If you are an author who has received an email purporting to be from me or “book the writer”, please be aware that this is an active scam. I did not write to you, and BOOKTHEWRITER does not take money from authors in exchange for organizing Pop-Up Book Groups. Further, our authors are exclusively high profile writers published by mainstream, traditional publishers.

I am as angry about this as you probably are, but there is little I can do about it.

This is the email I have now sent to many, many authors who have contacted me:

I am very sorry to have to write that there are many current AI scams in the book world, and one is apparently pretending to be me on behalf of my company BOOKTHEWRITER. If you have received an email from “Jean Hanff Korelitz” or “book the writer” or the email address “writerbookthe@gmail.com” it is a scam intended to defraud both of us. BOOKTHEWRITER (always, officially, capitalized and one word) does not contact writers this way, and never charges authors.

I am, of course, furious about this but I’m not sure what I can do. I have actually received an “offer” of publication — for a fee— from one of my own publishers, and an “invitation” — for a fee — from a festival I have appeared at in the past. None of these are legitimate; they are simply scams preying on authors.

Very sorry (for both of us),

Jean