I wonder if BookBub know about this?

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

As well as spending a good deal of time deleting unwanted emails offering to market my books, I have now received two emails purporting to be from BookBub. If they are actually soliciting for authors then things are bad, but I suspect it has nothing to do with them.

"Hi there,

I?m Mary, a BookBub marketing consultant based in Georgia. Every day, millions of book lovers visit BookBub to discover new reads they?ll genuinely enjoy and many authors report that BookBub has helped them reach more readers, downloads, and sales.

I?ve taken a look through all your books and your work fits perfectly with the genres BookBub readers are actively engaging with right now.

Would you be open to having your book featured in front of targeted BookBub readers this week, alongside the titles they already love and trust?

Warm regards,
Mary "

[TimothyEllis]

That has to be a scam.

Does it link to a website? My guess if it does, or they send one later, it will be very subtly wrong, and go to a copy site.

Bookbub don't need to cold send, and certainly don't need marketing consultants. They reject the vast majority of their submissions.

Yes, send Bookbub the email.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

That has to be a scam.

Does it link to a website? My guess if it does, or they send one later, it will be very subtly wrong, and go to a copy site.

Bookbub don't need to cold send, and certainly don't need marketing consultants. They reject the vast majority of their submissions.

Yes, send Bookbub the email.

I've sent it to BookBub for them to deal with. 

[TimothyEllis]

That has to be a scam.

Does it link to a website? My guess if it does, or they send one later, it will be very subtly wrong, and go to a copy site.

Bookbub don't need to cold send, and certainly don't need marketing consultants. They reject the vast majority of their submissions.

Yes, send Bookbub the email.

I've sent it to BookBub for them to deal with. 

Nothing they can do but advise anyone who's tried to get one. If they kept the list.

[Bill Hiatt]

If they've trademarked the name Bookbub, they can go after the scammer for trademark infringement or something like that. In fact, under trademark law, they're obligated to go after infringement if they want to keep the mark.

[alhawke]

Marketing consultant in Georgia? BookBub is based in Massachusetts. Promos have been doing poorly overall. Reading Deals and Buck Books have closed this month. But BookBub soliciting authors-- I don't believe it.

Please let us know if this is legitimate, Jan. I'd be curious to know BookBub's response.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Marketing consultant in Georgia? BookBub is based in Massachusetts. Promos have been doing poorly overall. Reading Deals and Buck Books have closed this month. But BookBub soliciting authors-- I don't believe it.

Please let us know if this is legitimate, Jan. I'd be curious to know BookBub's response.

I will report back  .
 If they are soliciting then now is the time to apply for an ad 

[Post-Doctorate D]

There are Facebook marketing consultants that do not work for Facebook.

There are Google marketing consultants that do not work for Google.

[Bill Hiatt]

Yes, but Facebook and Google are open systems, while Bookbub is less so. BB is somewhat open now that you can buy ads, but the featured deals are still highly selective. I suppose in theory a marketing consultant could help with ad design, but I doubt one could help getting one of the features.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I've had a reply from BookBub. They don't seem overly concerned, although you never know what is going on behind the scenes. It could also be a bit of publicity for them, but perhaps not in a good way 

Hi Jan,
 
Hope you're doing well, and thanks for reaching out! I can confirm we don't have an employee with that email address working at BookBub, so that doesn't look like a real account. Let me know if we can be of any additional support on our end!
 
Best,
Julia Dickman
Account Coordinator
BookBub Partners & Author Websites
http://insights.bookbub.com

[TimothyEllis]

Hope you're doing well, and thanks for reaching out! I can confirm we don't have an employee with that email address working at BookBub, so that doesn't look like a real account. Let me know if we can be of any additional support on our end!

That's a pretty BS response.

That email you got was not saying they were an employee, and BB assuming that's what it meant is not good.

That response suggests they are completely unconcerned by scammers pretending to be affiliated with them.

[Bill Hiatt]

Or maybe there's nothing much they can do. As Post-Doctorate D points out, one can call oneself a marketing consultant without directly claiming to be a company employee, though one could argue that the email Jan received could certainly be confusing, particularly to someone not used to dealing with scams.

Perhaps if Jan had engaged and gotten follow-up emails, we might be able to tell what the scammer was up to. But the initial email doesn't necessarily break the law.

I've gotten similarly apathetic responses to the use of Amazon's name from Amazon, which was content to confirm the email wasn't from them. And when I notified the agent of a bestselling author that the author's name was being used in a scam, I got no response at all.

Maybe they all feel as if they would just be playing whack-a-mole.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Or maybe there's nothing much they can do. As Post-Doctorate D points out, one can call oneself a marketing consultant without directly claiming to be a company employee, though one could argue that the email Jan received could certainly be confusing, particularly to someone not used to dealing with scams.

Perhaps if Jan had engaged and gotten follow-up emails, we might be able to tell what the scammer was up to. But the initial email doesn't necessarily break the law.

I've gotten similarly apathetic responses to the use of Amazon's name from Amazon, which was content to confirm the email wasn't from them. And when I notified the agent of a bestselling author that the author's name was being used in a scam, I got no response at all.

Maybe they all feel as if they would just be playing whack-a-mole.

I was going to reply and quote the email from BookBub, but a reply simply engages with them further and I don't want to go through all that again.  A rude reply could end up with some 1 star reviews so that is not an option I want to try.
I've now had three emails from people purporting to be from BookBub, so the whack-a-mole scenario is probably true.

[alhawke]

I just got my first BookBub spam today from "Texas"; it's gotta be a new spam scam. In email correspondence with BookBub, they always email you under the title "Bookbub Partners".

Now there could be a marketer selling a service that tries to get your books visible for BookBub, but that would be a waste of a writer's time and money. BookBub selects what they're going to select and marketing to drive your books to them seems like marketing for marketing a marketing campaign.

I'm so happy AI has come up with all these new ways to help criminals and jerks email-scam writers.

[Bill Hiatt]

I haven't seen the Bookbub one yet, but I've gotten two book club in two days. Apparently, scammers really like my books...

[LilyBLily]

I get one every day or two, and sometimes they write me a second time, to remind me. Just like Facebook writes me over and over that someone made a comment. It's a computer, so it never gets tired of annoying me.

I'm too busy with real time issues to care right now.