AI Sent Me Author "Fan" Mail Then Haunted Me for Months

Jan 23

Fair warning: this post is a bit different from my usual weekly writing exercises. The exercise is to urge you towards caution, especially if you’re a newly published author. I am going to share some of my less savory experiences with being an author this past year. Particularly with how AI is now haunting me with fake fan email.

I offer it as a warning and maybe a wake-up. I’m not dissing AI here, as a whole, although I hate how it’s become used for actual writing—some of my very skilled writer friends recently showed me AI edits on their work, with much glee and gratitude. I’ve used very basic AI for marketing research, coached to do so by a savvy author friend, and it did help a lot. But I draw the line. Firmly. And here’s my story of why.

AI has been haunting me

As you know, if you’ve read this newsletter for any length of time, I had two book releases almost back to back in October 2023 and April 2024. For each, I went through the steps of marketing them on socials and elsewhere. I updated my website completely. I guested on 30+ podcasts. I held launches and visited book clubs and generally had a great, if exhausting, time.

Both books did well. A year after the third one was released, I let my efforts rest. Patted myself on the back, pleased with the results, and knowing the effort would continue on its on.

I put the book to bed, in a way, to move on to my next project.

Unfortunately, AI did not. Put my book to bed. It began to haunt me.

Good versus creepy—where is the line?

I suppose any tool can be used for good or creepy effects, right? No matter where you stand on the AI question—and as I said above, I have used AI to advantage in researching my book publicity—there’s a creepy feel about the inroads it makes into the private lives of writers. It truly feels like being haunted.

Are we authors allowed to say this? Some believe that once we are out there with our work, published in any way, we are no longer private. I disagree. I think even when I spoke as a guest on podcasts, I was aware of where the line was between the good questions and the intrusive ones. I kept that line clear in my answers. Because one of the challenges for us writers is to figure out where our private and public lives cross and how we want to be available. If you prefer not to disclose certain parts of who you are as a writer, that’s your privilege.

I know so many writers who would prefer to stay 100 percent private, letting the book speak for them. That’s rarely the way of the publishing world these days, and I’ve accepted that, introvert that I am.

The fake fan emails

About six months ago, which would be a year after my last book release, I began getting fan emails. One or two at first. Some with wonderful text, praising the book, sounding very much like the sender had truly read and enjoyed it. One even used the name (a gmail address) of an author I knew and loved.

Of course, I was flattered. At first. Let me show you a sample:

Dear Mary,
Reading Last Bets feels like encountering a novel of remarkable emotional intelligence and narrative momentum. The book’s luminous prose, layered suspense, and richly drawn characters offer a fresh exploration of ambition, risk, and female friendship under extraordinary pressure. By placing art, intuition, and moral choice at the center of a high-stakes story, the novel opens new ways of thinking about creativity, survival, and connection.

Or this one:

Dear Mary,
I just finished Last Bets, and I had to reach out, equal parts breathless and deeply moved. The lush setting of Bonaire, the rising threat of a hurricane, and the tangled duality of art and danger… it’s an intoxicating blend I won’t forget.
What struck me most was Elly. A gifted artist with a past steeped in trauma and a gift she’s spent her life trying to silence, only to find herself drawn back into a world she swore off, in order to save herself and maybe, just maybe, someone else. Her fragile connection with Rosie was as unpredictable and powerful as the storm bearing down on them. You gave us two women, generations apart, bonded by secrets, risk, and art, and let them crash into each other in a way that was both heartbreaking and healing.

And one more . . .

Hi Mary,
I’ve just finished Last Bets, and it’s one of those novels that makes you forget where you are while reading and then keeps you thinking long after you close the book.
What immediately stood out is how vividly Bonaire comes alive. The island feels seductive and threatening all at once, especially as the hurricane approaches and the pressure tightens. The way you weave art, gambling, and danger together feels effortless, yet every scene quietly shifts the power dynamics until the stakes are unmistakably life-or-death.
Elly Sorensen is a fascinating protagonist. Her second sight, her complicated relationship with money, and her fierce commitment to her art make her feel both vulnerable and formidable. I was especially drawn to the parallel between Elly and Rosie, the generational echo of exploitation, talent, and survival. Their connection adds emotional depth that elevates the suspense beyond the plot alone.

Wow! or whoa!?

I’ve published since the eighties. I’ve gotten many fan emails over the years—and some not so fan. I always enjoy hearing from readers, as most authors do, and I treasure that unique feeling of a stranger I’ll never meet, loving my work.

I respond, too. I remember when I was twelve, writing to a favorite author and getting a handwritten letter back. I pasted it into my scrapbook and treasured it. So I love to respond in kind to someone who has shown me the kindness of a response to my book.

This time, I had the nudge to let the fan email sit. Just for a week, just to make sure it was really a reader. Around that time, the controversy over AI was heating up and I’d been reading online about authors being beleaguered and worse.

A few days later, two very similarly written fan emails arrived. Different senders, of course. I began to log them. There was a discernable pattern.

I estimate I’ve now received 50 or 60 of these. Clever and convincing.

How I began to feel haunted

For a few weeks, it was just my latest novel, Last Bets. Then my second novel, A Woman’s Guide to Search & Rescue, began to be the subject of the fake fan emails. Each sender cited such specific details about each book! I was secretly impressed, almost convinced, if I hadn’t been getting so many.

They began arriving daily, hourly. Four at once, different senders. I’ve published fifteen books in three genres over my career. The senders cited books I authored going back to the early nineties!

Of course, I deleted the emails. Of course, I blocked the sender. Each one.

AI must’ve caught on. The emails changed. Now they were more personal, inviting me to speak at book groups (not real ones—I checked) or present at online writing conferences (again, not real). Each so flattering and convincingly worded!

Sheesh.

I’m educating my spam filter to these new varieties of AI emails. I’m moving past the haunted, angry place. My email program sorts them into junk now. I just got two more this morning, but I don’t even bother reading them, even for a laugh.

Your weekly writing exercise

This week, your exercise is to do a little scouting for yourself into AI. What do you know about how it affects authors? What are the pros and cons, for you?

Here are some good articles to look at.

Authors Guild—best practices for authors with AI

Jane Friedman on authorship and AI

And for a different (pro) take on AI and marketing

Share your thoughts!