The Scams Targeting Indie Authors Right Now | Bitty Balducci

June 22, 2026

Featured Guests:

Bitty Balducci

Bitty Balducci is an indie author, marketing professor, and storyteller whose work ranges from YA dystopian sci-fi to dark speculative fiction. She is the author of Nascent, the first book in The Clockwise Chronicles trilogy, and Shades Drawn, a timely novella exploring identity, conflict, and survival through the eyes of a young boy navigating a rapidly changing world.

What happens when scam emails stop looking like scams?

This week on Margs & Manuscripts, we're joined by author Bitty Balducci for a conversation that quickly became one of our most eye-opening episodes to date. From fake HarperCollins editors and fraudulent book clubs to AI-generated audiobook narrators and manuscript theft attempts, we dive into the increasingly sophisticated scams targeting authors today.

Bitty shares several scams she personally encountered while navigating the publishing world, including one that cost her hundreds of dollars and another that nearly resulted in a substantial payment to an AI-generated narrator. Along the way, we discuss why authors are especially vulnerable, how scammers exploit the industry's lack of transparency, and why more writers need to talk openly about these experiences.

Whether you're querying, self-publishing, marketing a book, or simply trying to understand the realities of modern publishing, this episode offers practical insights and a healthy dose of caution.

In This Episode

• The surprisingly sophisticated scams targeting indie authors today

• Fake HarperCollins editors, fraudulent book clubs, and manuscript theft attempts

• How scammers use real names, real companies, and AI-generated content to appear legitimate

• The audiobook narrator scam that nearly cost hundreds of dollars

• Why even experienced authors struggle to spot modern publishing scams

• The emotional vulnerability scammers exploit in writers and creatives

• Red flags to watch for when receiving publishing, marketing, or promotion offers

• Why authors don't talk about scams often enough—and why that needs to change

• Practical tips for protecting your work, money, and personal information

• How the publishing industry could do more to educate and support authors

• Why transparency and community may be the best defense against scams

---

NASCENT

Bitty Balducci

In the wake of global unrest that dwindled the population to a fraction of
what it once was, Dr. Kate Sona’s ground-breaking technology provided
hope to many and changed world order as anyone knew it in the process.
The product at the center of The Clockwise Revolution? Time. Dr. Sona’s
team of skilled scientists commercialized sleep banking - the process by
which one extracts the restorative properties of another’s sleep. Juniper
has only ever known life at Dream Corp Onyx, the first of twenty-four
sleep banking facilities the world over. Although she has long questioned
the eugenic class system Dream Corp Onyx imposes upon its residents, an
unexpected message prompts her to scrutinize the nature of her reality
more closely. Her search for answers leads her on an epic journey and the
truth that she uncovers is more disturbing than she could have ever
imagined.

• Show Transcript

  cait (00:00)
  Do you have wine I'm loving it.

  Jenna (00:02)
  I have wine today. We went shopping when I was hungry. This was last week before. It's it's like literally gonna happen.

  cait (00:05)
  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Are you reading into the blue?

  I saw it. I'm just have you started it?

  Jenna (00:15)
  No.

  So sorry. I know.

  cait (00:17)
  I'm gonna

  when we first started, Biddy was one of the first people to approach us about being on the podcast and she was one of the first people to approach us with a a pitch for an episode idea.

  And today we definitely will talk about scams.

  because wow, I had no idea. I had no idea. And Jenna, like I haven't even talked to you about this yet, but like I've gotten at least since publishing what, two weeks ago my book came out.

  Bitty Balducci (00:35)
  Yeah.

  cait (00:45)
  I've gotten at least six emails that are straight up scams, but I mean they're not like scams in the way that you think they are. They are they seem you pay attention to them. I can't that's the only way I can describe it. Like you read them because you're just like, ⁓ what is this? And you think it's for a second you're just like, is this a scam? Like this has to be a scam, but like, how do I know it's a scam?

