I’m always thrilled when a real reader searches me out and leaves a review, comments on my blog, sends a message through my website or occasionally emails me directly about possibly appearing at their book club. It’s a huge boost of confidence that my novels resonate. So I look forward to opening my email every morning.

In the last two weeks alone, I’ve had emails from two major publishing houses expressing interest in my writing. Another, from former US first daughter Jenna Bush, extolled the brilliance of my books and wanted to feature one at her book club. On top of that, there are daily emails from people wanting to know where to find my novels, or to want me to with them to promote my novels and get them the visibility “they deserve.”

Pretty heady stuff. Until you read the fine print.

I’m pretty sure neither Random House, nor Bloomsbury Publishing let their editors use AOL email addresses. Jenna Bush Hagar only has one R in her surname, not two. And the daily emails? They are always flattering. Sometimes they get my name right. Sometimes they even get a book title right. But never are they serious emails from people who want to help – unless, of course, I pay them a lot of money.

I know I shouldn’t interact with them, but every once and a while I can’t help but to suggest they need to do their research better. If they want to know if my books are on Amazon or Goodreads, they just have to look (spoiler, I am, and they are, on both). The proper spelling of my name is in my domain name (spoiler, it’s not Kathryn, Catherine, Catharine or even Katharine). When they get the titles wrong it’s even more fun to suggest that their spreadsheet is “off by a line”.

It gets downright depressing.

And the worst part is that if a “real” person actually emailed me, I’m not sure I’d recognize it. The amount of spam is extraordinary. So what can an author do?

Well, for me, I’m naively choosing to believe that it means that my novels have reached a level – whatever that may be – that makes me an interesting target for spammers. Which leads me to a couple of questions: Have you ever, or would you ever, email an author directly? And if you did, what would you write to make sure they knew it was real? Because many, like me, would love to do book club talks, or take advantage of other opportunities to interact with readers.

Signing off now – Mark Haddon, Lisa Sutton and Viona Matthews all want to talk to me about one of my books. Sigh…