By now some of you have probably heard about the Cait Corrain controversy. To summarize the facts: Cait Corrain was a debut romantasy author. Was being an operative term here. Cait Corrain seems to have dealt with her pre-release anxiety by creating numerous fake accounts on Goodreads and using them to trash the books of the people she viewed as her competitors.
The affected authors, most of whom are POC, caught on. First, the fake accounts reviewed books which had not yet sent copies to the reviewers. Second, the fake accounts liked each other’s reviews. And third, they gave Cait Corrain’s book 5 stars.
All of this exploded into light in a very public way – here is the NBC’s write up on it and you know it’s big when a major news outlet reports publishing news – and Cait Corrain lost her agent and her publishing deal as a result.
This reminds me of that when a UK author drove across country to find a random reader who’s given his book a negative review and hit her over the head with a wine bottle. It’s that level of why.
Perpetrating this particular type of fraud is especially easy on Goodreads, which has become more and more prone to review bombing. There are things that could be done to curb that. For example, Goodreads could stop allowing people to review books that haven’t come out.
Why does this exist? How can anyone rate a book that hasn’t been written?
People have said that if the advance reviewing is disallowed, it will injure publicity efforts. There is a way around that.
- Open the books for review once ARC (advance reader copies) are sent out.
- Allow people to register as ARC reviewers. Give them a badge or something by their name to further highlight legitimate reviews.
- If the book hasn’t come out yet, add a check mark when someone attempts to post a review. If you check it, you indicate that you’ve received an ARC. Bonus points if you state how you got it: Netgalley, author, etc.
This would make fraud much easier to spot. It wouldn’t eliminate it, but it would cut down on it. It is unfortunate that Amazon, which owns Goodreads, has yet to implement any kind of significant measures to clean things up. Instead it pushes the burden onto readers and Goodreads librarians and, in some cases, authors.
Back to authors, other people have said many things regarding Cait Corrain’s conduct. This is a massive ethics fail and human behavior fail. But this is also a professional author fail in a sense that she fundamentally misunderstood how the industry works.
Other authors are not in direct competition with you. Rebecca Yarros wrote a book about dragons and it did well. Right now publishers are looking for books with dragons because Rebecca’s fans will be looking for something similar to read. It takes months, sometimes years to write books, which readers will devour in a matter of hours. One author can’t fulfil all reading needs. When Twilight came out, it spun off a wave of similar fiction, because Twilight readers wanted more.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
Around mid to late 2000, when the paranormal boom was at its height, Gordon and I were invited to become a part of an online community called Fangs, Fur, and Fey, which consisted of a bunch of paranormal and UF authors. We went to conventions in a pack. We blogged and commented on each others posts. Long term friendships grew out of that space and our careers were collectively improved by this, because readers who followed one author were able to discover others.
As an author, you’re not competing against other authors. Your biggest enemy is obscurity. Other authors can help with that.
I had not heard of this, but just ick to her and goodreads too.
I had not heard about that controversy, but it’s sad that that happened. Like companies that get sued and then declare bankruptcy only to incorporate under a different name and go back in business, I imagine that author will come up with a pen name and try to keep going. Hopefully she’s learned her lesson, though.
I had not heard about that, but it’s sad that that happened. Such a high school mean girls level of dealing with assumed competition.
Goodreads are so annoying with “rated before book is out”, so many times I’ve seen a book from one of my favourite authors and searched high and low for it only to return empty handed, disappointed and notice that the book would be out next spring or something.
I was just going to post the exact same thing.
Since I’m having arm pain issues, thank you!
Thank you for the thoughtful post. I just found out about this yesterday and went down a rabbit hole on social media…Your post helps a lot.
+1
100% spot on. I worked in a bookstore for six years. As soon as readers devoured the latest popular book by their favorite author, they would go hunting for more by that author, then for similar books by any author. When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, all epic fantasy novels started selling better as readers brought to the genre by Tolkien discovered other authors. Same with Harry Potter and YA Fantasy.
Great stories increase the demand for more great stories, to the benefit of all good writers in the genre.
It’s also a nice change from “I’m looking for a book, I think the cover was blue?”.
And “When does this come out in paperback?”