  Bitty Balducci (00:54)
  No.

  cait (01:12)
  You don't know. Like you truly like it takes up time. I'm just gonna like that's the best way. It takes up time. ⁓ yeah. ⁓

  Jenna (01:19)
  Like what c

  what kind of emails are you getting?

  cait (01:23)
  So many different kinds. Like and it's not like, you know, when you see on Instagram, people will post like, Elizabeth Gilbert sent me an email, ha ha ha. Like, obviously it's a scam. They're not that obvious. It all come from like an editor at HarperCollins, and it'll have the HarperCollins signature and it'll be a real editor. And there's only certain ways that you can really this is when I use AI. You know, like this is when I use AI, is like I I just put the email into AI and I'm just like

  Bitty Balducci (01:47)
  Yeah.

  cait (01:52)
  And then in my head, I'm thinking like I'm warning other people because maybe AI will take it and like put it in its like learn language learning system and be like, this is a known scam. But ⁓ it's fascinating. I even got some scam emails to my work email. So they're like so that tells me that they're Googling you. They're like going to your LinkedIn, they're going to because nobody like my work email is not an email.

  Bitty Balducci (01:57)
  Mm.

  Jenna (02:11)
  WHAAA

  cait (02:21)
  Obviously I use outside of work and I have like I'm an academic advisor, so I work in you know, at a university as well. You don't know that email unless you are like googling me and trying to find that email.

  Bitty Balducci (02:33)
  Yeah.

  Jenna (02:33)
  Weird and now I'm really happy I have a pen name. Like

  cait (02:35)
  Yeah.

  Bitty Balducci (02:37)
  Ha ha ha.

  cait (02:38)
  I it's true

  though, but Biddy can talk more on it 'cause like she you you've you've been published for way longer than I have, but like it's been crazy. I had no idea.

  Bitty Balducci (02:49)
  Yeah, I would just echo what you said in the sense that it's the scams, like in general, but like just touching on email, there's many types of scams. I've been scammed multiple times, happy to share this information. But the email scams are

  cait (03:02)
  Ooh, that's ca that's fascinating though, really.

  Bitty Balducci (03:07)
  Sophisticated. It's not what you think. Because you know, like remember okay, for example, remember when ChatGPT first hang came out and it was garbage? Okay, so that's what we were like used to. Like it was very easy to pick that out. And per Cait's point, like you pay attention to these emails because there's just enough nuance to the email that you wonder if it is real. And for

  Jenna (03:18)
  Terrible.

  Bitty Balducci (03:37)
  Better

  or for worse, I have just decided not to believe any email that I get like that because they're all.

  Scams and you know to her point she's it's Harper Collins, it's somebody who's actually an editor. One example of a scam that I fell for was there was this ⁓ book club, like a virtual book club based out of like Vancouver, BC, and it had you know a couple hundred followers or whatever, and I had somebody reach out to me and be like, Hey, one of our members recommended your book. Would you be able to join us virtually like you know to to like answer questions or something? And I'm like

  Yeah, you know, sure, whatever. And like I literally before I did, I Googled the last person's name. I found said book club online. I found the associated person's name. Like, you know, I'm like, and the email is like the person's first name dot last name at gmail.com. I'm like, okay, this is probably this person, right? ⁓ well, wrong. What happened was ⁓ they have this whole little like orchestra where they like like after

  After they do that, they're like, okay, yeah, she's coming on. and by the way, we need some help for our media production, so can you give us like a donation? And like, you know, for me, I'm like, yeah, whatever. Like, I don't really care. Like, it's through PayPal. I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna like lose every dye my own. And if it goes to this book club, that's cool. I don't really care. ⁓ but then they're like, my gosh, there's so much interest in joining your session. Our Zoom only accommodates a hundred ⁓ people.

  And we have more than a hundred people left, so we have to postpone it. And then the day after it was supposed to happen, they're like, Well, we ended up having the meeting, and you can already see the reviews coming in. And on Goodreads, it was just like bots reviewing my book, and it was all like the same review. It was crazy, and it was only

  Jenna (05:40)
  Wow.

  Bitty Balducci (05:41)
  It was only after that that I stalked the guy on Instagram and sent him a personal message, and he had no idea that there was this whole like scamming scheme using his name and his book club. Like it so so that's the kind of stuff I'm telling you. Even when you are fact-checking, you can be fooled. It is just like totally bonkers. Did I scare all the indie authors out there? Sorry about that.

  cait (06:06)
  No, it's so important to do because I think that like I definitely thought I was just gonna know going into it and you you don't. It's so in depth. I feel stupid even saying because I'm just like maybe everybody it's like one of those things like does everybody else know this except for me? I mean, like, let us know. If you're listening, let us know if like you've you've fallen victim and like which one. I've definitely gotten a book club.

