Time To Track Terrible Tik Tok (Scam) Trend!

A Literal Literary Loser Gets Hip With the Youth

Tik Tok, I am told, is where all the hip, young people are these days. That’s why I got so excited when I was approached with a brand new (to me) scam, this time regarding the platform of the youth! I felt so young and hip and validated for it!

BooksHub Shopify Innovation (a whopping 610 followers on Facebook, if that tells you anything about how successful “she” is, linked to a Fiverr account where the reviews are for Eleanor M) reached out to me with the usual generic, yet disturbingly confident sales pitch: Blah, blah, blah, I am a great book marketer… blah, blah, blah, I will sell so many books for you… blah, blah, blah, yes, thank you for sending all the links about your previous experiences; they were scammers, I am not.

But then matters took a new and exciting turn! Follow along below:

BookHub Shopify Innovation: I’ll create and post engaging TikTok videos that highlight your book’s theme, plot, and appeal to targeted readers. These videos help build visibility, attract followers, and drive potential readers to check out your book. To get started, I’ll need: Access to your TikTok account (login details) so I can manage posting and engagement.

(Uhm… what the… “She” seriously expects me to hand over my login information to a total stranger on the internet????? I was intrigued enough to pursue this further….)

Alina Adams: You haven't named a price yet, or guaranteed how many books I'll sell. I need hard numbers before proceeding.

BH: How much can you afford and how many books would you love me to promote on booktok??

AA: Nope, not how this works. You name your price and the guarantee of how many books sold. After all, you're the expert. You know how many books your wonderful promotion services sell, and how much your work is worth. I would never insult you by presuming.

BH: Okay. Can you you afford $300 let's start? I will promote 2 of your books for 14 days. Are you okay with that?

AA: How many books do you guarantee I will sell by paying you $300?

BH: By promote your books on tiktok it will get more readers, viewers and also customers who will buy your books. Just let's start with promoting 2 of your books on booktok customers will surely be interested to buy. With the right targeting, aesthetic hooks, and storytelling teasers, we can still build strong engagement and attract the right readers who crave your genre. It’s all about showcasing the right angles." BookTok is one of the fastest-growing platforms for authors today. It helps your book reach thousands of readers through engaging videos, builds loyal fan interest, and boosts both visibility and credibility. Many authors have seen real spikes in book sales, reviews, and long-term audience growth—just from consistent exposure on TikTok. It’s not just promotion, it’s a movement that puts your book where readers are most active.

AA: How many books do you guarantee to sell with your marketing?

BH: 2-3 books. Can we get started? Give me two of your best books you would love to sell and I will promote them for you. 14days management and 2daily posts is the proposal

AA: You are going to sell 2-3 books for $300???? How is that cost effective? I asked how many COPIES of the book you promote you guarantee to sell for me?

BH: That's what am telling you? The booktok promtion depends on how many books you would like to promote. How many books have you published so far? you can give me all of them and the marketing campaign will help in creating engaging videos for posting and it is guaranteed that all can be sold. How many books do you have? I promote the numbers of books you have you will surely make sales from them. How many books would you like me to promote for you? Let's get started already, and just be patient with the promotion campaign. let's get started so we can start putting your books in front of readers.

AA: You haven't told me yet how many copies of one book you guarantee I will sell with your marketing campagin. I must say, the fact that you cannot understand my question makes me wonder how much experience you have in this field. How can you make an ad for me if you have trouble reading and writing in English?

BH: Okay.. you will sale as many as possible depending on the demand by customers once your readers see the aesthetics in your videos and books the will be intrigued to buy the books. You will sale as many as possible. Am sorry I misunderstood you. Can we get started now?

(Is anyone reminded of a toddler with the repeated refrain of “Can we get started now? Can we get started now? Can we get started now? And, I must admit, “you will sale as many as possible depending on the demand by customers” is an honest assessment. Can’t see any flaw with that logic. )

AA: How many is as many as possible? I have to have a number so I can know if it's worth paying $300 dollars for. How many books do you guarantee I sell for $300?

