“Crown of Starlight” author Cait Corrain claimed she was in the middle of a mental breakdown when she spent months using fake accounts to target authors of color on Goodreads while giving her own novel positive reviews.
An author will no longer see her novel published in 2024 following the determination she was behind a phony Goodreads account that posted negative ratings for
She added, “I know some of you won’t forgive me, and I recognize that you’re not required to.”
However, the authors of color targeted by Corrain, including Molly X. Chang, Bethany Baptiste, K.M. Enright, Kamilah Cole and Frances White — who all have books coming out between January and August of next year — pointed out that her letter was not a proper apology to the debuting authors who suffered as a result of the negative reviews she gave them.
According to screenshots of the exchange posted by Baptiste, Corrain initially denied the allegations of review-bombing and writing favorable reviews for her book in a Slack channel for debut writers. She also claimed to have evidence that the review bombing was tied to her friend, “Lilly,” although she did not provide any contact information for the individual.
Corrain said on Tuesday that she was experiencing a mental breakdown when she “made up the world’s sloppiest chat” blaming a non-existent friend and sending phony apologies for the actions of said ‘friend’, only making things worse.
She wrote in her apology letter that she would attempt to contact each of the authors and seek extensive psychiatric care and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the review-bombing scandal.
Amazon paid an estimated $150 million for Goodreads in 2013. The review site allows anybody, not just those who have received advance copies, to leave ratings months before a book is released, subjecting writers to review-bombing operations. According to authors and critics, there is little moderation or remedy for reporting abuse on Amazon’s marketplace.
Even as Goodreads’ strength and impact in publishing has risen, review bombing — intentional harassment via bad reviews that have resulted in the cancellation of books and their authors — has been a long-standing concern for the platform, The Post reported.
“Goodreads takes the responsibility of maintaining the authenticity and integrity of ratings and protecting our community of readers and authors very seriously,” a spokesperson told The Post, adding that it removed` all of Corrain’s negative reviews. “We have clear reviews and community guidelines, and we remove reviews and/or accounts that violate these guidelines.”
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