  Bitty Balducci (06:16)
  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

  No, I I don't think they do.

  cait (06:33)
  email that was like come you know like we want to have you at our book club and it that seems legit because they're not like outright asking you for money. The HarperCollins one I looked really in depth into it after I realized it was a scam and it was they like take your whole manuscript. Somebody Yeah, like somebody said they sent them their entire manuscript for their book and was like warning

  Bitty Balducci (06:33)
  Mm.

  ⁓ no.

  cait (07:02)
  people about it. So

  Bitty Balducci (07:04)
  That

  Jenna (07:04)
  Shit.

  Bitty Balducci (07:05)
  is the

  author's worst nightmare. my gosh.

  cait (07:09)
  Yeah. Like they're like not as obvious as you think they're gonna be.

  Bitty Balducci (07:14)
  Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm. And even like if it's a platform that you know and trust and there's a certain degree of credibility. ⁓ so like ACX, for example, so just I don't know if your listeners are familiar, but like basically ACX is a company that is run by Amazon and it connects authors with narrators. So typically narrators like will narrate your audiobook either for free and they get a portion of the royalties, or

  Jenna (07:16)
  This is fascinating.

  Bitty Balducci (07:45)
  Or

  you can pay them outright, and then like they don't get any royalties or whatever. And so, like, it was through Amazon, like I was thinking, like, okay, they're doing some kind of checking for the people who are on here or whatever. Well, I got deep. I actually ended up doing my own flipping audiobook because I like got pretty deep into like having this person, air quotes, ⁓ rec like do my audiobook and it

  It was very odd, like like first of all, it was incredibly realistic, except for the fact that they the AI essentially was mispronounce like pronouncing this certain word that I made like kind of made up like differently at different points throughout the manuscript. So I have like a social hierarchy system in my yea dystopian zy-fi.

  and it's called Aristoi. And like, you know, in some parts the AI would say it correctly. And other po parts would be A steroid or, you know, whatever. ⁓ they would like met like use the enunciation differently. And that was kind of like the only

  Indication that it was false, and when the once again air quotes person was like, Hey, you know, can you send me you know a substantial payment, like down payment? I'm halfway done. ⁓ I contacted ACX to be like, Is that something that you do? Because I I was under the impression you'd give them payment afterward, and like the ACX rep was like, definitely not. Like, if you want, I can run this through a program to determine if it was AI generated, and sure enough.

  it freaking was so I just like I mean I'm telling you like how are you like how are people supposed to know even when like reputable organizations are like they're falling victim to this how the heck is like an individual indie author gonna be able to navigate

  Jenna (09:47)
  I'm like getting sweaty listening to these stories.

  Bitty Balducci (09:49)
  Honestly, me too.

  Yeah. I am too.

  cait (09:54)
  I feel like why aren't more people talking about why am I not hearing more about this? Because I I see like the goofy ones, like I see the ones on like Instagram that people screenshot and they're just like, yeah, like got this scam today, and it's like funny, but there is some real wait, so I need to confirm because you said it was all through ACX. That's crazy.

  Bitty Balducci (10:17)
  Yes. Yes.

  It was all through ACX. Exactly. I mean Yeah, and I think the reason why you don't hear people talk about it is because they're embarrassed. I mean, like I'll be the first to admit, like I've had a little bit of time pass between some of these things and it's embarrassing. Like I literally almost paid a fucking bot like 600 bucks, you know? Like

  cait (10:22)
  That's crazy.

  Yeah.

  Bitty Balducci (10:44)
  And the only reason I didn't is because my fiance was just like, I don't know, like you should really like call and double check. Because I just happen to be a very trusting person and I'm like, okay, like, you know, whatever. And he's like, no, that doesn't sound right. And so yeah, and I mean, like, very early before I even published my manuscript.