BH: Thank you for your question! I totally understand wanting clarity before making an investment. While I can’t guarantee an exact number of book sales—since BookTok results depend on factors like genre, cover appeal, and audience engagement—I can promise increased visibility, targeted reach, and content designed to attract the right readers and unpredictable sales. BookTok is not a one-post magic trick but a consistent exposure tool that builds momentum. Many authors have seen strong results over time, and the key is consistency and strategy. My focus is on creating scroll-stopping videos that spark curiosity and encourage clicks, which is what leads to sales. Booktok is able to scale your business and the sales it would bring you rnges from %30 - %50 increase in sales and its sales are not specific. I hope you understand now.

(Wow, some of these paragraphs are so much better written than others. It almost feels like canned responses provided by a bot versus an attempt to reply by a human!)

AA: Oh, OK, well, thank you. As I sent you multiple examples, everyone who has promised me "exposure" and "engagement" but no sales has been a scam artist. Unfortunately, you are not as good as they were, and will not be receiving any of my money. Also, your pitch isn't even good enough to get listed in my regular column, so I won't be able to offer you promotion at this time. Try harder!

BH: Thank you for your honesty. I understand your frustration, but I want to clarify that I’m not a scammer—I’m a BookTok specialist who works hard to build real engagement through tested strategies. While no one can promise a specific number of sales, But surely TikTok is a long-game platform that builds interest and readership over time and will surely guarantee you 100 of sales. Results often require patience and consistency, not overnight promises. I respect your decisions. I am telling you this from my experiences

AA: And I am telling you this from my experience. Anyone who will not give me a guaranteed number of book sales is not getting my money. Your pitch was very uncompelling, and if you can't even sell your services to me, how can you possibly sell my books to other people. In my experience, you are not a good marketer. Better luck next time!

BH: You don't have to take it to this length. I really want to work and promote your books. With booktok you will experience a sale of over 200 copies of your books. Are you satisfied now? Can we get started with the projects so you can start making increased and significant sales?

AA: So you guarantee I will sell 200 copies of my book for $300? OK, you have a deal. Go ahead and make your first tik-tok, so I can review your work before putting it up on my channel.

BH: For the full BookTok project, I’ll need access to your TikTok account (login details) so I can handle posting, engagement, and content directly. This helps keep everything consistent and gives your book the best chance to reach readers effectively.

AA: Sure. I'll get you that as soon as I see what you plan to post. You don't expect me to give you my private log in info before I see your work, do you? That would be VERY stupid of me.

BH: okay. I will be needing your book cover, book link and summary so I can create the video contents for you

AA: I thought you already had all that. You wrote me: I came across your book and it really stood out - great work! So just use the info you already have.

BH: I need your book link I don't have your info your website link is needed here what I need encompasses that so just provide it for me

AA: alinaadams.com

BH: Nice let me quickly create one for you

(And then, dear Reader, “she” sent me three sample Tik Tok videos where… I kid you not… “she” got A) The title of my book wrong, B) Used very obvious AI to generate “real reviewers” whose lip movements didn’t match the words coming out of their mouths and C) Described my book (“Go Pretending” according to “her”) as, “It’s about friendship, ambition, and finding your voice, wrapped up in a tantalizing mystery.” Dear Reader, it is about none of those things.)

BH: Hi Alina, This are the videos i made for the project, I hope you will love them?

AA: You got the title of my book wrong. And all the deep fakes describing my book got the story completely wrong. There are no illustrations. It isn't for children. This is awful! How can this sell my book when it's the wrong title and the wrong story???

BH: It will sell your book trust me i have being using this to promote all other authirs books and they have been making sales. As an experienced exoert i am pretty sure of what am saying, okay? The book cover display is the main thing needed by readers. This 3 are good aren't they? Atleast we can start with them and i create more like them for you

AA: OK, let me put one of these up and I'll let you know if it gets sales.

