- A first-time author has admitted to creating fake Goodreads accounts to take down her competition.
- Cait Corrain been dropped by her publisher and literary agent.
A fantasy author has lost her book deal after being accused of — and admitting to — using the book-review platform Goodreads to try to take down her competition via review bombing.
Review bombing is the practice of manipulating the ratings of a product or service through inauthentic, negative reviews.
On Tuesday, the author, Cait Corrain, apologized to the people she targeted.
"I boosted the rating of my book, bombed the ratings of several fellow debut authors, and left reviews that ranged from kind of mean to downright abusive," Corrain wrote on Instagram.
Corrain's apology came one day after publisher Del Rey Books announced that Corrain's debut novel, "Crown of Starlight," was no longer on its publishing schedule. The novel had been slated for a May 2024 release.
Corrain was also dropped by her literary agent, Rebecca Podos, and a book subscription service, Illumicrate, on Monday.
We are aware of the ongoing discussion around author Cait Corrain. CROWN OF STARLIGHT is no longer on our 2024 publishing schedule.
— Del Rey Books (@DelReyBooks) December 11, 2023
People on X and TikTok turned against Corrain after author Xiran Jay Zhao accused her of sabotaging her competition, primarily authors of color with books set to be published in 2024.
OK I've had enough. How fucking dare anyone spread lies about Bethany, one of the victims of the review bombing, to deflect from the allegations
— iran * PREORDER HEAVENLY TYRANT (@XiranJayZhao) December 6, 2023
Here are 31 pages of receipts of the review bombing. Everyone, judge for yourself.https://t.co/mYCsacgMOU https://t.co/GG3B18WoJl
Zhao, who uses they/them pronouns, told Business Insider they first heard of the review bombing in April. They shared their suspicions about the person behind the review bombing in a cryptic post on X on December 6.
Zhao said that as "speculation exploded within the book community," they published a 31-page Google document online on December 7.
The document, which BI viewed, contains screenshots of scathing one-star Goodreads reviews left by since-deleted Goodreads accounts on unreleased books. Many of these accounts also left positive reviews for Corrain's upcoming book.
"It was very easy to tie the accounts to Cait because clicking into their profiles showed they upvoted one particular book, Crown of Starlight, on dozens of lists," Zhao told BI.
Bethany Baptiste, one of the authors who was affected, says she was review bombed by at least six fake Goodreads accounts. Baptiste wrote in an X post on December 12, "I've spent days defending my name & reputation while Cait had the privilege to hide."
Review bombing isn't unique to Goodreads — it's also a problem on review platforms like Rotten Tomatoes and Yelp.
However, the publishing industry's struggles with the practice are particularly well-documented. Some authors have postponed or outright canceled their book releases over negative reviews on Goodreads. In June, Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of "Eat, Pray, Love," withdrew her upcoming novel after it received hundreds of negative reviews on Goodreads over its setting: Soviet Russia.
Corrain did not respond to multiple requests for comment from BI, sent through her former agent.