  Mm-hmm. A little over a year ago, I sent it to what I thought was a company affiliated with Amazon because it was branded very similarly to like the KDP. Like it has the same like font, colors, logo, whatever. And ⁓ like to like go over my manuscript because otherwise, you know, I had beta readers and things like that, but besides that it was just me, and so I wanted to have like an extra set of eyes on it. And it was all AI and it literally

  turned every like l like letter B in my manuscript to an and like I don't even know how that happens and it added all these weird like spaces in there and I did end up spending $600 on that. So I paid some an some bot money to actively mess up my manuscript. So yeah it's just kind of wild.

  Jenna (12:07)
  Okay. This is really weird. This is absolutely this whole entire thing is making me queasy. ⁓ this is this is odd because it's like I at my like day job, we are like really strict about like scams and like cyber attacks and stuff like that. Like we have like really intense protocol about it. And so does my husband with his job.

  Bitty Balducci (12:14)
  Yeah.

  Mm-hmm.

  Jenna (12:34)
  And he told me about how there's I don't I'm probably gonna like edit this out of the episode because like it's just like so creepy. So he used to be a recruiter, for its company. He's in a different position now and all of their like their entire team is virtual. Like everyone works from home and he would encounter this very particular scam.

  Bitty Balducci (12:44)
  Mm-hmm.

  Jenna (13:03)
  Of people that were paid by the North Korean government. Cait, you I think you know this one by the North Korean government to like pose as potential employees. They are American, but they are paid by North Korea, and all of their answers are like.

  They're w like if you're like talking here like to the camera, they like keep looking over at like a teleprompter because people are like typing them answers. And their entire paychecks, so they have like essentially like computer farms in somewhere in the US and in North Korea, and all the paychecks go to the North Korean regime. And it is like they had one person get really freaking close, like through the entire process, and then they're like

  Bitty Balducci (13:35)
  Mm. ⁓

  Jenna (14:01)
  Nope, not sitting right. Not sitting right. Nope. So yeah, I'm like, so the the intensity of the complexity, excuse me, the complexity of these scams is absolutely obscene. And I hate to be that skepti like, but you're saying like you're like a trusting individual. I would hate to be super skeptical, but it's like it's exhausting all the time to have to like vet everything. So yeah, let's just like not answer email.

  cait (14:06)
  Yeah. I've seen that, yeah.

  Bitty Balducci (14:14)
  Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm.

  Jenna (14:30)
  Okay thing.

  Bitty Balducci (14:32)
  Yeah, it that's kind of where I've gotten to is just like if this actually is real.

  cait (14:33)
  Yeah. Yeah.

  Bitty Balducci (14:39)
  they'll s they'll indicate in some way, I don't know, send an email, show up at my doorstep, I don't know, but they'll figure it out. Like yeah, and and to your point, Caitlyn, I've had people call my cell phone as well. Like scammers call my cell phone, like about publishing specifically. So yeah. I don't know how Yeah.

  cait (14:56)
  Wait, that's new.

  Jenna (14:58)
  That's next level, 'cause where is your phone number?

  Bitty Balducci (15:01)
  god, probably everywhere. Cause I'm one of those people that I've had the same number since I've had a phone. So I've like multiple times considered getting a new number just simply because I think I'm on every list possible. ⁓ so yeah, it's out in the ethers for sure.

  cait (15:17)
  Yeah.

  Jenna (15:19)
  Ooh, here's a good hack. So we have we do this with our coworkers that are work outside of the US. ⁓ they have Google numbers. So you can get like a free phone number from Google and it routes it to your phone, but it is not your personal phone number. So yep. So that may be like a good one of like if you want to put your phone number or like

  Bitty Balducci (15:29)
  Mm-hmm.

  Okay.

  Mm-hmm.

  Jenna (15:49)
  Give your

  phone number to particular vendors or anything. Mm like you can get a free Google number and it routes everything through your actual phone. I actually I don't think it's free. I think it's like super minimal dollars, like a dollar a month or something dumb. But it registers as you, so it's not like a bot number. But yeah, maybe worth a shot.

  Bitty Balducci (15:56)
  Yeah.

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

  Yeah.

  cait (16:12)
  You're the

  first one.

  Bitty Balducci (16:13)
  Gotcha,

  yeah, I might have to look into that.

