diff --git a/src/parsers.ts b/src/parsers.ts
index 37890e0..2485f7c 100644
--- a/src/parsers.ts
+++ b/src/parsers.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,15 @@ export class JSONParser implements Parser {
    * @return {object} the parsed JSON payload.
    */
   parse(payload: Record<string, unknown> | string): string {
+    if (typeof payload === "string") {
+      // This is kind of a hack, but the payload data could be JSON in the form of a single
+      // string, such as "some data". But without the quotes in the string, JSON.parse blows
+      // up. We can check for this scenario and add quotes. Not sure if this is ideal.
+      const r = /^[[|{|"]/;
+      if (!r.test(payload)) {
+        payload = `"${payload}"`;
+      }
+    }
     if (this.decorator) {
       payload = this.decorator.parse(payload);
     }
diff --git a/test/integration/parser_test.ts b/test/integration/parser_test.ts
index b5d678a..8c10e32 100644
--- a/test/integration/parser_test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/parser_test.ts
@@ -47,11 +47,20 @@ describe("JSON Event Format Parser", () => {
 
   it("Throw error when payload is an invalid JSON", () => {
     // setup
-    const payload = "gg";
+    const payload = "{gg";
     const parser = new Parser();
 
     // TODO: Should the parser catch the SyntaxError and re-throw a ValidationError?
-    expect(parser.parse.bind(parser, payload)).to.throw(SyntaxError, "Unexpected token g in JSON at position 0");
+    expect(parser.parse.bind(parser, payload)).to.throw(SyntaxError, "Unexpected token g in JSON at position 1");
+  });
+
+  it("Accepts a string as valid JSON", () => {
+    // setup
+    const payload = "I am a string!";
+    const parser = new Parser();
+
+    // TODO: Should the parser catch the SyntaxError and re-throw a ValidationError?
+    expect(parser.parse(payload)).to.equal("I am a string!");
   });
 
   it("Must accept when the payload is a string well formed as JSON", () => {