Authors Beware!

Scam Alert!

SUCH an elegant scam just got tried on me.

An email from a lady I don’t know, asking was I the author of ‘this amazing book,’ Letters to a Dead Man. I replied that I am, and asked where she’d seen it. She said she came across it when looking for ‘deeply personal / spiritual memoirs’ and that the title alone ‘doesn’t sound like a book written to fill space. It sounds like a book written because it had to be.’ She asked when it came out and what I had hoped readers would understand from it. 

Warmed by her interest, and thinking that perhaps she had in mind the writing of her own ‘deeply personal / spiritual’ memoir, I emailed back to explain that it’s part of a trilogy of books about my time running poetry workshops in Pentridge Prison, and expanded somewhat on each of the three books. I also got the funny feeling that perhaps she hadn’t actually read Letters, so I asked her that.

She  replied that she wouldn’t lie, she hadn’t read the whole book, but had read about it. (Difficult actually, unless she had come across a review. And it appeared she was unaware that it’s poetry rather than memoir.) She thanked me warmly for the generosity of my email. And then came the sales pitch. I think it’s worth reproducing in full:

What you have described is not just one book. It is a living body of work: poetry, prison testimony, memoir, social history, grief, tribute, and the spiritual thread beneath all of it. And that is exactly why I reached out.

I have many authors, publishers, writers, and poets in my circle, some of them dear friends now, and one thing I hear over and over is how exhausting it is to be approached by people trying to push them into paying for book clubs, reader networks, and communities as if access to readers should simply be bought at random. I dislike that model very deeply. It feels disrespectful to the work.

What I do is different.

I support books I genuinely believe in by helping present them to active reader communities where they are actually likely to be received with intelligence and feeling. I do not charge authors for my time, my access, or the presenting itself. If I take on a book, I do that part because I believe in it.

The only paid part, if an author chooses to move forward, is the one-time preparation of the presentation materials I use to introduce the work properly. And with a book like yours, that matters enormously, because it cannot be reduced to a bare link and a short description. It needs context. It needs care. It needs to be positioned so readers understand the emotional, historical, and spiritual depth they are being invited into.

What especially excites me about your work is that it could speak to more than one kind of reader space at once. I can see Letters to a Dead Man resonating not only with memoir readers, but also with poetry circles, spiritual readers, women’s reflective communities, and readers interested in prison writing and social history. And when a meaningful book lands in the right hands, it very often travels beyond the first circle, into families, friendships, teaching spaces, private conversations, and the lives of people outside the original community.

That kind of ripple is what I care about.

If you are open to it, I would truly love to support the growth of this journey for you, not just for Letters, but potentially for the wider Pentridge body of work as well.

It very nearly got me. All that subtle flattery! And gosh, my books could certainly use a wider readership. But something niggled, so I asked Google: Is there a scam in which someone offers to publicise a book one has already written and self-published?

Google replied that there certainly is, and described a first cold contact similar to what I had received. So I replied to ‘her’ (just now; this all happened within the last 24 hours) that I believe she's a scammer, and that she's wasting her time on me as I’m an Age Pensioner on a low income.

But Google also asked the name and email address of who had contacted me, and business address if any, to check whether they were already red-flagged. So I decided to check that too. No business address (in itself a red flag) and yes, as it turned out, a VERY suspicious contact. To my surprise, the wording of the messages probably came from an AI entity. I thought I could spot AI-speak, but of course these things are getting so sophisticated so fast… 

Another mistake I made was to reply at all. Google informs me that tells scammers I am open to this kind of approach, so I’m liable to get more. Oh well, I am awake-up now, and have blocked this particular scammer. 

Learn from my experience, dear writers!

Having an Effect

Once upon a time, long long ago in the early 1980s the Melbourne Branch of the Poets Union of Australia began an initiative soon followed by all the other branches. In an era where editors of literary magazines sometimes took months or even years to respond to a submission, which we regarded as contemptuous and improper, Australian poets began accompanying submissions with a note: I reserve the right to submit this elsewhere without further notice if there is no response within three months. When editors started receiving a lot of these, they took notice! This was revolutionary at the time. 

I was one of a few friends who had a private discussion to arrive at this idea, which we then put to the Melbourne Branch, which took it up forthwith and enrolled the other branches. (If recollection serves, others were Lyndon Walker, Kristin Henry, Stephen J Williams, and possibly Cliff Smyth.)

Well, that’s old history now. The Poets Union of Australia couldn’t continue as a union for poets; it lacked the right criteria to legally exist. Those State branches which continued did so as societies instead.

