Hello, SE’ers! It’s Jan here to talk about an infuriating book marketing pitfall. I will share some tips to help make sure you don’t fall for useless book marketing promises that can drain your pocketbook.

New authors are desperate to get their work discovered. And that makes them vulnerable to promises that sound too good to be true. The old adage comes to mind, If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

But it’s not just new authors who are vulnerable. Even though seasoned authors tend to be more cautious, we can all still fall prey to these sharks. They’ve gotten good at saying what we want to hear.

So what can we do to protect ourselves and our money?

• First and maybe most importantly, if someone cold-contacts you, it should raise a big red flag. For example, let’s say you…