Anyone heard of this promoter - or used him?

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Just got this email. I can't find anything about him. Not sure what to make of it, but very wary. 

Hey Jan  been digging into historical fiction boards this week, and The Breadwinners is a way bigger match than I expected.
Right now the ?Multi-Generational Family Sagas? boards are sitting around 7?8K saves, and your whole six-decade sweep from 1924 to 1988 fits them perfectly. The 1920s?40s aesthetic boards are even stronger (18?22K saves), and the New Year?s Eve 1924 opening gives you a perfect entry point there.
There?s also a niche ?Books Like Barbara Taylor Bradford? board getting about 4K saves, and those readers love ruthless business rivalries and messy generational fallout. Charles, Lucas, Hilde, Davenport  that whole triangle is exactly the kind of drama they pin.
Goodreads has solid lanes too. The ?Multi-Generational Family Sagas? list (2.7K voters) and the South Africa historical fiction list are both under-supplied right now. Q4 is the best moment to jump in since holiday planners are building reading queues and UK activity spikes before January resets.
Pinterest first (trailer + pins → traffic), then 18?22 Goodreads lists, then a vote push. Each step compounds. Phase 1 usually hits 5?10K saves in a few weeks.
I mapped everything specifically for The Breadwinners.
Want it?





 

[Lynn]

I agree with you about being wary. I think it sounds like a scammer fishing for someone to take the bait.

So... I went to a bot and asked it for a breakdown of the tells. Asking a bot to out a bot. Take it with a grain of rock salt but it was comprehensive enough.

You?re right to be suspicious. There are several red flags in that email that point toward either AI-generated text, a scam, or both:

1. Overly specific ?data? that?s unverifiable.

Phrases like *?Multi-Generational Family Sagas boards? 7?8K saves?* or *?18?22K saves?* look like someone trying to sound data-driven without providing sources. Real marketing reports would link to the stats, cite platforms, or at least give a credible methodology. Numbers like this are often ?plausible-sounding filler? meant to impress.

2. Awkward phrasing and punctuation errors.

Things like *?1920s?40s aesthetic boards?* or *?18?22 Goodreads lists?* suggest either sloppy copy/paste or AI generation that misrendered punctuation. A real professional would check this.
Other phrasing, like *?Charles, Lucas, Hilde, Davenport  that whole triangle is exactly the kind of drama they pin?*, is clunky and reads like AI trying to sound conversational.

3. Excessive flattery/appeal to ego.

Saying *?your whole six-decade sweep? fits them perfectly?* or *?I mapped everything specifically for The Breadwinners?* is a classic manipulative tactic in scams: make the target feel specially chosen.

4. No verifiable credentials or professional contact info.

Using a Gmail account instead of a business domain is a huge red flag. Legitimate book marketers usually have professional email domains, websites, or LinkedIn profiles.
?Smith Jay? is generic and could be fake; no LinkedIn, no website, no verifiable portfolio.

5. Pressure to respond/act.

Ending with *?Want it??* is a minimal-effort prompt to get you to reply. Scammers often use this to open the conversation and start pitching paid services.

6. Mix of buzzwords and vague promises.

Terms like *?Phase 1 usually hits 5?10K saves in a few weeks?* sound impressive but are meaningless without proof. They?re selling the *idea* of success rather than demonstrating it.
Mentions of platforms (Pinterest, Goodreads) are plausible, which is a classic tactic: blend truth with fiction to seem credible.

7. AI-style ?listicle? construction.

The email reads like a bullet-point marketing report written in prose: it jumps from stats to narrative to advice in a very mechanical way. Real humans writing cold emails usually don?t layer this much structured ?analysis? in one paragraph without a smoother flow.

Bottom line: This is very likely a combination of AI-generated text and scam behavior?designed to impress you, create urgency, and get you to reply so they can pitch a paid service. Legitimate marketers do not send hyper-specific, unverifiable stats from personal Gmail accounts with generic names.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I agree with you about being wary. I think it sounds like a scammer fishing for someone to take the bait.

