So, here’s the thing.
I am being bombarded by Friend Requests and Messages on all my Social Media channels on a daily basis. Instagram tends to be the worst of them.
Wow! Must be nice to be so popular, I hear you cry.
Yes, it would be lovely if these were genuine requests, but they’re invariably not.
Mixed in with a smattering of genuine other authors wanting to connect — and a handful of those spam ‘friend requests’ from ‘women’ with Eastern European names who are looking for love in all the wrong places — are a plague that didn’t used to really happen a few years back.
People selling services.
Author-related services in particular.
The (Ugly) AI Problem
AI is a wonderful tool if used right, and as a society, I think we’re still finding that footing. I’m not talking about the absolute deluge of AI images and videos that fill my feed daily, which are predominantly annoying as fuck! — I’m talking about the ‘insincerity’ of it.
Here’s an example.
The approach is always the same. There’s the initial friend request, followed by a series of messages along the lines of this:
Them: Hi! How are you doing? Is your book available on Amazon or Goodreads.
So far, so innocent. But I’m wise to this. I know what’s coming. Even so, I respond in good faith. It could be a real person!
Me: Hi. Yeah, all my books are available on Amazon and Goodreads. Just look up my name and you should find them. 🙂
Then the inevitable response.
Them: Can you send me the book link?
Ah, too lazy to look them up. Fine. I’ll help.
Me: Sure, check out my website at ‘linky’ and you’ll find all the links on there.
And then this is where you get the definitive, ‘yes, this is an AI conversation…
Them: I would like to ask how do you think the Fae nation’s motivations differ from the other supernatural nation at the summit and what they might gain from the uneasy peace?
Wow. They read the book really quick. (By the way, that’s quoted verbatim from an actual conversation!)
Of course, they didn’t.
What they did, was use AI to summarise it and come up with a prompt to make them sound smart and interested. Unfortunately, it just sounds vaguely ridiculous. Come back to me in a month or two after buying the books and possibly reading them, and I might be convinced. But to ask me something like that literally like 30 seconds after I give you the links… Oh, hello, Mr AI Bot!
But what this is really leading up to is the very next question, which inevitably is to sell a service to you. It’s either going to be:
- Would you like any help marketing your book to my bazillion followers, for a cost of course.
- Would you like editing services for your book, for a cost of course.
- Would you like a cinematic trailer making for your book, for a cost of course.
- Would you like to commission any art for your book, for a cost of course.
- Would you like us to feature your book on our website, for a cost of course.
And if they aren’t coming in by DM on social media, then they’re scooting into my Email Inbox with increasing regularity. Emails like this one (name redacted!)
I get it.
Everyone needs to earn a penny. And AI is now the in-vogue tool to hit more targets faster. It’s a numbers game. Hit more people and hopefully get more positive responses. Quantity over quality. I know they’re sincere about touting for business, but the insincerity comes across because it’s clear they haven’t read the book and have no intention of it.
For a start, no mention that it’s a series. And the third book of the series at that. Surely the logical kicking off point for their readers would be book 1, The Scorched Sky? But no. This is just because they spotted my launch of Kasai and thought they’d jump on me as a ripe target for potential marketing sales. This has little to do with their ‘readership’.
Secondly, that’s a whole lot of AI jargon. Nobody talks like that. It’s clear that they’ve just got AI to create a fancy-sounding dissertation of the subject.
I don’t like it, and I absolutely won’t engage in business with someone who sends me AI prompts to try and get business.
You want me attention? Engage like a human being. Be a human being.
I do have one particular weakness though…
I’m a SUCKER for Artists – A (Not So Great) Cautionary Tale…
Okay, so there is one exception to the rule. Just as the sub-header above says, I’m a sucker for talking to artists. I’m a frustrated artist myself, and I love seeing my book creations brought to life but don’t have the ability to do it myself. So, if an artist pops into my inbox, then I am happy as a clam to engage with hope in my heart that the person on the other end of the DMs is genuine.
Sometimes it pans out… other times, eh, not so much.
Let’s start with a very recent cautionary tale.
I recently got into a long conversation with an artist on Instagram. She seemed really nice and really interested in working together, so we hashed out a plan and I went ahead and commissioned her. First thing we did is exchange all our contact details and social media handles. In addition to Insta, this included, Facebook, X (twitter), Email and Discord. This was hugely important, as you’ll come to see later.
“I’ll be back in touch in a couple of days” she said.
A week passed. I nudged her.
“I’ve been busy,” she said. “I’ll send your first lineart over tomorrow.”
Sure enough it arrived, but it was clear at this point that it was AI generated. I sent messages back to her and got nothing in response. Great. Scammed.
Not so fast, reader! There’s a twist in the tale!
A day later I get messaged on X (Twitter) from the same girl saying her Instagram was hacked, so if I’m talking to anyone over there, it’s not her. At this point, I’m feeling a little skittish, not knowing who to trust. X-Girl or Insta-Girl? Was this a scam?
Then I get a message on from Insta-Girl, apologising for the AI art and saying they’ll try again. They send me a sketch (far too quickly) which is something totally different to the original brief.
At this point I ask BOTH of them to do the same thing. I want them to email me, and send me a message on Facebook, and message me on Discord. The results:
- X-Girl nails the test. Messaging me on all three.
- Insta-Girl fails the test miserably, saying all those accounts were obviously hacked…she just never noticed till now.
At this point I’m pretty sure that X-Girl is the real artist. They even know the original brief, and show me a picture of the PDF document. Insta-Girl has no clue and is still sending me sketches that are now just copies of art I already have.
