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Victoria Strauss

@victoriastrauss.com

12K followers 1.1K following 1.7K posts

Adult/YA novelist, fanatical gardener, co-founder of SFWA's publishing industry watchdog group Writer Beware. Casting a small light in a wilderness of writing scams (plus an occasional cat pic) https://writerbeware.blog https://victoriastrauss.com

writerbeware.blog

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 5h

Yes, which makes it even more reprehensible to use COVID as an excuse for bad acts.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 9h

Yeah. It's outrageous.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 9h

Just living up to it I guess

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 9h

It's the old "covid killed my business" excuse

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 16h

Always!

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 16h

Here's the email sent by the owner of Down & Out Books, announcing that the publisher is closing and that a "sharp decline in sales" means no further royalties will be paid (authors say that's been true for some time)

For 15 remarkable years, Down & Out Books proudly published nearly 1,000 titles, collaborated with over 500 talented authors, and earned more than 50 prestigious awards. Today, however, we must announce the closure of our operations.

We extend our deepest gratitude to the gifted authors who entrusted us with their stories and to our loyal readers who brought those stories to life through their passion and support.

Regrettably, a sharp decline in sales since 2020 has made continued financial investment unsustainable. As a result, no further payments will be issued. In the coming weeks, all titles will be withdrawn from distribution channels, and rights will revert to their respective authors and editors in accordance with their contracts.

Your unwavering dedication has been the heart of our journey, and we are profoundly grateful for every moment. Thank you for being part of the Down & Out family.
Sincerely,

---E

Eric E. Campbell
Publisher, Down & Out Books

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 18h

I’ve gotten a handful of reports about this but not enough yet to write a blog post. Same pattern though—it’s all AI-driven

Reposted by Victoria Strauss

Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 19h

Weekend reading

Kate McKean @katemckean.bsky.social · 3d

I'm starting a new series on my newsletter Agents & Books about how to be an author. Click through to see what I mean, but also to praise me for making a gif of @trungles.com's new book, all by myself.

www.agentsandbooks.com/how-to-be-an...

How To Be An Author

Hi all, You're here for how-tos. That's what I set out to do when I started this newsletter way back in 2019 (!!!)–put things you needed to know about writing, publishing, and literary agents all in ...

www.agentsandbooks.com

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 1d

They're specifically targeting writers who've gotten hijacked by scam publishing or self-publishing companies--not true self-publishing authors--in order to scam them a second time. There's no intent to intersect with reality.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 1d

You might find this blog post helpful: writerbeware.blog/2025/09/19/r...

Return of the Nigerian Prince Redux: Beware Book Club and Book Review Scams - Writer Beware

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a rising and extremely prolific marketing scam that I’ve been able to trace back to operators in Nigeria. Using highly personalized (AI-generated) email solicitations th...

writerbeware.blog

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 1d

Keeping track of, and exposing, the _structure_ of the scams is more helpful, since they all use the same very recognizable templates. Especially because of how similar they are, my guess is that they trace back to a handful of people or even a single individual using AI to generate enormous volume.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 1d

I don't, and even if I did, I'm not sure what the usefulness would be, since the names associated with these emails aren't durable aliases and are discarded sometimes mere days after sending out a wave of spam. Any websites or group names are just as transitory.

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 1d

Same here.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 1d

I'm seeing an increasing number of scams like the one below, leveraging the widespread problem of publishing scams w/ a faux service promising to fix problems author is having w/ the original scam but really to hit them up for more $$ (note the "Amazon partner agency" claim: there's no such thing)

From: Blaire Andrews <bandrews@royaltypilots.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 8, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Subject: Your royalties on Amazon
To: [redacted]

Hi [redacted]

I’m Blaire from Amazon Partners – Royalty Pilots.
We’re an Amazon agency commissioned to help authors migrate their books from third-party publishers to their own Amazon KDP accounts.

I’m reaching out because we’ve spoken with many authors who recently shared frustrations that you might also be experiencing while being published through a third-party service provider—such as:

Royalties that never seem to arrive or come with little to no explanation.

No visibility or control over how many copies have been sold or where those sales are happening.

Endless upsells and new charges every time you want to make even a small change to your book.

Through Amazon KDP, authors are now publishing their books directly with Amazon — with no middlemen involved.
This means:

Royalties are sent straight to your bank account every month.

You can track real-time sales data through your own KDP dashboard.

You have full ownership and control over your books, including the freedom to make revisions free of charge.

If you’d like to explore how this can work for you, I’d love to schedule a quick call. Please let me know your best contact number and the most convenient time to reach you.

Blaire Andrews

Senior Marketing Manager – Partners, Authors

Royalty Pilots, an Amazon partner agency

Phone: 315-325-9099
Email: bandrews@royaltypilots.com

Website: https://royaltypilots.com/

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

What, after all, is real?

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

Yes, they’re aware.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

Agreed 100%

Aeliskandar @aeliskandar.bsky.social · 2d

While not on the horizon, we need draconian laws requiring the labeling of AI generated content. futurism.com/pinterest-ai...

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

I’m a constant user of unspaced em dashes! But I’m self-conscious about it now.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

So yeah, fill it out even if you’re not part of the class.

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

I think it includes anyone affected by Anthropic’s downloads of pirated material, whether they registered copyright or not.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

Just an amazing article about one guy's AI slop empire. I can't help wondering if, like AI itself, this kind of AI-driven snake oil entrepreneurship is a bubble that will burn itself out eventually, but in the meantime it's destroying human content creators' livelihoods.

Sheesh’s Pieces @last-pict.bsky.social · 2d

might as well drop this here too. not totally related but he does go into the process and motivations. futurism.com/slop-farmer-...

Slop Farmer Boasts About How He Uses AI to Flood Social Media With Garbage to Trick Older Women

Pinterest is facing an influx of AI slop designed to attract users to synthetic websites. Here's a glimpse into their tactics — and psyches.

futurism.com

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

Thanks for the link. It's surprising--just the sheer scale of this guy's operation--and also not. In my little niche of writing scams, I increasingly feel like AI is making it impossible to keep up with, or even track, the flood of fraud.

Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

The fees and the fraud (book order scams,for example). They don't have any interest in the manuscripts--only in the money they can extract from writers.

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

Solicitation alert: a "feature" in the pay-to-play "newspaper" The Worlds Times

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Victoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 2d

Authors whose works are in the LibGen pirate database downloaded by Anthropic for AI training & now subject of a massive class action settlement: @sfwa.bsky.social has an online survey to gather data on the impact (you don't need to be a SFWA member to participate) docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Author Experience Survey: Did Anthropic Downloads Include Your Work?

SFWA is gathering information to share with the larger genre and literary community about our specific experiences with the LibGen dataset download. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Was one o...

docs.google.com

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