  Jenna (16:17)
  Yeah, 'cause I I already get enough like spam emails ⁓ or like spam calls about like mortgage rates. Like I don't

  Bitty Balducci (16:25)
  ⁓ my gosh.

  cait (16:25)
  my god, so many since opening since Jana and I opened a business or like basically registered a business, all I get is like business thinking calls now. But I'm I'm amazed at the depth that the scams go to. And I'm I don't know, I'm fascinated by these stories by just bidding stories and I want like comments. I wanna put this out there for comments. Can we like

  Bitty Balducci (16:33)
  Uh-huh.

  Jenna (16:53)
  Yes.

  cait (16:54)
  get

  this as like the teaser for the episode or something like I know, I was like, no videos today. But I I think yeah like ⁓

  Jenna (16:58)
  Like what

  it it's like what's the hardest

  what's the biggest scam you fell for? And it's okay. We all have done it because the internet's kinda a scary place. But what's the biggest scam you fell for? And you know, what's your like hot tip to keep it from happening to others?

  cait (17:08)
  Mm-hmm.

  Bitty Balducci (17:13)
  Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm.

  cait (17:23)
  I know because the specificity of them is like far beyond what I we do with them at my job too. Like I work with international students in an MBA program. Like we they're constantly they're they're so desperate to get jobs because they're on the visa. They have to get a job within a certain amount of time that like there's so many scams that target them to try to take advantage of that.

  And it's like this is the most niche thing on the planet. It's like your scam is targeting international students on this one visa who have 90 days to get a job. Like it's in it's so and then that makes me like think about the India like you're targeting indie authors. It was not an and it's also like the the lengths, like having an entire book club meeting thing and then having bots comment on

  Bitty Balducci (18:02)
  Yeah.

  Jenna (18:04)
  There's not a lot of us.

  Bitty Balducci (18:12)
  Yeah.

  cait (18:15)
  It's so in depth. Like anybody I just think that anybody, I know you said you're a trusting person, love that, but I think anybody, it doesn't that's not like very specific to you. Like any anybody of any trusting, whatever, like it's not on any spectrum of trust, like can I think fall for these. And I didn't I honestly had no idea until the last two weeks how prevalent it is in this industry.

  Bitty Balducci (18:30)
  Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm.

  Well,

  and you know, like similar to your story about like those students on like on the visa that need to get a job, it's like you know, with indie authors, I don't know, it's like

  I feel like they're kind of like taking candy from a baby. It's like, can you go after like corporate executives, please? Like, I don't have that much money, by the way. And like, what like what is going on? And I think like with authors in particular, like, and you kind of mentioned with the students, like, perhaps they're preying on like a certain level of desperation, right? Because like, as an indie author or an author in general, I mean, all we really want is people to read and enjoy.

  cait (19:01)
  Exactly.

  Jenna (19:16)
  Mm.

  Bitty Balducci (19:23)
  our our work. That's truly, I mean, at least for me, I think I could say. Like if I made money, that'd be cool, but if I just had people reading my work and like getting enjoyment out of it, that that's all I really need. And so you get these emails or calls or you know what have you of notifications over Instagram. And you know you want to believe it because you just so desperately want to get your word out

  cait (19:54)
  Yep. And a lot of us have paid for it and or like have to or they going back to the original point is that we don't know how it works. We don't know how it works. So like you know that there's this level of not not ignorance, but just like we're just kind of doing this on our own and we're trying to figure it out as we go. So like with the payment thing you were just talking about, for all you know, that's how it works. Like

  Bitty Balducci (19:59)
  And

  Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm.

  Yeah.

  cait (20:24)
  You don't know it's supposed to be a different way. So just kind of going into it with this kind of like, okay, I guess this is how we do it. It and I think that that's probably how also most people get taken advantage of. I will say the only thing I the one thing I did notice in the emails I've got, I haven't gotten anything to to the extent that you have Bitty yet. But the emails I get usually they start off like

  Bitty Balducci (20:31)
  Mm.

  Mm-hmm.

  cait (20:49)
  Hey, like, either like we really enjoyed your book. Here are the specific things about your book we liked. And those specific things will not be that specific. It'll be like very AI generated. It'll say, We love that she's like a woman on a journey and blah blah blah blah. But it's still talking about your book. But not. You know what I mean? They're not like quoting your book. They're not like mentioning a specific scene. They're just kind of like generally like.