BH: what do you mean? Aren't you going to pay me for the project? I thought we discussed on you paying $300 before we can start the project you have not paid me yet I wasted resources creating this video and here you are saying I should wait for you to make sales. Do you think am doing a free charity work? Don't you know I work to earn my money as a professional, this isn't sensible. And I am supposed to manage your tiktok account for the project, I purposely created videos due to my benevolence of which I rarely do and here you telling me to wait for you to make sales. I thought I made all this known to you

AA: Oh, OK, then if I can't give it a test run, I guess we can't work together. Have a great weekend!

BH: you could have told me you wanted an agreement whereby you will have to make sales before you can pay. All this while you sounded as if you had money

AA: I have money. Lots of it, especially for promotion. But you didn't expect me to give you access to my social media account before I saw what you produced, did you? How stupid would I have been to do that??? And then the samples you sent, I thought, were absolutely horrible. They didn't tell anything about my book at all. But you are a professional book marketer, and you said they were good and would sell books. But I had to check it out for myself, didn't I? How could I trust you when you didn't even get the name of my books right? But you said these samples were great and would sell books, so I figured I'd give it a try then, when you proved to be right and your terrible ads did sell books, I would pay you and give you access to my social media. Are you afraid your ads won't sell books? But you swore they were great and they would!

AA: You are not getting it we didn't have any agreement that you must make sales with my vid before you can pay when I was telling you about the project we already agreed you would pay and we start the project. But I created the video thinking you would pay me for that and here you are using it you see am not foolish for me to create videos for and you want to use it without dropping a dime. Atleast you should pay up something for creating the videos its not free okay, but I did it out my benevolence many other authors do pay me before I create any videos for them so i insist you should pay for the videos I created even though its $150 you can pay for the wastage of resources before we wait for your sales

AA: Where do you see me using it?

BH: I don't know you are the one that said you wanted to post it. Can we just get started already? you will see results, waiting like this is already wasting time. Can I share you my fiverr link so you will message and pay then we get started?

AA: Do I have your permission to share one of the video and see if I get results? If I get results then, yes, we can start the campaign and I will pay you. But if you say I do not have your permission to use one of the videos, then I won't, and we won't work together. Let me know!

BH: You don't have to wait until you make sales before you pay. I am a professional and I wasted resoursces creating this videos. I hardly create videos for people for free, the pay me first before I make video for them but that i decided to that free for you doesn't give you that edge I created close to 6 videos for you, you have to be grateful for this. That's why I said you should pay for the videos I created for you first any amount you have the money, don't do this to me you won't understand my working style. Just pay any amount when you make sales from the video of which you will make you can pay rest and we build long lasting working relationship okay, please just pay

AA: So I have your permission to put up one of the videos and only pay you if/when I get sales from it?

BH: Pay me first before you put it up. The videos are not for free, you have the money

AA: Oh, OK, then I won't put them up. No problem.

BH: I didn't say you should not put it up but won't you at least pay me for creating the videos at least so the videos won't be a waste

AA: No. The videos have the names of my book wrong, the words don't match the mouths of the AI generated people, and the description is not about my books at all. I can't use them.

BH: All of those does not matter there. As far as the book cover is visible in the video, you are good to go

AA: So I don't need a video then? I can just put up a photo of my book cover and nothing else matters? Then why did you say I needed lots of different videos? I'm so confused now!

BH: You need videos because the are more eyecatchy and engaging. Photos won't get you sales

AA: So I can just shoot a video of my book cover, and that's all that's necessary? Why did you say I needed lots of different types of videos, then?

