Scams and Scoundrels

 by Charlotte Hinger

I can't keep up with all the crooks operating online. Sometimes I think the people who never use the internet are the smart ones after all. 

A couple of weeks I foolishly bought a new sofa bed and matching loveseat without selling my old furniture first. I truly thought someone would snatch it up immediately because it's in perfect condition. I love this all-leather sectional. There's also a matching chair and two ottomans.

It was not snatched up immediately. The first person who responded was a scammer. Luckily, I had read all the warnings on Facebook, Craigslist, and NextDoor. The lady who was so eager to buy the set offered to send me a cashier's check. However, she said since she was in the process of moving to Fort Collins she would simply have a mover pick up the furniture. 

All three sites, warned about taking a cashier's check since they can be faked. I was quite leary anyway of someone wanting to buy furniture they had not seen. So I asked her to overnight the check to a certain person at a bank in Hoxie. (name withheld to protect the innocent) I assured her via text that it would not be necessary to give her any account information. I would simply alert the officer that the check would arrive and he could take care of depositing it. 

Naturally, the check never arrived. How can this be a scam? What this kind of person is after is account information and all kinds of personal details.

The best way to conduct a transaction like this is to meet in person in a public place, like a Walmart parking lot, and ask them in advance to bring cash only. Always bring a friend along. Don't risk meeting people alone. Bring the merchanise with you so they can look it over. 

As you can see by the photo, it would be impossible to bring the merchanise with me. But I can ask an able-bodied friend to be with me in my home. On the other hand, it's no protection against people who just want to look the place over so they can plan their next heist more efficiently. 

I suspect that this furniture will end up in the basement which is actually a pretty good idea. Not a great idea, but not too bad. It easily sleeps one person. 

As to writing scams, oh dear, where to begin? The first rule used to be--never give anyone any money.  Legitimate trade publishers give the writer money. Writers don't give money to the publisher. However, since I first began there are a lot of variations and some of the houses expect writers to share the expenses. Some of these arrangements are legitimate and an excellent compromise.

Then there are the fake agents. Years ago, a lady who had never sold a single book, came to a writers conference every year. She wore stunning hats and dark glasses and glorried in the flock of writers begging for her to take them as a client. I knew another agent who never read a single word of books that were submitted.

Why would people do this? I have no idea. 

Post-Pandemic Outreach

Frankie, here.

Today's post is more to invite discussion than to offer any conclusions I've reach. I'd like to hear any thoughts  you have. I've been thinking -- as my title says --  about what form(s) of outreach I should be engaged in now that a pandemic has upended our lives. In a world in which artificial intelligence was recently  a plot element on a day time drama ("soap opera") with a child's toy used to substitute one voice for another -- or in real life where a robot might roll up to your table and take your order at a restaurant -- the future is here. And much of it is both scary and really cool.

But getting back to my dilemma -- with limited time and budget, I'm trying to reach as large an audience as possible. This time I don't want to wait until the thriller I'm excited about and hope my agent will be able to find a home is ready for release. I want to be proactive. I want to engage with potential readers and build "excitement" so that they are eagerly waiting for the book. Some authors are excellent at doing this. They remain in contact with readers in between books. This time, I want to approach my next book and first standalone with the same professionalism.

I had began to feel comfortable on /Twitter. Then, with the pandemic, I was too depressed by what was happening to go on daily or even weekly and share news or thoughts. Now that I'm ready to go back to Twitter, it is not the same as it once was because of the controversy around the change in ownership. 

I could use TikTok, but I have nothing to do in that space.  I think I would be more comfortable on YouTube, but having a channel is a commitment to having regular content to offer an audience. I would have to have a theme that would make the effort required -- and the technical knowledge I would have to acquire -- worthwhile. 

Or, I could go "old school" and go out in the summer and do some shorter trips to bookstores and libraries. Except gas is expensive -- and by now many readers are accustomed to interacting from the comfort of their home. And it is easier for authors to do a virtual book tour from our own armchairs. All we need to do is book some stone stops on other people's websites. We can hire a comfort to set it all up. I've done that. It was easy. But would  it work as well now with so many people doing tours,

Perhaps the best way to reach out to readers and reach as large as audience as possible for a new book is simply to up my game. To continue to post here and use Twitter to draw an audience to the site for my posts and those of my colleagues. To book a virtual tour on other people's websites when the next book is forthcomiing. I could also start to blog about my research on my website. I could even start putting out a newsletter. I've been planning to do that for years. But I want it to be something that readers will enjoy receiving. I could book more virtual events to supplement the in-person events I might be invited to do or able to book. And continue to attend crime fiction conventions and request panel assignments.

