to you,” according to emails shared with USA TODAY. She sent them around $50. It was all she could give after mounting medical bills. Now she’s grateful she didn’t have more to spare.
“Of course I’m desperate to find readers and all of this seems too good to be true, but like an easy fix. And there is no such thing as an easy fix,” Kelly says. “If we don’t have readers, we kind of feel like ‘What’s the point?’”
Another "book club" wanted her to send up to $200 for a customized “book trailer” to show to their participants. In both cases, the strangers she emailed with asked about her health struggles and offered sympathy. She stopped replying.
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On April 20, she got an email impersonating USA TODAY Books.
The notice was from [email protected]. An “Alex Morgan, Senior Editor, Book Features” offered Kelly a national newspaper feature for $200, a premium magazine spotlight for $150 or a dual-platform investment for $350. She emailed me, flagging it as fraud.
Note, dear reader: We would never charge money for a feature in our Books section nor for placement on the USA TODAY Best-selling Booklist. The only authentic email coming from USA TODAY would end in usatoday.com or usatodayco.com, our parent company. There is no Alex Morgan in the USA TODAY newsroom.
Scams prey on authors’ Hollywood dreams
Nicole Loufas, a self-published author based in Vallejo, California, used to pay $75 a year to house her book on TaleFlick, a now-defunct site promoted as “a searchable library of fiction that allows Hollywood producers to find your work.” She once paid $300 for her book to be reviewed there, eager for feedback.
She got an email from a producer claiming to work with Shonda Rhimes (award-winning producer and showrunner behind "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," "Bridgerton," and more). The email said Rhimes was interested in adapting her book. She was wary from the start, but she wanted to dig deeper.
“You have that glimmer of hope,” Loufas says. “Maybe I’m the exception and not the rule.”
She called the supposed producer, operating under the name of a real employee at Shondaland, Rhimes' production company. They told Loufas she would have to write the screenplay herself. If she couldn’t, she could pay them to hire one. That’s when she ended the call. She emailed a complaint to TaleFlick.
TaleFlick’s site is no longer active. No one has returned Loufas’ emails.
How to avoid scams as an author
Strauss says that “knowledge is a writer’s best tool and best defense.” Whether you’re querying agents to publish your novel traditionally or self-publishing, lean on the broader writing community for advice and research as much as you can.
Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
Remain skeptical of any paid publishing or promotional service: Agents will not ask you to pay upfront but instead take a commission from your book sales. Traditional publishers will not ask you to pay for their services. You can hire a third-party editor to polish up your draft, but make sure they’re vetted. If you are asked to pay for exposure on a site, stay vigilant. NetGalley, for example, is a legitimate and reputable company that requires payment for platforming. Many others are scams.
Double-check email addresses: Agents and publishers affiliated with a firm will typically have a company address, not a Gmail or other free email provider. Double-check for slight misspellings, too.
Beware of cold emails from beloved authors: Check their website and social media. Does their email listed match the one you’re receiving? Is there a publicist or agent you can confirm with? Are they asking for money?
Hoover says she would never offer services or connections to her agent in an email.
“In all my years of being an author, I have made many friends, but never have I made a connection through a cold-call type of email,” Hoover writes. “Authors don’t have time to reach out to other authors and readers and make friends in that way. I find it quite odd. The best place to meet authors authentically, and how I've met every one of my author friends, is through social media or at book signings, so you know they’re the real deal. I received an email from a dead author last night.”
Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Colleen Hoover didn't email you. AI scams plague authors.
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