The day Dave Eggers, Jean M. Auel, Jacqueline Wilson, J.M Coetzee and Donna Tartt asked to be my friends.

It all started when I announced the publication of my latest book, (A novel ironically titled “On the Backs of Others”), on a number of Facebook Groups dedicated to writing and writers. My Facebook page was immediately inundated with people congratulating me, telling me how much they liked the cover and the synopsis of the plot, asking me to tell them more about my “writing journey” and my “inspirations”, wanting me to describe the “greatest challenges” I had faced in the writing, asking if this was my first published work and what my marketing plans were. They all professed that they wanted to be my friends in order to swap author tales while sitting at my feet, gazing up at me, adoringly, (that mental picture I added myself).

For a few heady moments I was thrilled to receive such an avalanche of reactions so quickly after publication, but then I noticed that they were all asking the same questions and they were all then telling me that they could help me to get reviews on Amazon, or increase my sales in the same way they had done for their own books, with a variety of magic marketing strategies. Apparently, it was all going to be extremely affordable. So far, so predictable. I mean everyone’s got to hustle a living in any way they can, right? Even a Bot.

Then Dave Eggers got in touch. Yeah, I know – Dave Eggers. I did a quick bit of due diligence and it certainly looked like him and sounded like him. Now I happen to be a big fan, so this hit a button for me. I asked if he was the real deal, and he assured me he was, and he chatted so convincingly that I suspended all disbelief and went with the flow. I mean – it was Dave Eggers! After a bit of affable, writerly, to-ing and fro-ing, he then offered to brief his team to help me to get more reviews on Amazon, and my disbelief was no longer suspended. I mean, I fully believe that the charming Mr Eggers would be helpful if he could, |his track record in such matters is impeccable, but what were the actual odds that he would decide to bestow his kindness on someone he has never heard of, who lives on the other side of the pond?

Then I noticed that one of the others who had been offering to help was none other than Jean M. Auel. And then, as if that was not exciting enough, I got messages from Jacqueline Wilson, Catherine Steadman, J.M Coetzee and Donna Tartt. If any of these authors genuinely did contact me in order to congratulate me on the stunning cover of my book, and on my amazing achievement of being published, I apologise for doubting you. But I have a strong suspicion someone is pulling my leg.

The question that occurs to me, however, is do any of these distinguished authors have any idea that they are being impersonated in this way? I seem to remember there was someone who got away with impersonating Graham Greene for years, back in the analogue days of yore, but the digital world seems to have taken this template to extraordinary heights.

There is an army of imposters on line, pretending to be famous authors, in order to win the confidence of less famous authors and sell them services of dubious value or quality, but the saddest part of the whole story is that I really enjoyed being Dave Eggers friend for those few minutes.