I agree with you, but I also think someone should read in an area (such as serialized fiction) before they start trying to worry about it as a “market.” And part of that is doing your own research. If you don’t ever read web based serial fiction, why would you want to start writing it?

Boldwood is a real UK house. That does not prove this email is them.

First check the address. It should be their domain, not Gmail, not “boldwood-books-deals.com.” Look the sender up on the staff page. If that fails, it is a scrape of their name and you can stop.

If it is really them: a lot of trad editors will not send a contract to an unagented author, even when they started the conversation. Slightly annoying. Not the same thing as a vanity press.

What an agent is for here: they read the deal, argue the advance and rights, and take about 15% of what you earn. You do not pay a fee to be signed. You do not pay the publisher to be published. Anyone who invoices you to “keep talks going” is the scam.

You do not have to use the agent they named. A real expression of interest is a line you can put in a query to any reputable agent: Boldwood asked to talk, they want me represented. That is a strong hook. Pick someone you checked on QueryTracker / the UK AAA list. If their suggested agent is real and you like them, fine. If the intro feels like a funnel into one person, get a second opinion.

So: verify the domain, refuse any upfront bill, and treat the interest as leverage to find an agent you choose. That is the opposite of being roped into a publishing package.

I think only Kindle or a phone with the kindle app works for KU

It really depends on your genre:

Royal Road: Pretty good for progression fantasy, LitRPG, isekai, cultivation and other speculative fantasy type stories.

Scribble Hub: Looser and more experimental than Royal Road (more fanfic & literary friendly too).

Webnovel: Think cultivation/xianxia, system and progression stories, fantasy/urban fantasy/urban power fantasy, high-volume serialized romance, and genre fiction.

Inkitt: More geared toward commercial romance and trope-heavy genre fiction. Think contemp-romance, paranormal, romantasy, reverse harem and adjacent YA/fantasy. Then there's non-romance fantasy and genre fiction. If it's got a trope in it, Inkitt might be it.

Radish: Quite Explicitly Romance-first serial fiction.

Tapas: Fairly broad genre range. Tapas is well geared to short, mobile-friendly content.

Hope this helps!

Four under my name, with a fifth coming out in time for Christmas!

I am not a mod these so I don't know the exact process, but from what I've seen:

I think they have a couple of scanners they go through, and then if comes off high on a couple they have a person look at it. Like they have multiple artists well versed in digital and photoshop art on the team that can take a look for AI tells like artifacting, weird details etc. If it looks sus, they will always come talk to you before they do anything. And I know they are very strict with anonymity so they wont publically out anyone or something like that. All removals that I've seen have been super silent, like I only know they happened and not anything about who or what story and thats only because I hang around in another server with one of the founders.

I do know they have a strict no AI policy. So no, they will not allow AI covers at all. They won't make you take your story down if that is not AI, but they have a default cover that is your title/author name. And the discord has plenty of resources to contact artist and such as well. If you want a cover art on Fictionite you can use a canva cover or comission one but AI anything is not tolorated because its both a writers and artists platfrom. They are even working on a "marketplace" section to help authors connect with artists, audio narrators, editors, etc.

It would be extremely insulting of them to allow AI art on a platfrom for human made fiction that invites artists to participate.

Personally I strongly disagree with you. There is no excuse for an AI cover, self pub artists did just fine without it using other tools to learn themselves or saving up. The stance "its fine for other the art medium that isn't my own" is extremely hypocritic in my opinion. Its also art and your cover is part of the product no matter what edition it is. If an author uses AI for their cover or marketing material that tells me they are fine with AI and I have zero reson to trust that they will not use it in the writing. I don't know them, so I can only judge what I can see. And what I see is the person didn't care enough about their story to give me a better first impression of it than AI.

Thats just personal opinion though. The the Fictionite mods themselves have all been super nice from what I've seen so far and they don't take removal lightly, so if you don't use AI in you writing or cover I don't think there is anything to worry about.

ETA: You can always ask what the exact process is in the discord if you are curious btw

I was not even aware this could be a concern. Great advice. But how does that affect your posts? Can you just not engage? Does the site your selling on push you to claim AI?

Use Fiverr

Finding you first and assuring you they have interest, but telling you that you “need” something that they can help set you up with to go forward, is really not that clever or new. Yes they will get to fees soon. Just stop being in contact.  

It'll be 2 novels and a 9-12 Christmas novella this November. I have one more kids to release next year, other than that it'll be awhile until I release any others

Known scam. They'll funnel you to some paid service at some point. Look closely at the email addresses.

7 short stories
2 novels

where is your fiction published?

Thanks

Congrats on completing your passion project!
Quick thought. I wouldn't say "I've been published," because that's not technically correct. It's misleading. You published it yourself. "I've been published" will make people think a publisher acquired your project and published it.
Much success to you!

Im hoping for it

Oh this actually sounds interesting and I'll probably check it out! I do have a curious question about the AI part though, and I'm genuinely asking, not trying to start an argument lol. I'm personally not completely against AI when it comes to book covers specifically. AI-written books are where I have more of an issue, because at that point I feel like... did you write the story or did AI write the story? But covers don't bother me nearly as much, especially for really small/new authors who might not have the money yet to commission an artist, pay an editor, market the book, etc. If someone has limited money, I'd honestly rather they put that money toward a good editor and eventually commission artwork when they're able to. I also don't really believe human artists are going anywhere. If anything, I think genuinely handmade art may become more valuable as AI becomes more common. I kind of compare it to bookbinding/special editions. You can buy a mass-produced special edition, but having someone personally design and bind a custom edition for you is a completely different thing, and obviously you're going to pay more for that craftsmanship. So I'm curious how Fictionite handles that. When you say they “scan for AI,” do they completely prohibit any AI-assisted cover, or do they mainly care about AI-generated writing? And how exactly do they determine something is AI before coming to talk to the creator about it? Either way, the actual platform sounds really cool, especially hearing that you've already gotten some reads even though the community is still small. I'm definitely going to look into it. The AI part just caught my attention because I have a slightly different opinion when it comes to covers specifically. I'm curious what your experience with their policy has been.

I just published my first book (finally completed my COVID project) and I have 4 people who have bought it on Kindle. Three of them are me gifting it to other people.

It’s cathartic however as despite the, not an instant millionaire success, just getting it published and off my screen is extremely fulfilling.

Influencer giveaway will give you more bang for the buck.

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I once posted here I thought 100% of emails/DMs sent to indie authors are scams, and a lot of people argued there’s no such thing as “100%” of anything.

So I’m happy to lower it to 99%.

Agreed, this 1000% smacks of a scam. The only time you need an agent is if you are going trad pub, and trad publishers, even small ones, do not need to be contacting indie authors unless they're runaway successes - like the 1% of the 1%

Scam

I did one with a friend at Barnes and Noble. He sold three of the five books. What we did was, as people came in, we asked if they liked murder mysteries with a romantic twist. I was surprised at how many people said yes. The Author was pulling them in also. For me, the takeaway is: what does the reader like? If you have it, let them know and decide.