Bookshop jokes aside, there’s a reason Amazon’s “if you liked this, you’ll probably like…” was so fundamental to bookselling, and eventually all of online shopping.
People want recommendations and they want relevant ones; when I worked in a bookstore as well, we all had our sections of expertise, and we’d specifically call over that section’s most passionate person if someone was looking for a similar read or style. There’s nothing like nerding out over a genre or author or audio performer with like-minded folks in the wild.
One of the best features that store chain has is an area where staff get to make a small display of their personal recommendations and why — I usually find my tastes line up pretty strongly with one or two people, so I’m way more confident buying a book on their wall.
For me, a book just not working out is a disappointment, not in the book or author, but in the amount of time I’ve spent reading reviews and listening to samples before buying it. It also means I have a jaded eye towards reviews.
Seeing a bunch of 1-star reviews on books made by accounts that are all brand-new on the same day make me want to see just what’s going on, honestly. If it’s a bunch of MRAs trying to pull Sad Puppy shit, for instance, I’ll happily buy the book. A lot of 1-star reviews always draws my attention, but not in the way the person who hired bot accounts hopes 😅 “Too much profanity” also makes me perk up in interest. Anything that has pearl-clutching in reviews has me interested, but I love Kit Rocha etc and they do make for the clutching of pearls.
In physical stores it’s amusing to see authors — or usually their “street teams” (do they still use that term?) — doing things like trying to cover up other books and putting their author’s facing out, but it usually just meant all those books were scooped into a basket for later reshelving.
It’s like the people who think they’re cute putting religious texts in the fiction section. It’s definitely not a… novel idea.
I stopped writing over a decade ago, and recently removed all my books from Amazon. I still can’t bring myself to review — favorably or unfavorably — books I read. Back when I started as a writer, it was frowned upon to review other authors’ books. I know that authors need reviews but that early prohibition still holds sway over my actions.
I think that’s absolutely reasonable, and honestly understand. People go around on it, but at the end of the day, I feel that reviews are for readers, and it’s not worth detracting from that.
I’ve been a game developer for years, and worked on some really sad games. They never had the budget or scope to be good games. I don’t feel comfortable reviewing other games for similar reasons — I don’t know the story behind what choices were made, and while it matters to me, I doubt players care. But I might find something has a gameplay cycle I think is unique and incredible, and other people can find the same thing not-fun if they don’t care about what’s going on under the hood.
A friend of mine (also a dev) went through and did full video reviews for every game he had in his library, once he hit 1,000. Only one developer responded negatively or in depth, and it was for Dog Football, of all games.
Where you play football. As dogs.
The entire exchange boils down to “You’re playing it wrong” and is still his featured review 😂
I like your solution, the reviewshould at least be on a real product!
I one bought an electronic product from Amazon based on the very high 5 star rating. The product arrived with an offer for a $10 Amazon gift card if I placed a 5 star rating. I complained to Amazon, they did nothing. I included the info in my review of the crap product, they refused to post my review. I’ve been somewhat leary of high 5 star ratings since then.
dumb question, but what is a POC author?
Person of Color 🙂. The term, as used primarily in the United States, emphasizes common experiences of systemic racism of non-white minorities.
You may have heard of the other really common term (at least here in Canada): BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color) to cover even more.
I have come across BIPOC, which is an expression which makes sense in Canada, and indeed the americas generally. But I’ve heard it used (presumably by people who are using the latest acronym without thinking it through) to describe minorities in the UK where it makes somewhat less sense given that our indigenous people are neither POC or indeed minorities…
The POC threw me off, too, as I general use that to mean Point of Contact. I thought Ilona meant they caught onto it because the authors were the points of contact for their Goodreads books and they started looking at the comments.
Always the voice of reason. Life can be hard, don’t make it harder
Sort of reminds me of the whole “Harriet Klausner” thing, except much more malicious.
And, after I wrote that, I decided to google the name and discovered she was a real person. I’m actually sort of stunned, because I’d have guessed she was some early version of AI that just read the book blurb and made up the rest of the review and was gaming Amazon somehow.
Many conspiracies existed about her, both during her life and posthumously, but definitely a real person. Whether a real person who read as much as she claimed, still under debate!