So... I went to a bot and asked it for a breakdown of the tells. Asking a bot to out a bot. Take it with a grain of rock salt but it was comprehensive enough.

You?re right to be suspicious. There are several red flags in that email that point toward either AI-generated text, a scam, or both:

1. Overly specific ?data? that?s unverifiable.

Phrases like *?Multi-Generational Family Sagas boards? 7?8K saves?* or *?18?22K saves?* look like someone trying to sound data-driven without providing sources. Real marketing reports would link to the stats, cite platforms, or at least give a credible methodology. Numbers like this are often ?plausible-sounding filler? meant to impress.

2. Awkward phrasing and punctuation errors.

Things like *?1920s?40s aesthetic boards?* or *?18?22 Goodreads lists?* suggest either sloppy copy/paste or AI generation that misrendered punctuation. A real professional would check this.
Other phrasing, like *?Charles, Lucas, Hilde, Davenport  that whole triangle is exactly the kind of drama they pin?*, is clunky and reads like AI trying to sound conversational.

3. Excessive flattery/appeal to ego.

Saying *?your whole six-decade sweep? fits them perfectly?* or *?I mapped everything specifically for The Breadwinners?* is a classic manipulative tactic in scams: make the target feel specially chosen.

4. No verifiable credentials or professional contact info.

Using a Gmail account instead of a business domain is a huge red flag. Legitimate book marketers usually have professional email domains, websites, or LinkedIn profiles.
?Smith Jay? is generic and could be fake; no LinkedIn, no website, no verifiable portfolio.

5. Pressure to respond/act.

Ending with *?Want it??* is a minimal-effort prompt to get you to reply. Scammers often use this to open the conversation and start pitching paid services.

6. Mix of buzzwords and vague promises.

Terms like *?Phase 1 usually hits 5?10K saves in a few weeks?* sound impressive but are meaningless without proof. They?re selling the *idea* of success rather than demonstrating it.
Mentions of platforms (Pinterest, Goodreads) are plausible, which is a classic tactic: blend truth with fiction to seem credible.

7. AI-style ?listicle? construction.

The email reads like a bullet-point marketing report written in prose: it jumps from stats to narrative to advice in a very mechanical way. Real humans writing cold emails usually don?t layer this much structured ?analysis? in one paragraph without a smoother flow.

Bottom line: This is very likely a combination of AI-generated text and scam behavior?designed to impress you, create urgency, and get you to reply so they can pitch a paid service. Legitimate marketers do not send hyper-specific, unverifiable stats from personal Gmail accounts with generic names.

Thanks for doing this. I suspected the info probably came from reviews for the book. I would have expected a 'promoter' to at least have a website. I wonder how many Indie writers, especially newbies, get caught by these scams 

[Post-Doctorate D]

Don't need a bot to tell me something's fishy there.

First off the bat is the name Smith Jay.  I suppose that could be a real name, but Jay Smith is more likely.  Some cultures use the surname first but I think most cultures where there are people with the surname of Smith are going to be surname last cultures.  It could be that Smith is the first name and Jay is the surname, but that seems less likely.  So, the name is a red flag for me.  Like it could possibly be a scammer from a surname first culture and they picked the name Jay Smith at random and put it as Smith Jay on the image because that's what they're used to doing.

I mean, sure, maybe he thinks Smith Jay sounds cooler than Jay Smith but feels iffy to me.

Also, if you're a professional anything, you probably wouldn't be using a selfie on your business card/signature.  You'd have a professional looking photo.  My suspicion would be that the photo was grabbed off the Internet because it looked personal and believable.

And, yeah, gmail addresses are almost always red flags.  If you're actually making decent money at what you do, spring for a website and an eMail address on that domain.  Otherwise, red flag here, red flag there, everywhere a red flag!