Of course, as always writing the best book possible seems to be the starting place. Now, as even before the pandemic, we all have the option of taking our publication fate into our own hands. We can become independent publishers without the past stigma. Many writers have done exaactly that. So, should I also get my first two manuscripts out of my desk drawer and see if my agent thinks we can sell the revised versions to an editor. Even though I'm a better writer now, would the investment in time be worth the effort if I am not sure my agent could place them. But I could hire an editor and go independent, becoming a "hybrid writer" at least for those two books. I wouldn't even have to update them. They might work even better now because they are almost historicals written at a time when the characters would not have been expected to take out their phones to text or the GPS to get to where they were going. 

I know this matter of outreach  has been a subject discussed across social media. Has anyone reached any conclusions? Thrown up your hands in despair? Hired someone else to do it all or supplement what your publisher done? Found software that allows you to do it all virtually without breaking a sweat? If so, please share.    

Your hologram awaits

"I'm getting too old for this s**t," I muttered to the dogs recently. I'd been trying to wrestle Instagram to the ground so that I could post about an upcoming book signing. My millennial daughter had snatched the phone from my hand and flipped through my Instagram account with horror. Where are your stories? she asked. You have no hashtags. With this post you should include #barbarafradkin, #inspectorgreen ("Look, Inspector Green has his own hashtag already!"), and #Torontobooklaunch. People will find you with those hashtags.

She unearthed details from my Instagram presence that I didn't even know existed. There were likes and messages and reposts that I'd been blissfully ignorant of. Who knew what all those little icons meant? Facebook is all very well, my daughter said, but that only works for people who are already your friends. Instagram is where new readers discover you, where you build your audience. She started in on TikTok, but I drew the line. Because she'd set it up, I've had an Instagram account for a couple of years and Twitter even longer, but I could never see much point in either. There obviously is a point, but it feels like navigating a brazen new cityscape with speeding traffic, flashing lights, indecipherable signs, one-way streets, and a pace so hectic that I just feel like parking the car and walking. 

Perhaps that's when I decided I was getting too old for this s... Or it may have been a couple of weeks earlier, when I had a birthday after which my last quarter-century looms around the corner. I thought I'd been keeping up pretty well. After all, I had lots of friends on Facebook, I HAD a Twitter and Instagram account, although I had no idea what the use was. Sometimes I'd get a notification that so-and-so whom I'd never heard of was now following me, and my gut reaction was "Why? I'm not going anywhere." I had set up and successfully pulled off two virtual book launches using Eventbrite and Zoom Webinar. 

Not bad for someone who grew up with rotary phones and radio plays! I got this! 

But then Mark Zuckerberg's smiling face came on my TV last week to promote his brand new reimagining of social media. So long Facebook, say hello to the future: the Metaverse. With dizzying speed he talked us through the holograms, the virtual, holographic workplaces that you navigate wearing special googles, teleporting. The possibilities for human interaction are endless. What, real people? Oh, no need.

It did cross my mind as I watched "I wonder what plans he has for sex."

I suspect that as all these tech changes accelerate, there will be a whole generation of us left in the dust. You may find us weeping in fury over our three TV remotes, or possibly walking arm in arm down a country lane somewhere, talking about the good old days. Or something.

The Next Big Thing

We writers are always getting hit on the head about the need for marketing. You can't turn around without tripping on yet another promotional idea that you must try. Fundamentally we want to reach new readers while keeping in touch with our stalwart fans. To that end, over the years different platforms and venues have come and gone. I cringe when I see my first promotional attempts on the Internet because they list my contact info on Myspace. How's that for dated? Back then, my agent was constantly browbeating me to find new fans on Myspace and get my titles and name out there. About the same time a group of urban fantasy writers that I belonged to, The League of Reluctant Adults, was all set to launch our blog. It was supposed to be a sophisticated operation with fan forums for every member. Then Facebook came along and Myspace sank faster than the Titanic. Few of our fans stuck with the League of Reluctant Adults and through an unspoken consensus, we contributors abandoned ship. The blog remains in cyberspace like a derelict Flying Dutchman.

Another promotional shtick was the infamous book trailer. I remember my agent and editor at the time breathing down my neck for a book trailer.  Since most book trailers were lucky to get a hundred views, I tried something different. My son Emil is a talented stop-motion animator and we collaborated on two Lego trailers, Vampire Lego Movie and Jailbait Zombie, the latter of which includes a cameo of me. Each accumulated over 150K views, which is far better than average for a book trailer. But did those views translate into sales? A tiny bit, perhaps.

