Too Trusting or Too Distrustful?

Although I've been burned too many times, I still haven't overcome my gullibility. I really do conduct research before doing business with anyone; really. I think my problem is that I haven't yet learned all the scammers' tricks. 

Any author who's on social media is familiar with the constant DM's from people who want to push their services. Here's a dead giveaway: their very first communication is, "Is your book available on Amazon?" Uh, yea. I included the link with my post, so...

I never let it go further than that. Their next question (if I responded) would be, "How are your sales?"

Look, I'm not in the market for book cover design, especially from someone whose portfolio consists of anime figures. Not exactly my genre. And I don't need a book trailer, which a) will never be viewed; and b) I can do myself for free.  

The only reason I'm on social media at all is for sales, which are a lost cause, and to try to attract the attention of bookstagrammers (and thus, hopefully sales). Finally, after almost four months I got a bite. I researched her profile and found that she has a fair number of followers (good) and that she's a real person who often includes herself in her Instagram stories. Bookstagrammers have to make a living, too, so I knew I would be charged a nominal price for her services. And at this point in my publishing journey, I'm good with that. She also wanted a copy of the paperback. Completely understandable, since her posts show her holding the books, which is pretty hard to do with ebooks. Additionally, she writes Amazon reviews for the books, and it's important that her review has that "verified purchase" stamp.

So, I asked her to send me an invoice; she did; I paid it immediately.

But...she hasn't purchased my book.

Of course, she could be backlogged, busy, distracted. It's too soon to pass judgement, I suppose. Then why do I have a bad feeling about this?

It gets worse. As I said earlier, I get tons of communications, which I generally delete without response. If something looks "possible", I check out the person's profile and her posts. A so-called bookstagrammer with 57 followers isn't going to cut it. But what about one with 50,000? That's rather hard to beat. And yes, I ran into two of those recently. I looked over their posts, and their reviews were well written; obviously not an AI summary derived from a blurb. Again, their fees were minimal and I haven't spent any money on marketing for a while, so I went for it.

That gives me three bookstagrammers with lots of followers.

Except...they haven't bought my book, either.

Is there a way to game Instagram's system to make it appear that you have thousands of followers, when in fact you may have only two or three? (or none?)

Per Google: 

Yes, some Instagram users do inflate their follower counts

. They do this to create a false impression of popularity or credibility, often to attract brands for partnerships or to simply boost their ego. 

 

Here's how they might do it

• Buying followers: They purchase followers from websites and services that provide fake or inactive accounts.

Of course, there's an app for checking that. There are a few checking apps; this is just one.

I'm not quite ready to go that route yet. I'm not sure it's necessary, since I used PayPal, which is quite successful in securing refunds. My main issue is that I feel like a fool. I don't think I could ever write a novel about an online criminal. Oh wait, I did. Mine, though, wasn't nearly as sophisticated as some of the real-life people I've had the bad luck to encounter. 

Has it come down to not being able to trust any interactions? That's where I seem to be heading. There's no question that other authors have had actual success with bookstagrammers, so maybe I just look like an easy mark for scammers.  

These same three people, if they are people, have been quick to offer additional services as a supplemental charge ~ more frequent posts, interviews, blah blah blah ~ and at least I was smart enough to decline. The old "I don't have much money" line seems to work, and it has the added benefit of being true.

Sigh.

Amazon's sales reports don't lie, unlike apparently everyone else. And my sales are still flatlining. Maybe these reviewers are going to read my book telepathically. 

Too bad I don't possess those same telepathic powers.