I absolutely could read an average of two light fiction books a day if I was retired and forwent all other hobbies and wasn’t intending on writing in depth reviews. I effectively did that for a month when I tore a ligament and couldn’t move much.
She was quite the icon back when I first started writing. I thought she was AI too, but the forums “found” she was a real person–ex librarian if I recall correctly. She was a hoot. Amazon does, apparently, take down reviews after someone dies. Or maybe it’s random like a lot of other Amazon things.
when her reviews first started coming out I hated them. but after a while it became really funny to watch which books she ” read ” and “reviewed”. she was an institution!
Eventually I came to cheer her and her family on for making money off of review system that was flawed to begin with. why the heck not? I’m just jealous that I didn’t think of it first!!
This is why I shifted over to Storygraph to keep track of my TBR and what I’ve read. I highly recommend it for people looking to leave Goodreads.
Thank you for this! I can’t manage Goodreads, between flashing gifs and other things the site makes my ADHD-soup brain cry.
I also don’t want all my everything in the Amazon ecosystem. I read and listen to a lot of library books and like to keep track of things because eventually I’ll go back looking for that book about the thing and the cover was blue.
I’ve used LibraryThing for a long while, but mostly just to do their secret santa stuff the last few years.
I too hate flashing, sometimes even just moving, gifs. I use Firefox as a browser with an ad-on that stops anything that flashes, unless I specifically let it through, it has improved the quality of my reading experience so, so much! Similar ad-ons are available for many browsers, so there will probably be something out there which ever one you use. Wishing you comfortable browing!
Thank you so much!
I’ll bet money that the 70+ five-star ratings for the next Iron Magic book came from BDH members, who KNOW that they are going to love the book. Personally, I’m sure that I’ll give the book a high rating once it’s released, but doing it now is a bit premature. Until then, I’ll be waiting patiently.
The one fact that still lives for free in my head is the common (!) Goodreads practice of giving 1 star reviews to books the user intends to read once published.
I mean the “Want to read” button is right there… https://youtu.be/tIlIVDoopZc?si=f_G16b1DwIAKV-Oh
Hear, hear! (That eye twitch is catching…)
And if the “Want to Read” button is not enough, I have a “Wishlist” button (as a reminder as soon as I hear about a book), as well as other personalized buttons to remind me if I’ve already pre-ordered an edition, if it’s in my digital or fer-reals Actual Dead Tree TBR. Also a “freebie TBR” button…so I can stop reading without guilt that I spent money on something that makes me want to poke a fork into my eye.
Review bombing used to happen a LOT on Amazon when I first started self-publishing. About a year or two after my first book came out, the forums were full of stories of authors being bombed by one-star reviews that were traceable in the same way–the “reviewers” all gave x book 5 stars and twenty other books one stars. Thankfully I was too obscure to have been noticed by the bombers. But that type of behavior, along with ‘buying’ reviews from reviewers who didn’t read the book is one of the reasons that Amazon’s review policies rapidly changed. It’s one of the reasons the “verified buyer” tag came into being because it wasn’t just happening with books.
Of course, when it’s an actual author doing this sort of thing to other authors it’s unfathomable. Seriously unfathomable. We are not competitors with each other. Turns out that readers can and do buy multiple books. It’s a tough, tough business. But giving out one stars is in no way going to help her sell her own book. That is a level of mean that has no purpose and in fact, caught up with her because who wants to deal with something like that? No one.
Karma.
“It’s called karma, and it’s pronounced ha-ha-ha.” (not my words, but I liked them. From a stamp set I saw online by Whimsy Stamps)
I love that — its fantastic! I might have to seek the stamp out 🙂
This is why when I am checking out the reviews of a book I’m interested in, I look for the three or four star reviews that are along the lines of “I liked the book except for….”. Then I decide if the criticism alongside a mostly positivie review is something that would ruin the book for me.
Same here, I check out the three star reviews and if there is an overabundance of 5 star reviews with nothing much else then I am instantly suspicious. Much as many people might love a book there will always be those who don’t love it as much. Too much praise is fishy.
This is exactly what I’ve been doing lately. Those reviewers are typically neither hyping nor bashing the book, and when they explain what they liked and didn’t like I can check if that aligns with my preferences – ie, whether those are make or break things for me.
