Okay, so you’re going to have to indulge me a bit as I have a groan. Recently, after many, many long and tiresome months of being spammed, I have had to remove my email address from my About Leilanie Stewart Author page. I put my contact email address on that page to allow readers, or fellow bloggers, to get in touch. Instead, I have been harangued by unsolicited requests from unverified spam marketers EAGER to get my money in exchange for… I don’t know. Claiming to boost my SEO web presence? Tweeting about my books, or writing a review of one of my novels – in exchange for extorting ££ from me, of course. The bottom line is, if an unsolicited spammer contacts an author about unverified marketing services, then they need the author more than the author needs them – period. I personally never pay money for unknown promotional package services from people who may or may not do what they claim to advertise. I use trusted, tried-and-tested services to promote my books (Bargain Booksy, Awesome Gang, Crave Books, The Fussy Librarian), to gain reviews (my ARC reader team, book bloggers and Bookroar. I happily send free epub or paperback proof copies of my books in exchange for a review, but I never pay for reviews – authors shouldn’t have to – unless they are paying for editorial reviews, like Kirkus reviews, or listing ARCs on sites such as Netgalley (I haven’t used either, but I know authors who have, and who vouch for these services).
As an author, I spend my money directly on advertising on sites where people shop for books: namely sponsored ads on Amazon among others. To spend my money on anything else would be a waste of cash that I simply can’t afford.
So, there you have it, gripe over! Thanks for bearing with me, legitimate readers. Hopefully by removing my email address from my website the spammers will stop. I sincerely hope so. I also hope that genuine readers will keep contacting me, even if it’s more hassle by having to drop a comment until I can reply with my email address. Or, you can also contact me through social media, as follows. I always reply to legitimate queries, so I hope I haven’t put you off getting in touch.
Leilanie Stewart 
Same here! For a time, I’ve had an influx of spammers from South Asia — usually begging me to avail of their “SEO services”. Having had experience in SEO writing myself, I often laugh at them more often than not.
But unfortunately, I’ve read that these bad actors use bots to scrape email addresses across the internet and send one generic email hoping that one unsuspecting user falls for the scam.
Thanks for more insight on that, particularly about ‘bots’. I always add their emails straight to spam without replying. I really hope other unsuspecting folks don’t reply in frustration, as I suppose that would only serve to confirm their email addresses and therefore gain more spam. It’s definitely very infuriating though!
No problem, Leilanie! I myself learned that the hard way — finally snapped and gave the spammer a piece of my mind, which in hindsight was an unwise move.