I recently received a fake book marketing email that made my 77-year-old heart skip a beat for about five seconds. Someone from Macmillan Publishers—one of the Big Five traditional publishing houses—had apparently read my memoir Ellen: A Memoir of Love, Life, and Grief and wanted to help me reach more grieving readers.
On initial quick scanning, the email appeared professionally written, emotionally intelligent, and demonstrated genuine knowledge of my book’s content. The sender praised the balance of “tears and laughter,” mentioned my AI-collaborative approach, and even name-checked Joan Didion and Matt Haig as comparable authors.
For about three seconds, I thought maybe, just maybe, one of the major publishers had noticed my little self-published memoir about losing my wife of forty-seven years.
Then I looked at the email address: robertmiler.macmillan@gmail.com
And I realized with the skepticism that comes with living this long as an writer and self-publisher that I was looking at a sophisticated scam specifically targeting indie authors like me.
Let me walk you through exactly how this works, why it almost fooled me for a few moments, and what red flags you should watch for in your own inbox. Because if they’re targeting a skeptical old horror writer who’s been around the block a few times, they’re definitely targeting you.
The Hooks of a Well-Crafted Scam
Here’s what made this email so effective—and so dangerous:
- It demonstrated real knowledge of my book. The sender mentioned specific elements: my memoir’s exploration of grief and humor, the AI-generated perspectives from writers like Hemingway and Dickinson, the “sacred and surprisingly joyful” tone. This wasn’t generic spam. Someone (or more likely, some AI) had actually analyzed my book’s Amazon listing.
- It appealed to my deepest author insecurity. Four reviews. That’s all my memoir has right now. The email zeroed in on this vulnerability immediately: “with only 4 reviews so far… this beautifully crafted story isn’t landing in front of the thousands searching for just this kind of healing voice.”
Ouch. That stings because it’s true. I poured five years of grief and reflection into that memoir. The idea that it’s not reaching readers who might benefit from it? That hits hard.
- It offered a “complimentary” audit. Not an immediate sales pitch, just a helpful professional offering free advice. This is classic hook psychology—get me on a call, establish rapport, then transition to paid services.
- It name-dropped legitimate authors and communities. Joan Didion, Mitch Albom, Matt Haig. Bereavement support communities. These references show knowledge of my genre and suggest the sender understands the memoir market.
- The language was emotionally intelligent. Phrases like “this beautifully crafted story” and “healing voice” and “genuinely moved” sound like someone who actually read and connected with the book. They don’t sound like spam.
Thanks to wishful thinking and hope springing eternal in my old writer’s heard, I was impressed for a few seconds. Then the cynicism hit, and I started looking closer.
The Red Flags
Let’s examine what gave this scam away:
- The email address is Gmail, not Macmillan’s corporate domain. Real Macmillan employees use @macmillan.com addresses. Using a Gmail address with “macmillan” in it is like wearing a fake Rolex—if you look closely, you can tell it’s counterfeit.
- The sender’s name is slightly off. “Robert Miler” with one L. Could be a legitimate spelling variant, but it’s more likely intentional to avoid trademark issues. Search for “Robert Miler Macmillan” and you won’t find this person listed anywhere on Macmillan’s actual website or LinkedIn.
- The job title is vague. “Marketing Manager / Macmillan Publishers” without specifying which imprint or division. Real Macmillan employees work for specific imprints like St. Martin’s Press, Tor, or Henry Holt. The vagueness suggests someone who doesn’t actually understand the company’s structure.
- Macmillan doesn’t do this. Major publishers don’t cold-email self-published authors offering marketing services. That’s just not how the traditional publishing industry works. They’re busy marketing their own contracted authors, not helping indie authors optimize their Amazon presence.
- The website link is legitimate but misleading. Yes, https://us.macmillan.com/ is the real Macmillan website. But linking to it doesn’t prove the sender works there. I could include a link to the White House website in an email; that doesn’t make me the President.
- The tracking disclosure at the bottom. “Email tracked with Mailsuite” is marketing software that tracks when you open emails and click links. Legitimate publishers don’t typically use consumer-grade email tracking tools for author outreach.
But here’s the sneakiest part: red flags are easy to miss when you’re engaging in wishful thinking! This isn’t your grandma’s Nigerian prince scam. This is sophisticated, AI-powered social engineering targeting a specific vulnerable population—indie authors desperate for validation and readers.
What This Scam Actually Costs
Let’s say I’d taken the bait and scheduled that “complimentary positioning audit.” What happens next?
Based on similar scams targeting indie authors, here’s the typical progression:
The free consultation identifies all the problems with your book’s marketing. Your categories are wrong, your keywords are weak, your description doesn’t convert, your cover needs work, and you’re invisible to your target audience.