  Bitty Balducci (20:55)
  Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

  Mm-hmm,

  Mm-hmm.

  Yeah.

  cait (21:19)
  A synopsising

  Bitty Balducci (21:22)
  Yeah, and and I for what it's worth, 'cause I've ⁓ unfortunately received a lot of these types of things, I think what they do is they take language from your existing reviews and your synopsis and like incorporate it into and I I swear like cause I've noticed like phrases like, you know, I don't have

  I don't have enough reviews where I haven't read them. Like I know what the reviews on my book say. ⁓ so like I can see like, yeah, that like very specific phrase is used here. That's kind of strange. So yeah, I've kind of noticed that. And also if your email is summarizing for you, like it is probably an AI because ain't nobody write as much as an AI. You know, like that's just kind of where I fall with it.

  Jenna (22:08)
  So would you say that?

  I'm gonna back up just for a hot second. I don't care if traditional publishing companies are pissed off at BookTalk. How about we collectively get pissed off about the scammers trying to like die like take advantage of all of these authors? Yours, mine, everyone else's in between. And I think it would be a wonderful thing if some of that gatekeeping in the safety

  Bitty Balducci (22:19)
  Please.

  One hundred percent.

  Boo boo.

  Jenna (22:39)
  area pr in particular was like no longer there of like how did they capture like I'm sure like they're getting billions of scams like emailed to them all the time but like as an agent as an editor like how do you handle this for your clients and like for your authors because it yeah there's it's really scary but we're not the only ones experiencing this. Like every you know your career

  Bitty Balducci (22:49)
  Yeah.

  Mm.

  Jenna (23:09)
  Anything that has to do with you earning money, there is a scam. And it's not just Nigerian princes anymore. It's it's some bold people, individuals that are coming up with these networks of sketchiness. So I would I don't know, I would love to hear like an agent's perspective or a editor's perspective of how you guys handle this because we're feeling we're flying blind a little bit.

  Bitty Balducci (23:26)
  Mm-hmm.

  Jenna (23:37)
  And there's always a new one every week.

  cait (23:37)
  Yeah.

  You know what is so funny too is like even podcasting, I'm just thinking about as as podcasters now, like I don't think we've gotten any we've had maybe two emails and they're pretty obvious. They're just like, I can help your YouTube growth. They're like, they're the obvious things that like when you post on Instagram and they're like, send me this post, those type of things. We get those in our email. Outside of that, I and I feel like how many

  Fucking podcasts are there. Why aren't we? I feel like you would think that they're we would be targeted more because that would be like a more prevalent scam. But there's no like so far. Yeah, but it I like I said, my first week as an indie author, it's like, and it goes back to that desperation, I think, of like we are we are like trying to put ourselves out there. We don't have a lot of education on how to do that. But

  Jenna (24:09)
  So my name.

  cait (24:35)
  it is like taking advantage of that emotional like ⁓ I don't know, vulnerability that we have in that state, but

  Jenna (24:42)
  Yeah. And

  Bitty Balducci (24:42)
  Mm-hmm. And

  Jenna (24:45)
  we always talk about pr producing a book is very vulnerable. And when you are vulnerable, like emotionally, because you are putting your art out there, it's so easy to have that vulnerability in your financial safety and like digital safety too and

  Bitty Balducci (24:45)
  and I think like

  Mm-hmm.

  Jenna (25:06)
  maybe we'll just start like a cohort or something, Cait. Where like, hey, if you want eyes on like is this a scam we'll just like start our own like side hustle because we have so many of those now.

  Bitty Balducci (25:21)
  Well, I was kinda thinking, like, you know, one of my main reasons for pitching this idea to you guys is because I think the reason why these scans

  are able to keep going and keep proliferating is because people aren't talking about them because they are embarrassed. They're capitalizing on ⁓ you know, that the desire to get your work out. And then they're also banking on you, being too ashamed to say, Hey, I did fall for this scam and paid six hundred dollars for it. You know what I mean? And so I think like if we like the only like if we had like some kind of, I don't know, Reddit thread or anything where just we could just say, hey

  Jenna (25:58)
  Yes.