And, yep, the grammar and style is all sort of sketchy to me.

Of course, it could be legit but those are the red flags I spot.

The caveat is that I don't have a lot of first-hand experience here.  My sales and visibility are such that both scammers and also legitimate whoevers don't even bother with me.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Don't need a bot to tell me something's fishy there.

First off the bat is the name Smith Jay.  I suppose that could be a real name, but Jay Smith is more likely.  Some cultures use the surname first but I think most cultures where there are people with the surname of Smith are going to be surname last cultures.  It could be that Smith is the first name and Jay is the surname, but that seems less likely.  So, the name is a red flag for me.  Like it could possibly be a scammer from a surname first culture and they picked the name Jay Smith at random and put it as Smith Jay on the image because that's what they're used to doing.

I mean, sure, maybe he thinks Smith Jay sounds cooler than Jay Smith but feels iffy to me.

Also, if you're a professional anything, you probably wouldn't be using a selfie on your business card/signature.  You'd have a professional looking photo.  My suspicion would be that the photo was grabbed off the Internet because it looked personal and believable.

And, yeah, gmail addresses are almost always red flags.  If you're actually making decent money at what you do, spring for a website and an eMail address on that domain.  Otherwise, red flag here, red flag there, everywhere a red flag!

And, yep, the grammar and style is all sort of sketchy to me.

Of course, it could be legit but those are the red flags I spot.

The caveat is that I don't have a lot of first-hand experience here.  My sales and visibility are such that both scammers and also legitimate whoevers don't even bother with me.

I'm tempted to send the bot breakdown as a reply, but this might just encourage more correspondence. Best to block him.

I also have very few sales, but I tend to get a lot of people asking if they can do ads for me after I've done some sort of freebie. 

The email came as Smith Top <[email protected]>

[alhawke]

Don't trust anybody or respond to these emails unless it appears to be from an organization or reputable agent/publisher, etc. I'm now trashing close to 10 spams a day

[Lorri Moulton]

I don't believe any of these things.  I seriously doubt anyone is going to approach me about getting any money...they ask for it, but they don't offer it.  And if they do, they'll want the bank account info, so they can "deposit" it.

Trust no one.

If a legitimate business is contacting us (unless we have a super-best-selling book) it would be because we had an agent contact them first.  I don't have an agent, so it's never going to happen.  I like being self-published. 

[Jeff Tanyard]

I can't even figure out what exactly that "person" is trying to offer.   

But yeah, it's just spam.  Treat it accordingly.

[TimothyEllis]

Just the Gmail account puts me off.

Anyone with any credibility would have their own domain and an email at that domain.

Reads like AI BS to me.

[Bill Hiatt]

The fact that the prose is pretty weird and combines specificity with vagueness is off putting. Boards with X number of saved, but on what platform?

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I can't even figure out what exactly that "person" is trying to offer.   

But yeah, it's just spam.  Treat it accordingly.

I also wondered what they were offering. 

[Post-Doctorate D]

Not even sure what "saves" means.  Are they free book downloads?  Or maybe they were religious conversions and souls saved.  Who knows?

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Just got this follow-up email.

Hi Jan,
‎
‎I wanted to follow up on my previous message about The Breadwinners. I?ve mapped out a detailed plan to boost visibility and engagement on Pinterest, Goodreads, and Amazon, targeting multi-generational family saga and 1920s?1940s historical fiction audiences. With a phased approach, this strategy can drive saves, votes, and discoverability, helping your book rank higher and reach the right readers.
‎
‎If you?re interested, I?d be happy to share the full outline tailored specifically for your book.
‎
‎Looking forward to your thoughts,
‎Smith

[Post-Doctorate D]

Votes?  Are you running for political office? 

[LilyBLily]

I suspect, Jan, that you can fill out the outline yourself--always assuming you actually want those audiences. It's a lowering truth that sometimes the people who buy our books are not our soulmates.