Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Scam SPAM, Stephen King and Snowstorms

So I got this in my inbox today:

"I?ve spent a lot of time at your website and I think your books are perfectfor our stores. I especially like "A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court" and "Boys that Bite". We work hand in hand with the largest stores in the country, plus thousands of small to medium sized specialty businesses stretched across the U.S.. If you want the opportunity to sell your books through major retailers like Barnes and Noble, Borders, Waldens,Target, QVC, HSN, etc ...plus the other 51005 gift stores, 16826 bookstores, and over 24000 mail-order catalogs...check us out athttp://www.vendorpro.com/ Sincerely,Brian MillerVendorPro.com"

Now mind you, I'm a news producer who used to work in the Investigative Unit, so I can usually spot a scam a mile away. But this one I really had to think about. I mean he uses the names of two of my books in the email which makes it seem a lot more personal. So I guess he must have actually been to my website. But then there's the part in the email where he asks if I wnat the opportunity to sell my books at Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. Um, that's sort of what my publisher does? In fact, if come May I don't see CT Fashionista in Borders and Barnes and Noble something is truly wrong and no Vendor Pro service is going to be able to help me at this point!!

So anyway guess we've got to file this one under personalized SPAM? Or maybe just a misguided sales pitch? Anyone else get one of these? I'm trying to figure out where he harvested the emails... (Once an investigator, always an investigator...)

In her blog today, Barb Pollak was talking about editors bemoaning their writers who are way behind in deadlines and are spending time BLOGGING about how behind they are! Ironic, really. So if my editor is reading this, just fyi, I am NOT behind. In fact I'm way ahead.

Okay. The rest of you want to kill me now, right?

Speaking of my darling publisher, I should offer up proper kudos to Dorchester for signing Mr. Stephen King himself to do a crme pulp fiction novel. Yes, THE Stephen King. They announced the news today. I mean, how cool is that? I wonder if he'll attend the Dorchester RT party. Ha ha!

Wow. I'm all over the place tonight! Maybe it's restlessness due to the big snowstorm barreling our way. I am soooooo sick of winter! Luckily work didn't stick me in a hotel tonight. Whenever there's a big snowstorm, the tv station puts employees up in hotels so they can't give the old "I can't get to work" excuse in the AM. (okay they say it's for safety reasons, but I know the truth, lol!) Cause snow is BIG news, as you've probably gathered, at a tv station.

That's all the rambling you get tonight.
MARIANNE

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

File it under SPAM, definitely, Marianne. I got the same post and nuked it immediately.

Great blog, btw!

Cindy