BH: The videos i created for you would do. You dont need to shoot any other videos of your books cover. I have told you this time without number i use this videos to promote aother author books why cant you get over this and lets get started working together. You keep repeating and stressing me, which is not good for my profession. I geneuinely want to work on this with you but you have to make things easier for me

AA: But your videos are no good (wrong title, fake testimonials, wrong plot), and now you say that all I need to show is the book cover. So why do I need you to make me videos? I can film my book cover myself and put it up.

BH: That's not what I meant if you look closely to the videos you will see that your book covers is visible and that's what readers needs to see. That's what I meant

AA: But the rest of it is so awful. I can't put that up! If none of the rest of the stuff matters, why is it there even?

BH: okay just pay $100 let me create another one for you

AA: No, no. I am not giving you money to create videos for me when the samples you sent were terrible. I looked at you work and it was worthless. i am not paying for more worthless work.

BH: You don't have a good manner of talking you are the worst client I have ever met. How are those videos terrible? I want to create a new different ones for you yet you say No

AA: Please read the many, many messages I have sent to explain why I can't use them.

BH: And the one I want to create won't be the same style

AA: But you already sent me your work and I didn't like it. What proof do I have that the new ones you create would be better than the previous set?

BH: You are not pitifull, Did you know I wasted $200 creating those videos for you ?

AA: How did you waste $200? What was the money spent on?

BH: How do I recover the money, Non thats why I said pay for videos don't pay for service I will get you a different one from that

AA: No. I will not pay for bad videos. You had a chance to show me your work. I didn't like it. I will not buy bad videos from you.

BH: I said I will make amends I have two ways of creating videos which I do for my clients. First is the one I did for you initially and now I want to try the second style if that suits you. Non of my clients have ever complained of my videos before but only you. Give me the chance let me try the second pattern for you as I do for other authors. Trust me

AA: Why don't you send me examples of videos you have done for other clients that sold many books, and if I like them, I will hire you to do the same for me?

(“She” then sent me videos for a “The Wicked Phoenix,” a book with literally NO sales on Amazon, and four reviews on Goodreads as an example of a best-seller she promoted. It featured the same badly dubbed AI ‘real life reviewers’ saying the same things they said about my book. According to her: I helped some one do booktok for 14days and I am currently running for a fellow author like you and its really working)

AA: OK, cool. I'll reach out to the author and ask them how many books your videos sold.

BH: I dont know why youa re too curious on knowing how much sales

AA: Because I want to know what I am spending my money on. Why would I spend money to get no sales?

BH: Book success does not work that way okay.. you are different from other authors and you can not get the same result with them. To make sales all you need is patient and consistency

AA: OK. I will ask those other authors how long they ran those videos before they began getting sales.

BH: you have to be silent and keep calm but with the way you are so inquisitive it does not work that way. The will not reply you seriously, you must not ask how theirs is but focus on yours. Thats one thing with success in life. You keep calm and remain silent with persistent and consistence

AA: I've emailed the authors, will let you know what they say about your services!

BH: I pity you

AA: Do you know me?

BH: I dont need to know you i just work for my clients

AA: I see. That answer makes a lot of sense and doesn't sound generated by AI at all

BH: I truly understand your curiosity and desire to see quick results—it shows how much you care about your book’s success. But I always like to remind authors that sales don’t usually happen overnight. BookTok and other marketing efforts take consistency, patience, and time to build real momentum. The authors who stay committed and trust the process are the ones who start seeing real, lasting results.

​Now here’s the real kicker - I don’t even have a Tik Tok account! You’d think an experienced, professional marketer would have checked that out first, before even approaching me with “her” brilliant proposal. So I won’t be able to give “her” my log-in credentials, alas. Think of all the book sales I’m losing!

But if you’re ready to “trust the process” and “start seeing real, lasting results” do let me know! I’ll be the first to say I gave up a golden opportunity to achieve success!

Want to know what my book is really about in a short video that also features my book cover, like the professional book marketer said to do? Watch the 90 second highlight reel of my “Go On Pretending” book launch below!