Here’s a brief snip of the conversation after I asked to cancel the commission and be refunded:
If that first pencil sketch looks familiar to you, it’s because (if you’re a frequent flyer to my website) you’ve definitely seen it before.
Yup, it’s the Kasai art that Marlena (LenamoArt) originally did for me.
The brief was for an entirely different character with a totally different look. So this was all kinds of wrong.
You can see by the last response in the final screenshot that they said they would refund, but damn, did they give me the sob story runaround. Including such classics as:
- the “I don’t have the money right now, I’m broke.”
- Constant begging me to “resend me the brief so I can ‘fix it'”
- the “My PayPal was hacked so I don’t have access!”
- the assurances of “My friend will send it to you when they get home.”
- the “Just give me a couple of hours to try and find the cash.”
- the “I’m in a financial crisis right now! I can pay you back in 2 months”
- the “My grandmother is sick and I have to pay the bills.”
- They even once said “for the sake of humanity!”
I’m not kidding:
Sorry ‘Humanity‘. I let you down badly. I’m so ashamed.
But honestly, at this point (after about 6 hours) it was getting silly, so I just blocked Insta-Girl and went through PayPal, who refunded me almost instantly. Which makes me VERY glad I used the protection PayPal gives me. Phew!
I’m now working with X-Girl, who is doing the art with no upfront deposit to display her trust, and is doing an awesome job. She’s sending me sketches of her progress, and being everything I expected her to be when we started the commission, and I’m not a penny out of pocket for it yet.
Which brings me to…
I’m a SUCKER for Artists – The Very Happy (Great) Ending!
On the other hand, there are times when talking to an artist has panned out spectacularly well.
There are three in particular who I’ve engaged with and have delivered fantastic results. You’ll find them on my Artist page here: Look here for artists!
The three I’ve been super happy with so far are:
- Emily Lawson
- Ashley McKenzie (TabGraphix)
- Sarah Matthews (TabGraphix)
The latter two are both connected through a company called TabGraphix, which I had to admit does give me some peace of mind as regards the completion of commissions. I always worry that an independent might just disappear. Ashley assured me that if something happened to her, then I could get Sarah to finish the commission, or they have a money-back guarantee. Which is awesome.
Ashley has been doing some logo work for me, but most importantly, the cover for Songbird book 5 – The Techmasters. It’s so good, she’ll be doing 6 and 7 too. She had a tough job following in Marlena’s style footsteps, but she’s done a fantastic job!
Sarah, in the meantime, has been given freedom of design on the cover for the Violet Chase novel. It’s looking awsome and you can see a sneak peek in the video on the artist’s page linked above.
Emily is the latest artist I’ve been working with, and has been painting Femme Fatale character portraits. She is also doing a great job, especially as the characters have to match the existing style set by Marlena’s previous art, too.
All of them are friendly, professional, accommodating, and great to work with. I’d recommend all three.
Addendum: Things to watch for when commissioning
As someone who has been burned before on art commissions, here are some hard learned lessons that will help you keep safe.
- When commissioning an artist, get ALL their contact details. As many as you can. X, Insta, TikTok, Discord, etc. Because if one is hacked, then you can verify who you’re talking to with the others.
- Google search their art examples. They’ll almost always have some sort of portfolio. Use Google to search for the pictures and see if they are credited to another artist. This is a huge red flag. (Little anecdote: When I was checking Ashley and Sarah, their art gets credited to TabGraphix, which caused me no end of confusion, and I ended up with me accusing them of a scam, till they told me they actually both work at the company with each other! It all worked out!)
- NEVER pay the whole cost up front. Any artist worth their salt will start the commission on a deposit, and then you give the final payment on completion. Most will offer payment plans too, so you don’t have to find it all up front! If they want all the money up front, then this could very well be a scam just looking to get your cash.
- And on the subject of payments, protect yourself. Always use PayPal, or something like it, to make the payments. You’re way more protected if you do. But only within a limited window, so make sure that the commission is done beforehand. To be fair, if you use PayPal, you have a 6-month window, so there’s plenty of time to get that art.
- References mean very little. If the person is a scammer, then they’ll have a bunch of references lined up that support their scam. Check them out by all means, but be careful.
- Sketches. Have the artist provide you with regular updates by way of sketches. If they can do a video of themselves working on your art, then that’s even better. If the art is coming back too fast, or they won’t provide sketches along the way, then it could be AI.
- Commercial Contract. Remember to tell them that it’s a commercial contract. The artist always maintains the art as intellectual property, but you need to use the art on books and promo work, so make sure it’s commercial. Most artists will know that upfront anyway, especially if you’re an author wanting work for book covers.
- Keep communication flowing. I like to use a chat service to facilitate good communication. Ashley and I use GoogleChat, which is great. Emily and I use Discord chat for the same thing. Sarah and I have looooong email chains. Whatever it is, just try to keep the communication flowing so both parties know where they stand at all times.
- Create a Brief. I’ve only just started doing this, but it’s a good way of establishing the commission. I admit, I got the idea from Sarah, who took my scribbled email notes and formed a proper document from them. You can detail exactly what you want, including details like size, colours, etc. I’m glad I used it with the Insta person in the bad example above, because it became pretty clear that they didn’t have the brief I’d sent over, which also helped me identify the real artist.
I think that’s about it. If I think of more, I’ll amend the post. 😀
Cheerio for now!
Love and Books