All of this might even be technically true. The scammer isn’t necessarily lying about these problems—they’re just vastly exaggerating their impact and their ability to fix them.
The pitch comes next. For somewhere between $500 and $5,000, they’ll offer a package of services: keyword optimization, category consultation, review acquisition strategies, promotional campaigns. The prices vary wildly depending on how desperate you seem.
The services delivered will be minimal at best, worthless at worst. Maybe they’ll suggest different Amazon categories you could have found yourself with ten minutes of research or maybe they’ll provide a list of review bloggers you could have found through a simple Google search. Maybe they’ll submit your book to a few promotional sites that charge their own additional fees.
In the absolute best case scenario, you’ll get advice you could have gotten free from any number of legitimate author communities on Reddit, Facebook, or Discord.
In the worst case scenario, they’ll take your money and ghost you entirely.
Why These Scams Work on Authors
Let me get personal here for a minute. When I first saw that email, my immediate emotional response wasn’t skepticism—it was hope mixed with relief.
Hope that someone with real industry knowledge had noticed my work. Relief that maybe I wasn’t as invisible as I sometimes fear. Validation that the five years I spent processing grief through writing hadn’t been wasted.
That emotional vulnerability is exactly what these scammers exploit.
Indie authors exist in a strange psychological space. We’ve taken the enormous risk of putting our work out into the world without the validation of traditional gatekeepers. We’re simultaneously proud of our independence and insecure about our legitimacy. We know our books deserve readers, but we’re not always confident about our ability to reach them.
And we’re isolated. Unlike authors with traditional deals who have marketing departments and publicists, we’re figuring this out alone in our home offices, often with limited budgets and even more limited industry knowledge.
We’re desperate for someone to tell us we’re doing it right. That our book is good. That we just need this one missing piece to reach our audience.
That desperation makes us vulnerable.
I’ve been publishing since the 1980s—first with traditional publishers for my horror novels, now independently with my memoir and my AI-collaborative work. I’ve seen every iteration of publishing scams over four decades. And this email still made me pause.
If I’m vulnerable to this, you probably are too.
How to Protect Yourself
Here’s my practical advice for evaluating any unsolicited email about your book:
- Check the email domain immediately. If someone claims to work for a major publisher, their email should come from that publisher’s corporate domain. No exceptions. Gmail addresses, Outlook addresses, Yahoo addresses—these are not legitimate corporate communications.
- Google the sender’s name plus their claimed employer. Real publishing professionals have LinkedIn profiles, company bios, industry credits. If you can’t find evidence this person exists within the organization they claim to represent, that’s your answer.
- Be suspicious of flattery. Yes, your book probably is good. But if someone you’ve never heard of sends you an email gushing about how moved they were by your work, ask yourself: why would a busy publishing professional take time to cold-email an indie author they discovered through Amazon?
- Question the business model. Traditional publishers don’t market self-published books. Legitimate marketing consultants typically don’t cold-email potential clients. If the business model doesn’t make sense, there’s usually a reason.
- Never pay for services pitched through unsolicited emails. Even if the services offered are theoretically legitimate, the fact that they’re being marketed through cold outreach is a red flag. Legitimate service providers get clients through referrals, testimonials, and established reputation—not through spam campaigns.
- Trust your gut. If something feels too good to be true, it probably is. That initial flash of excitement followed by nagging doubt? That’s your bullshit detector working. Listen to it.
What I Did Instead
I didn’t respond to the email and I didn’t schedule a consultation and I didn’t click the tracking links to see what else they’d try to show me, but I did forward a copy of the email to Macmillan’s compliance office just to let them know some asshole was using their company.
I did decide to write this blog post series about scams targeting indie authors. Because if I’m getting these emails, you’re probably getting them too. And maybe by dissecting how these scams work, I can help a few authors avoid wasting money on worthless services.
Is my memoir reaching enough readers? Probably not. Could I do better with my keywords and categories? Almost certainly. Do I sometimes feel invisible and frustrated by the challenges of indie publishing? Absolutely.
But none of those problems will be solved by some scammer with a Gmail address pretending to work for Macmillan.
In my next post, I’ll dig deeper into why scammers specifically target indie authors, what other common scams you should watch out for, and how to distinguish legitimate services from sophisticated fraud. Because this fake Macmillan email is just one example of a much larger problem.
The scammers have gotten smarter. They’re using AI to analyze our books, craft personalized pitches, and exploit our vulnerabilities with surgical precision.
It’s time we got smarter too.
Hey, I’m 77 and I’ve Got Stories…
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