Some of my writer friends tried engaging fans through video blogs but those didn't gain traction. Talking about writing and presenting book reviews in video format wasn't very appealing unless you had a compelling presence across many other interests.

Currently, Facebook is my primary means of reaching out to fans. I post my appearances at cons and pimp whatever new work I or fellow writers might have. When Twitter began I spent time there but didn't get much attention. Today I only visit Twitter about twice a week. My account on Instagram stalled because of the constant need for new visual constant and I couldn't keep up. Venues like Snapchat I haven't bothered with.

Ironically, some writer buddies have pulled back from their social media platforms. Online discussions have devolved into political flame wars about pretty much everything and those can suck the life out of your day. Plus, you can get tossed into Internet jail for violating "community standards," whatever those happen to be at the time. And sadly, many of my women writer friends have shut down their accounts because of stalkers and harassment.

So what will be the new thing? I knew you would ask. Here's my learned opinion. I dunno.

Piggy-Backing

I'm frankly piggy-backing on Rick's post. He did his best to advise a beginning author about social media. I'm lucky. Most people simply ask me how to get an agent or how to get a book published. My advice is always the same on those two issues. Write the book first! Then hunt for a publisher or an agent.

I always look trapped and desperate about social media questions. Truth is, you can work into infinity and not begin to tap everything you could do on social media. My original word choice was "should" do but I think that's where the problem comes in.

Pick and choose. Despite all the bad publicity it has received lately, Facebook is one of my favorites. I love hearing what friends and members of the writing community are doing. Contrary to a lot of criticism I hear about the site, I want to know about events that are affecting their lives. Good and bad. I'm deeply grateful for all my Kansas contacts who have kept up with my books and my career. I still feel a special bond to Hoxie.

I rejoice with friends in the writing community who have receive special recognition. It's even sweeter when I know they have struggled to keep their career together.

Specialized blogs--such as Type M-- are pure gold. It always surprises me how many people read this and never comment. They know about it because I mention a new entry on Facebook. I'm grateful for Rick Blechta's faithfulness in tending to this site. A log of blogs go under because the owners aren't faithful to the task.

So here is the advice I would give to Rick's beginning writer:

1.  Make a list of all the organizations you belong to. Check out their websites.
2   Make a list of all the sites related to the non-fiction elements of your books.
3.  Make a list of the people who would really like to know what you are up to.
4.  Pick 10 of these places that appeal to you.
5.  Make a check list (just for tracking) of how often you would ideally contribute to each site. Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly?
6.  Learn to GET OVER IT if you can't or won't make yourself do it.

Personally, I avoid politics and controversaries. Plus I assume people don't want to hear AGAIN about my technology problems that prevented me from posting last week. Or the fall that nearly prevented me from posting today. Or . . .well, you get the picture.

Clickbait ADHD

I know that November is Novel Writing Month, but I can barely write a novel in a year.

Why?

I have the attention span of a six-year-old. That’s a bad thing if you’re writing an 90,000-word mystery. Worse, if you’re working on a computer and you’re logged onto the internet.

First off, I’m a news junkie. Every morning, I look at the websites of the Washington Post, the New York Times, Politico, The Hill, Huffington Post, and the Raleigh News & Observer. The current political climate doesn’t do anything to assuage my news addiction. Scary things are happening and an absurd rate of speed.

AMAZING PICS: NASA releases image showing Sun ‘exploding’

If I just read the stories that interested me, I would most likely be fine. But I go for clickbait. Those shiny, sparkly, too good to be true headlines that always promise more that they deliver—suddenly I’m down the rabbit hole. When I should be working on Chapter 23, instead I’m clicking on something that’s caught my eye.

19 Every-day items that are actually a huge waste of money

And how much time on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is too much? I justify it by saying that they’re all marketing tools to help get the word about my books. “Liking” my friends’ photos is just being neighborly. Isn’t it?

After all, they “like” and share the reviews I post of Random Road and Darkness Lane. Facebook and Twitter, well, they're just good marketing tools.

A few years ago, a Chicago psychologist, Michael Pietrus offered an interesting theory: Maybe these distractions aren’t just an internet-age annoyance but something approaching actual pathology.

It's possible the internet is giving us all the symptoms of ADHD. He cautioned, “We are not saying that internet technologies and social media are directly causing ADHD.” But he claimed that the internet “can impair functioning in a variety of ways…that can mimic and in some cases exacerbate underlying attention problems.”

