Really? A Marketing Campaign for a Novella?

October 03, 2026

Really? A Marketing Campaign for a Novella?

If you're trying to decide whether to go with a gmail account or Proton, be aware that Proton is awful at recognizing spam. I rarely see my gmail spam messages, because they all land directly where they should, in my spam folder. Proton, on the other hand--well, at least it keeps me entertained.

I must have signed up for my LinkedIn account using my Proton email address, because LinkedIn is where all my junk messages originate. (I only signed up for LinkedIn because some idiot claimed it worked well for book marketing. It doesn't.)

Today I found a message from a "book marketing strategist" who's decided to focus on Shadow Song. (These scammers always pick my novellas, for some reason.) Shadow Song is a 100-page novella, and yes, it's good; one of my betters stories, to be honest, but I'm not about to hire a "marketer" for it.

What I found amazing is that this person managed to cull so much material from one of the world's shortest blurbs. (Yes, I know her pitch was AI-written. Still...)

I especially love this part of her message:

"The Short-Blurb Conversion Gap

The book's current description sets up the core conflict quickly, but it leaves several high-converting mystery and suspense tropes unstated. Browsing crime fiction readers look for specific detail triggers regarding setting, the nature of the town secrets, and the exact dynamic between Ashley and her reluctant partner before making a purchase decision. A short blurb often struggles to convert cold browsers because it does not give search algorithms enough text data or key sub-genre phrases to index properly."

You bet the blurb is short, but it's actually perfect.

In a backwoods town, finding your boss’s dead body in the woods is enough to get you charged with murder. Worse, Ashley Montrose is saddled with the most incompetent attorney in the county. She only has herself and a man she loathes to find a way out of this mess.

How much blurb effort does one put into a novella? This one's sold five copies, total, and has one editorial review, which I obtained through my go-to book blogger. Maybe that's the wrong mindset, but I figure either a novella sells or it doesn't. That 69-cent royalty isn't going to change my life. Plus, it's been out there for three and a half years. If it was going to sell, it would have by now, so why in the world would I hire a marketer for it?

These scammers choose random books to target, and 99% of the time, they pick one of my novellas. Usually, they land on Lies and Love (great for a movie adaptation, I've been told!) This might be the first I've received for Shadow Song.

I don't know how the scammer (AI) determined that the story is "romantic suspense". There's nothing in the blurb that references a romance. A-ha! My editorial review!

And she wants me to go to an awful lot of work in order to promote it:

"I would look beyond generic book promotions. A unique approach for Shadow Song involves pitching small-town mystery book blogs, indie crime fiction podcasts, and specialized romantic suspense reading groups. Creating thematic preview content centered on framed-protagonist tropes and rural mystery dynamics gives book bloggers and crime fiction hosts a compelling reason to spotlight the book."

(Gotta love those AI word choices.)

Look, lady, I can't even sell the book I want to sell. I'm sure as hell not going to spend dollars and loads of my precious time pushing this one. Of course, she'll do all that for me...except for the dollars, which would be my contribution to the campaign.

Her GitHub link has been flagged as dangerous, by the way. Not even a proper website, lady? You've gotta put more effort into your "work". By the way, if you're ever curious to see what one of these scammers' sites look like, you can safely paste the link into urlscan.io.

What this email did remind me of, however, is that if you'd like to check out Shadow Song, click on the cover image (only $1.99!):