Geneva Barnett wanted to review my book. Send her a free copy, she said, but don’t respond in the public forum. Please contact her via email.

This is the fourth such request I’ve gotten this weekend. It’s a scam.

Like every independent book publisher, I have to compete with the 10,000 new book titles published every year. It’s a challenge, so when someone offers to review my book, please contact them, the temptation is to respond immediately, and breathe a sigh of relief that my masterpiece is finally getting the notice it deserves.

But there is a catch. I’ve been publishing for a few years. I know that legitimate book reviews start with someone buying the book, reading, it, then feeling compelled to write a review. They don’t start with “Give me a free copy, and I’ll write a review.”

But Geneva, definitely not her real name, isn’t just trying to scam a free read. If I were to respond, I would soon find that she has 10,000 people following her reviews, they all fall into my target audience and I will soon shoot to the top of the Amazon sales charts. There will, however, be a small fee for such stellar results.

Geneva will have to look elsewhere for clients.