According to the CDC, an estimated 4.4 percent of adults have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It can make it difficult to concentrate on one thing for any period of time. Adults with ADHD, unlike children, aren’t hyperactive in the conventional sense. But they can be compulsive, easily distracted, easily bored. They lose interest halfway through reading an article or completing a task.

When I sit down at my desk on a Saturday morning intending to have two chapters under my belt by the end of the day and I look at my watch and see that it’s already noon and I haven’t written a word—well, that’s when I slap myself in the forehead.

How do I combat my addiction? Believe it or not--YouTube. No, I don’t download kitty videos or trailers of upcoming movies (although I love those) and nor do I download outtakes from the Big Bang Theory (even though I find those laugh-out-loud hilarious).

Nope, I’ll listen to ambient music. There’s a ton of it out there. It’s like the background music in a movie. If I’ve come to a sad chapter, I put on an hour of sad music. If I’m at a place of introspection, I’ll put on an hour or so of a chill mix. Writing a scary scene? There are some ambient style Game of Thrones soundtracks that put me in the right frame of mind.

A 2007 study from Stamford University published in the journal Neuron makes the claim that music engages the areas of the brain linked with paying attention, making predictions and updating memory.

'Cursed’ Egyptian sarcophagus reveals secrets.

That’s the last one, I promise. Time to turn on some ambient music and write that novel. www.thomaskiesauthor.com

bwana politics

 I was going to post about bad writing advice but something this week prompted me to address another topic. What happened is that a few days ago, Facebook informed me that a Facebook post that I reposted had been blocked because they considered it spam. Specifically, it was a post linked to La Bloga, a website that features news and commentary about Latino literature, poetry, culture, and some politics. This particular post mentioned my newest novel, University of Doom, and Floricanto and what they had to say about the border wall. Here's a screenshot of what Facebook told me.

I couldn't figure why this was spam since I only posted it to my feed as I do all my other posts and links and none of them were ever considered spam. When I clicked on the link Facebook provided to explain why my post was spam, it said that this post either violated community standards or presented a security threat. Both assertions are of course, caca. I figured that some Facebook bot had scanned the content and tripped upon some offending words or images, but I have no idea what they were.

Interestingly, I had no trouble posting this screenshot on my feed. Then other members of the La Bloga complained that sometimes their posts to La Bloga were getting blocked and were unblocked only after they submitted an appeal. However this week, no links to La Bloga were allowed by Facebook.

I haven't submitted a request to Facebook that they review my post because the process is demeaning. Basically I have to go, sombrero in hand, huaraches on my feet, and beg, pleeze señor rich, educated white person, I'm just a lowly brown-skinned piasano who means no harm. Pleeze unblock my post so that me and my burro can go on our way.

The issue is one of what we used to call institutional racism, in which the cultural and economic prejudices of those in power are built into a system to the detriment of the marginalized. The eggheads at Facebook see the world through their narrow microscope of entitlement, and being guys and gals who make a lot of money, what they decide is obviously right, no matter the consequences to anyone else. Like other Silicon Valley companies, Facebook is staffed by Ivy League elites who praise themselves for using the appropriate buzz words. Naturally, they proclaim progressive values such as diversity. Facebook recently bragged about a JUMP in the hiring of Latinos from 4 to 5 percent! This in a state--California--where the population is 40 percent Latino. Meaning, Facebook believes in diversity as a concept, just don't hold them to actually putting it into practice. So it's hasta la vista, Mexican peasants.

Goodreads – love it or hate it

Barbara here. As part of the build-up to the September release of my next novel, THE TRICKSTER'S LULLABY, my publisher sends out periodic emails with promotional suggestions. Yesterday, the subject was Goodreads. The publisher is planning a giveaway, and wants me to be involved in the promotion, claiming that Goodreads is becoming the single most important social media site for authors and readers to connect. I sighed. More social media? I am active on Facebook, make the occasional stab at Twitter when I have something timely to announce, write this bi-weekly blog, and try to keep my website up-to-date with news and events.

I have an author profile on Goodreads and I know my books get reviewed there, but I have never been able to figure out how to use it for promotion. I don't use it as a reader because I get more than enough book suggestions from friends, book discussions, conferences, reviews, etc., and although I recognize the value of reviews for both readers and authors, I don't review or list any books I am reading. After twenty years in the writing community, many of my close friends are writers and I treasure my place in the community. Reviewing books, even positively, opens up the potential for misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and other conflicts. For example, "You reviewed her book, why not mine?"

