JEFFERSON/MADISON/BURR. Have you read this? You ever see somebody ruin their own life?
—Hamilton
Once again, procrastinating till the last minute pays off for the intrepid writer. Instead of grammar today I have a brief summary of the latest publishing industry drama, which one twitter account described as the “most unhinged” thing to happen in publishing this year. Believe it or not, Bad Art Friend happened 100,000 years ago in 2021 so I’m inclined to agree.
This year of our Lorde 2023 has seen the British Museum rip off Yilin Wang’s translations, a person calling themself Demetrious Polychron claim ownership of Tolkien’s Middle Earth IP, and Prosecraft.io hoover up 27,000-odd copyrighted books into its LLM for profit, so there was stiff competition for most underhanded and/or most unhinged publishing industry behavior this year. That said, the events of the last few days—which have been dubbed #reviewbombgate—take the cake. Further, falling as they have within the final weeks of the year, it’s unlikely they’ll be surpassed before we ring in 2024.
As always, I consider it a responsibility to pass along this sort of publishing industry talk and gossip for your entertainment but, in this case, there has been plenty of coverage of the story:
Indeed, there’s no shortage of detailed coverage already. I’ll try to add context in my summary by linking out to the critical social media threads, screenshots, and documents that tell the whole story. You can read it anywhere. You can read it here last. It’s all good. I just want to cover it for posterity.
Here’s what happened. A person named Cait Corrain wrote a novel called Crown of Starlight, which was represented by agent Rebecca Podos and scheduled for publication in May 2024 by Del Rey Books (in the United States). The book was also slated for May 2024 publication by Daphne Press in the UK, and was additionally planned as the May 2024 Illumicrate book box subscription book.
Crown of Starlight has thus far received a tremendous amount of prepub buzz. I first heard about this book when reviewers and influencers began to receive advance reader copies (ARCs) in August and the word was that this book was incredible. Billed as a queer, sci-fi retelling of the Greek myth of Ariadne and Dionysus, I’ve seen it variously described as:
“Stunning”
“Revolutionary”
“Lustrous”
“Propulsive”
The praise has been effusive. I was personally really looking forward to this book after I saw it described as similar to Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey and the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, which I think everyone knows I love.
All this is to say, Crown of Starlight and its author, Corrain, had everything possible going for their 2024 debut.
Earlier in December, the following came to the attention of several other authors with 2024 debut novels:
Seven Goodreads accounts had delivered critical reviews and one-star ratings of their not-yet published books.
Several of the critical reviews—across all the accounts and all the bad reviews—used the same language and repeated the same phrases.
Those seven Goodreads accounts had all delivered high praise and five-star ratings to Crown of Starlight.
Those same Goodreads accounts, again, all added Crown of Starlight to the same Goodreads lists, such as “Can’t Wait Books of 2024” and “2024’s Most Awaited Books.”
The behavior was strikingly similar across all seven accounts, implying that one person was likely behind all the accounts.
A number of authors with debut novels set to publish in 2024 participated in a Slack together (Slack is an online communication platform similar to Discord or Microsoft Teams). The authors whose books had been trashed by the seven accounts discussed the situation and then spoke to Cait Corrain about it, given the seven accounts had universally promoted her book—hard.
According to Xiran Jay Zhao, author of Iron Widow, Corrain was given multiple opportunities to resolve the issue privately with the authors whose books were affected. After Corrain failed to address the issue privately, Zhao subtweeted about the issue on December 5 (that is, Zhao tweeted about the situation but did not name or tag Corrain).
As word of the review bombings began to spread, Corrain insisted to other members of the 2024 Debuts Slack that they were not behind the review bombing. Further, Corrain posted on social media, in a highly misleading, now-deleted tweet, about the damage that review bombing and gaming Goodreads reviews could do to a debut author—implying, but not stating outright, that Crown of Starlight had been among the books to receive one-star reviews, rather than the only book in the scandal to consistently receive five-star reviews from all the involved accounts.
When it became apparent to social media including BookTwt, BookTok, and Bookstagram that Corrain was the culprit behind the review bombings, Corrain leaned into denying involvement and supporters of Corrain suggested that the whole thing could be a coincidence or a conspiracy theory. At that point, Zhao released a 31-page Google document containing “receipts”: Screenshots linking the seven Goodreads accounts to one another and to Corrain.
