Meanwhile, on Goodreads
Dec. 11th, 2023 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingScandal Rocks Publishing as Debut Author Is Linked To Fake Goodread Accounts That Review Bombed Peers
https://www.themarysue.com/cait-corrain-goodreads-controversy-explained/
What’s particularly baffling and infuriating here is that Corrain seemed set up for a successful debut prior to the review bombing and deflection coming to light. Crown of Starlight had a strong marketing push behind it and a lot of buzz and positive reviews for early ARCs. Corrain has a two-book deal, the May Illumicrate pick, and by all accounts was headed toward success.
Holy shit. This is horrifying.
I think this is what happened: A debut author who had a large following from the Reylo fandom was in a Slack group with other SFF authors whose novels were also set to debut in 2024. They created "more than nine" sock puppet accounts to leave one-star reviews of the other authors' work on Goodreads. It seems that they specifically went out of their way to target women of color.
Thankfully, the author has been dropped by their agent, their publisher, and various promotional organizations, all of whom made social media announcements this afternoon. Still, the writers targeted by this author had known what was going on for months (since February), and they were told by professionals in the publishing industry to keep their heads down and not say anything. Jesus Christ. What the fuck.
What's so scary to me is that, as mentioned in the passage I excerpted, this author had everything going for them. Why would they do something like this? And, if more than a dozen people hadn't made a concentrated effort to call them out, they would have gotten away with it.
https://www.themarysue.com/cait-corrain-goodreads-controversy-explained/
What’s particularly baffling and infuriating here is that Corrain seemed set up for a successful debut prior to the review bombing and deflection coming to light. Crown of Starlight had a strong marketing push behind it and a lot of buzz and positive reviews for early ARCs. Corrain has a two-book deal, the May Illumicrate pick, and by all accounts was headed toward success.
Holy shit. This is horrifying.
I think this is what happened: A debut author who had a large following from the Reylo fandom was in a Slack group with other SFF authors whose novels were also set to debut in 2024. They created "more than nine" sock puppet accounts to leave one-star reviews of the other authors' work on Goodreads. It seems that they specifically went out of their way to target women of color.
Thankfully, the author has been dropped by their agent, their publisher, and various promotional organizations, all of whom made social media announcements this afternoon. Still, the writers targeted by this author had known what was going on for months (since February), and they were told by professionals in the publishing industry to keep their heads down and not say anything. Jesus Christ. What the fuck.
What's so scary to me is that, as mentioned in the passage I excerpted, this author had everything going for them. Why would they do something like this? And, if more than a dozen people hadn't made a concentrated effort to call them out, they would have gotten away with it.