Increasingly, as publishers' publicity and touring budgets are reduced and professional review sites dry up, social media have become essential  promotional tools. Authors are building relationships directly with readers in cyberspace. I actually enjoy this; readers have become friends and, when writing gets too lonely or discouraging, nothing lifts the spirits better than a message from a reader who enjoyed my book and eagerly awaits the next. But there are limits to the time I can devote if I also want to write that much-anticipated next book. There are limits as well to the amount of promotional book chatter that people want to see on their news and message feeds.

So my heart sank when I read the message about Goodreads, and I decided to conduct a very informal, very unscientific survey of my Facebook friends yesterday to find out whether they used Goodreads to find book recommendations, and whether they posted or read reviews, joined groups, interacted with authors, etc. My Facebook friends are a mix of fellow authors, family and personal friends, readers and other book people, and people I have met only in cyberspace (so far). By the end of the day, I had 83 comments. It was a topic that excited both readers and authors, many of whom are asking themselves the same questions as me. I appreciated all the people who took the time to share their experience and advice. All the comments were very interesting and useful.

First of all, there were wide differences of opinion. Many authors who replied have, like me, some Goodreads presence but aren't sure how to use it. However, a few of the more tech savvy ones are very active in linking it to their other social media and find it an extremely valuable way to reach new readers. They believe because it is a site dedicated to books only, without the extraneous chatter of Facebook or Twitter and because it's frequented mainly by active, avid readers, it is like one giant online book club. And unlike Facebook and Twitter, there's less blatant author self-promotion. Its main aim is to help readers connect to books  and to discuss, review, and compare books. So the algorithms that produce book suggestions and comparisons can really help readers find new authors they might like. The key here is "new" readers. Other social media strengthens existing relationships; Goodreads creates new ones.

Some authors replied they did join discussion groups and post reviews, but many did not, preferring to use the Q&A options, giveaways, and links to other social media. Giveaway offers elicit hundreds of responses, and even if only a fraction of those actually check out the book, it's a big reach. Several authors noted that discussion groups disapprove of authors who promote their own work in the group, so that strategy could backfire.

The comments from readers were eye-opening. Some didn't use it at all but most used it to some extent to get recommendations or to check the reviews of a book they were considering. Some get book recommendations almost exclusively through Goodreads. They read the synopsis and a sample of reviews before deciding whether they would like the book. One bookseller noted that customers would check the book reviews on their iPhone before buying the book in their store. Libraries are also using Goodreads to help them find new books.  Increasingly as a society we are relying on on-line peer reviews when making consumer choices, whether it's booking a hotel or finding a restaurant, and the book world is no different.

As a final exploration in this world of Goodreads, I went on the site to look at my own author profile. Someone, not me, has kept it up to date; all my books are on there with their synopses and covers. The feature "Ask me a question" has been enabled, although I have received only one question, from a reader in Holland, so that's worth at least ten, surely. One of the beauties of the internet is that the whole world is accessible. No national or continental boundaries. My books all have decent ratings and reviews, and although reading reviews is often upsetting (we only ever see the negatives), I am grateful to everyone who takes the time to post.

My informal survey suggests that Goodreads is an increasingly important and powerful tool for both readers and authors.  It used to be that authors (and publishers) fretted about the number of Amazon reviews, but I think Goodreads now has a far greater reach. Anyone who signs up can review a book on Goodreads, whereas only Amazon purchases can be reviewed on Amazon, which limits the numbers. For example, my latest book FIRE IN THE STARS has 86 ratings and 29 reviews on Goodreads but only 9 reviews on Amazon. So a reader looking for the most information on a book will probably check out Goodreads. I'm well aware that it is owned by Amazon, and thus is ultimately a tool for Amazon to sell books, but it's certainly clever. And judging from reader engagement, it's providing a real service.

My conclusion... I need to step up my game. I enjoy Facebook and will continue to share news and nurture friendships, but I need to find room in my day for this new player. For a start, I will try to link my social media sites together so that each pushes the other, and I will start a dialogue in the Q&A section. I will "like" and comment on some of the reviews.  I'm not sure I will review any books myself, unless they are written by total strangers, but I may make a few book recommendations and put a couple of books on my shelf. But in that, I must tread carefully, and still save most of my day for writing my books. And walking my dogs, and seeing my friends and family. And having a life...

What are your thoughts? Your experiences, good and bad, with social media and the ever-growing reach of Goodreads.