Fast forward to today, and I read something on Substack (by an English poet, I think) about deciding to leave a poem with a magazine ‘beyond the standard three months’ as an experiment to see how long it took them. (Answer: a year.) 

Well that was all very interesting, but what made me chortle with glee was the discovery that it is now STANDARD, and apparently unremarkable, for poets – and not only poets within Australia – to withdraw submissions that receive no response in three months.

I have not lived in vain.

Memory Lane (and a warning)

This photo (uncaptioned) popped up on facebook today as a memory from 12 years ago. A publicity shot for some poetry event or other. I remember the photo session better than what it was for, as a dear friend did the posing and snapping, and made it lots of fun. The book is my Secret Leopard, which was published nine years before that – still available, but only as an ebook now. (Please ignore the scammer who offers the paperback on Amazon at an inordinate price. He or she almost certainly has no actual copies, and in any case I, the author, will never see any of that money if anyone ever does pay it.)

Substack, My Way

 Goodness gracious, I have 11 subscribers already! 

I have dipped my toe into that water because there are people there I wish to read, and I had to join to do so. And I found one article (so far) that I wished to write, which seemed to fit better there than on any of my blogs or other social media platforms (all two of those: facebook and Instagram).

So I'm using it all 'wrong,' which is typical of me. (Natural rebel.)

That's a good thing with other social media, including my blogs and this blog-posing-as-website – to use them MY way, selectively, and avoid many of the perils of social media usage which I read about. I'm not sure it's so useful to treat Substack the same way. It already appears to be more sensible to use it as intended and designed for. So perhaps I'll come closer to doing that, as time goes on, e.g. with more frequent posts and a consistent focus.

Meanwhile, I don't intend to use it as revenue-raising; my Substack will remain free to subscribers.

I am at https://substack.com/@rosemarynissenwade

In Praise of Certain Women

 Oh, can't resist skiting now! The brilliant poet Rajani Radhakrishnan has just praised me on Substack — apparently people are doing this for what they are calling International Women's Month (presumably it won't all fit into one day). This is what she said:

So grateful to Andy for his generosity in mentioning my name in this International Women’s Month chain of kindness and support. In turn, I’d like to name Rosemary Nissen-Wade who I have known now for over 10 years, first through poetry groups on Blogger/WP and later over emails and discussions. A fabulous poet, a dear friend and a total warrior who, in her eighties, is still writing, hosting and teaching so many of us how to plumb the deepest emotions with the simplest of words. Thank you, Rosemary. You totally rock.

I am beyond thrilled! It's great to think I am seen as a warrior, and I particularly love the bit about 'to plumb the deepest emotions with the simplest of words.' I try – wonderful to know I am succeeding. Also, it is surprising and gratifying to be called 'a fabulous poet' by one whose own poetry I greatly admire. 

I passed on the torch thuswise: 

Apparently on Substack people are nominating outstanding women of their acquaintance for International Women’s Month. The wonderful poet and my dear friend Rajani Radhakrishnan (rajaniradhakrishnan.sub…) just gave me a lovely shout out, so I am passing it on. I’d love to nominate my friend, fellow-poet and sometimes publisher Delaina J Miller of Content X Design (contentxdesign.substack…) – a strong woman and gentle soul who, with her wife Kristin Hatch, is a generous supporter of other creatives, and always seeks to offer love and upliftment to those around her, as well as adding to the store of beauty in the world, through poetry, music, Reiki, and sharing of wisdom.

I also posted on facebook on the actual Women's Day, about certain Australian politicians:

On International Women's Day, I'd like to acknowledge three politicians. Two in my locality: the kind-hearted, clear-sighted and hard-working Justine Elliott (Federal) and Janelle Saffin (State), both of whom are committed to looking after their constituents. And another, the incredible Jacqui Lambie from my birth State of Tasmania, with whose politics I don't always entirely agree, but whom I greatly admire for her hard work, integrity, devotion to the ordinary people of her electorate, the way she has learned and grown into her role over the years, and above all for staying real! (I confess I also love her larrikin quality.)

and I added one of my rose photos:

PS I am really not on Substack much – mainly only to read other people – and haven't got much of a handle yet on how to operate it. Everything is slower now that I'm octogenarian, and  I don't know that I want to spend time on any more social media. I still feel happy enough with facebook, Instagram and my blogs. However, it might be time to dip my toe a tiny bit further in the water. I'll have a think about it.