I think I sent my media kit to a scammer this week.

In my defence, it was a pretty good scam. But all of you authors out there, do watch out.

What happened was this.

I was invited to speak at two respected international festivals, each time by someone claiming to be their founder. They referenced my book, understood my work in such detail, and suggested a conversation that genuinely made sense for me.

One of them was such a good fit that at first I was genuinely excited.

So I replied.

But when the response came back, something didn’t feel quite right. So I started asking questions.

The festival was the real deal, the founder was too, and the fit with my work SO perfect. Almost everything I was being told checked out.

But that niggle stayed with me, so I kept pushing. I wanted to know when they were going to ask for money.

It took several emails (they were really committed) but as expected, the ask arrived.

That’s when I copied the festival’s official email addresses into the conversation – and unsurprisingly, it was in fact a scam.

But it left me thinking about trust.

It’s becoming incredibly easy to make something false look completely believable. And with AI, credibility has never been easier to manufacture. Information about us is everywhere – about our work, what we like, our connections, things we care about – and all of it can be discovered, put together and then sent out in ways that feel so convincing.

Which makes it harder and harder to know what, and who, to trust.

Trust is becoming scarcer. And scarcity changes the value of something.

I truly believe that this is one of the most defining shifts of this new world:
The easier it is to manufacture credibility, the more valuable genuine trust  and authenticity becomes.

So being clear about who you are, saying what you mean, and building a reputation over time that people can actually rely on are becoming real differentiators.

Maybe being trustworthy is becoming one of the greatest competitive advantages we have.

And apparently I need to be a little more careful with my media kit. 🥴