Cornered, Corrain next insisted that they had found the true culprit: A friend of theirs named “Lilly,” someone they had picked up as a hanger-on while involved in the Reylo fandom. (For those who don’t know, Reylo refers to Star Wars fanfiction that romantically pairs Rey and Kylo Ren.) Corrain provided screenshots of a conversation between themself and “Lilly,” a highly dramatic exchange during which Corrain roundly chastised “Lilly” for destroying their writing career and “Lilly” apologized profusely for any harm she may have done.
After these screenshots were released publicly, X users quickly noticed discrepancies in the timestamps that indicated the conversation may have been photoshopped or otherwise faked. Further, the Reylo community jumped into the fray to disavow knowledge of anyone in their fandom using any of the screennames Corrain had provided for “Lilly.” “No such person,” said the Star Wars fans. “Not in our house.”
Finally out of sock puppets, Corrain admitted that they were, indeed, behind the fake accounts and the poor reviews of their fellow 2024 debut authors’ novels, blaming poor mental health beginning in June 2022 that continued through November and December 2023, during which time they created the fake Goodreads account to deliver glowing reviews of their own title and trash their competitors.
This situation may well have further updates to come as X users and other interested parties have pointed out that:
Poor mental health, even mental breakdown, doesn’t cause racism. The 2024 debut authors that Corrain targeted were primarily Black, Asian, and Hispanic/Latinx.
During the fake argument with “Lilly,” Corrain did not express concern or empathy for the victims of the review bombings, but instead outrage and despair over their own career inevitably being ruined were they blamed for “Lilly’s” wrongdoing.
Although “Lilly,” in the false confession, copped to targeting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) specifically, Corrain left this racial motivation out of their public apology.
Crown of Starlight was subsequently bumped from Del Rey’s 2024 lineup with an evasive statement on December 11 that did not clarify whether the title was canceled or merely delayed. Personally, I suspect Del Rey’s legal team had to put their heads together to figure out whether they had contractual grounds to cancel the title and whether they, the publisher, might share any liability for Corrain’s actions. Additionally on December 11, Rebecca Podos (Corrain’s agent) and Daphne Press (UK publisher) also severed ties with Corrain, and Illumicrate announced that Crown of Starlight would no longer be part of the May 2024 subscription box.
Both Del Rey and Daphne Press circled back on December 12 to announce that Crown of Starlight, and any other of Corrain’s books that were presently under contract with Del Rey, had been canceled and would no longer be published by Del Rey or Daphne. Del Rey has not yet stated whether they would sign Corrain again in future, as some X users have prompted them to do, but I think it’s highly unlikely given the author’s egregious behavior and the highly visible, voluminous bad press it’s generated.
It’s unfortunately not unusual, in my experience, for a White writer to express that they feel they’d be more successful in landing an agent or a publishing contract if only agents and editors weren’t so focused on signing BIPOC authors. This is a bit like the White person who laments that they would have gotten into Harvard if only it weren’t for the Black students who were admitted thanks to Affirmative Action. This mindset presumes that all the available resources naturally belong to White people, and if anyone else receives some of the space or funding it’s because those resources were diverted away from their rightful owner (a White person) and to someone else.
First of all, this is hilariously false given how many publishing deals still go to White authors in the United States. It’s regrettable that people believe they deserve a place in the publishing industry while being so uneducated about it. But, whatever. What’s really shocking to me is that Corrain received everything. An agent, a publisher, glowing advanced reviews, an overseas publishing contract—even an Illumicrate edition of their debut. And in spite of having all this, Corrain apparently still felt that authors of color were being given too much. In spite of everything Crown of Starlight had lined up for it, the author still wanted to find a way for others to receive less.
In the immortal words of Mr. Burns, from The Simpsons, who has everything: “I’d trade it all for a little more.”
Timeline of Social Media Posts
Zhao’s subtweet on X, December 5.
Zhao’s post on X, releasing the receipts, December 6.
Podos’s statement on X, December 11.
Del Rey’s first statement on X, December 11.
Daphne Press’s first statement on X, December 11.
Illumicrate’s statement on X, December 11.
Corrain’s apology statement on X, December 12.
Del Rey’s second statement on X, December 12.
Daphne Press’s second statement on X, December 12.
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