  Bitty Balducci (25:59)
  This is a scam, indie author scams, and we could just say, Hey, this happened to me. This is the book club that is like claiming to you know do this, or if you see a similar

  appeal, it's probably not legit. I think like that would go a long way because my guess is that a lot of people, myself included, are Googling after they get such emails or or some kind of outreach. It's just that there's nothing out there to say that it's a scam because everybody else is just so embarrassed that they fell for it.

  Jenna (26:31)
  Yeah, I think it's time. I think it's time we just put I don't know, like like you said, let's just stop being embarrassed. Let's start being like looking out for each other, not just I know as indie authors I feel like it's this it's this like fun club of like go getters and like badass people. So let's just take let's just take this and do something with it.

  Because I don't want it to just stay in the group chat. I want this to make it out of the group chat.

  cait (27:00)
  But the last thing I would love for Biddy to do is just to pitch your book whichever book you wanna pitch and like we'd love to like feature that pitch and and let you have a a second to talk talk about that.

  Bitty Balducci (27:14)
  Okay, so ⁓ well I'm like which one should I pitch? I don't know. well okay, so I guess I'll pitch I'll pitch

  Jenna (27:14)
  Yeah?

  Bitty Balducci (27:25)
  my YA Dystopian Sci-Fi novel because that one, ⁓ it's not that I'm not proud of my novella, but I actually spent a lot of time on that one, so I feel like I should, you know, focus on that. ⁓ but okay, so I have a young adult dystopian sci-fi trilogy and it is called The Clockwise Chronicles. The first book in the series is nascent and it takes place in 2120 ⁓ sorry

  Jenna (27:34)
  Yeah.

  Bitty Balducci (27:55)
  2113, so not too long in the future, and all that's left of modern society is housed within 24 company-owned units scattered across the globe. So there aren't borders, there aren't countries, there's only a single world economy, and it's all organized by this company. And the product at the center of this company is time. So a team of skilled scientists have found a way to capture and repurpose the restorative properties of another's sleep.

  And life at one of these units, Dreamcore Onyx, is all the main character has ever known. She was born there, raised there, etc. But she receives an unexpected message that prompts her to question the nature of her reality. So Nascent is the first book in the trilogy where her and her best friend go on an epic adventure to uncover what's going on with Dreamcore, and they reveal some very disturbing truths.

  Jenna (28:52)
  Sounds really good. Mm-hmm. That sounds like really good.

  Bitty Balducci (28:53)
  Thanks. It it

  does end on a cliffhanger, I will say, 'cause it's the first in the trilogy. I know. That's why I feel particularly bad for your readers, 'cause like they're like, Why are you publishing a novella? I want book two. So I don't blame them. So I'm working on it.

  Jenna (28:58)
  shit.

  cait (29:00)
  That's super cool. Yeah.

  Yeah.

  Jenna (29:12)
  And then I always love

  to end with what are you reading? What are you doing to keep yourself creative? What is kinda like keeping you going as an author right now?

  Bitty Balducci (29:24)
  Mmm for me it's more just like being in nature. Like that's the way for me to remain creative. So ⁓ I happen to live in Washington State, which I'm very biased, but is gorgeous and this is a beautiful time of year to live here and so

  I get a lot of inspiration and fill my creative cup just by going on hikes and being outside and like sitting on a rock and looking at the water. So that's what keeps me going.

  Jenna (29:57)
  Nice. that's such a good one, especially now that it's summer. It's like get outside.

  Bitty Balducci (30:03)
  Mm-hmm, exactly.

  cait (30:04)
  Yeah, seriously. Biddy,

  thank you so much. This was like one of the most we never say that you're gonna learn stuff on this podcast, but this was like one of the most like useful things to talk about, I feel like, which is why we obviously wanted to have you on. ⁓ but it's been so amazing to like talk to you and get to know you. And ⁓ yeah, we gotta get you on the group chat because I feel like like we're we need to talk more.

  Bitty Balducci (30:24)
  Yeah.

  cait (30:30)
  it was so literally so nice to meet you. I knew we were gonna connect and have a great time. So this was great.

  Bitty Balducci (30:35)
  Likewise. Thank you guys so much for having me. It's really cool to be a part of this. So I appreciate it and I look forward to continuing the conversation.