I’ve got something embarrassing to admit. I paid to get a few reviews on Instagram. I figured since my usual attempts at advertising weren’t paying off, I’d spend a little money to get some views. Some one offered, so why not try it?
Because it’s all a scam, that’s why. They saw my recent promotional posts and decided to inundate me with review requests. I was fielding several a day, mostly saying, “no thank you, maybe next month,” but some I took just to see how it went, giving them the benefit of the doubt. Some were well-written, some looked like they were written by a concussed donkey, and no one read past the first chapter or two.
I asked other self-published authors about them, and I was told by one and all: SCAM. The proof was received after I blocked them. I got a threatening email from one scammer (who wanted to charge me $85 for a review and interview package) claiming that if I didn’t pay up, he and his “influencers” would give me 1 star reviews on Amazon, hounding me night and day until I paid up. Not gonna happen.

Long story short, if you are a writer and anyone offers to review your book for money, BLOCK THEM. Don’t even engage. I do this all the time with scam phone calls. At my job, I can recognize one in seconds. But I wanted to believe that some people were good, so I took a chance. Lesson learned.

P.S. I took a screenshot of the scammer’s threatening email, along with his other blocked email account. Always save the evidence.