I do this with any product, not just books – start with three-star reviews and then maybe go up to four and down to two if I have time. It’s served me well. One-star reviews tend to be from malcontents who can’t be bothered with due diligence, and are shocked – shocked! – when the book or product doesn’t meet their baseless expectations. Five-star reviews can be skewed by all kinds of things. I do post a fair number of five-star reviews myself (I’ve even left one one-star review, for a product not a book) but I know myself to be scrupulously honest, which is not necessarily the case with all reviewers.
I don’t even use goodreads anymore.. it seemed like people were crazy. I was looking for protection from the unmoderated masses … what a story!
Why would someone sit down one day and think that this was remotely a good idea? People are wild sometimes.
I heard about this just yesterday. The woman torpedoed her own career, and may never realize it.
Her actions do indicate a major lack of self-awareness
I haven’t heard about it but I don’t get into book drama because so much of it goes around and you don’t know what’s true or not so I don’t bother lol. That’s awful what she did and others like her. That’s going pretty far and what… she didn’t think anyone would find out eventually? Intelligence right there. I’ve been thinking of leaving Goodreads for a while now because it’s a cluster**** to quote Curran lol. Has been for years. There’s no monitoring whatsoever and it’s pretty much anything goes. Very few reviews are legit and I feel like mine doesn’t make a difference. So, this pretty much cinched it for me to leave. I actually didn’t know Amazon ran it/owned and I’m surprised as strict as they are on Amazon that Goodreads isn’t better. Ick.
Oh, look. A logical solution to fake reviews that has yet to be implemented. I’m shocked! Shocked, I say!
A rising tide lifts all boats and a devouring horde will devour ALL THE BOOKS similar to our Beloved Authors. 🙂 I love when authors — or their fans — point me in the direction of similar writers and books.
Yes! House Andrews is how I found Jesse Mihalik who I love!
+1
+1! 😊
I actually bought and read Polaris Rising yesterday based on this forum, which I enjoyed quite a bit (although I thought it went on at least one capture/rescue too long). Currently working my way through the rest of the series and catalog.
Same here! 😊
+1. Jessie has a free weekly serial on her blog right now. Fun!
Goodreads I don’t use it. I read the blurb and if there is a free chapter and I take my chances. If I like it I will buy more from them. I think on Amazon a book needs 50+ reviews to get some extra status from them so for newer authors I will add a review there
Out of curiosity I meandered over to Goodreads to check out the Iron Covenant #2 reviews. It’s nothing but people whining about when is the book coming out and a few being snarly because House Andrews didn’t come personally to their home, hold their hands and tell them to their face that the book had been delayed. How is any of that a legitimate review? I am surprised that Goodreads survives as a platform.
I did the same and was astonished to find 74 reviews for a book that isn’t even out in ARC yet!
That is weird. If the people who did those “reviews” followed the blog like the Horde does, they would already know the second book was going to be delayed a few years back. 🤦♀️
I really wish I could say this whole ordeal surprised me, but it didn’t. Because it happens a lot more than we know. This one just happened to be noticed by the right people. The sad part is this person will not learn the lesson that needs to be learned here. She’ll merely come back and publish under a different name and all will be forgotten.
If readers really want to know about a books is coming out go to the authors website. Most have release schedules and such.
Back in the day I used to check out publishing houses websites and their publishing lists so I would know what to buy that month. That and I used to regularly shop at Barnes and Noble and other book stores.
It’s a sad story. She had a complete novel, an agent, and a publisher. None of that is easy! And she destroyed what she had accomplished out of fear and envy.
That way my exact thought, too! She’d done all the heavy lifting already, only to destroy all her hard work. It’s a shame, because maybe the book is good but we’ll never know.
this was one for books.
I don’t get how authors can think this shit is helpful. but this woman learned the hard way, as she should.
That last line is just perfect. It should be written into every author’s contract with an agent or publisher (although that will never happen 🙂 ).
Such a sad ending to what might have been a promising career.
I have often wondered about the “reviews” for books my favorite authors were still writing. Your suggestion about limiting pre-release reviews to ARC reviewers is an excellent one!
Oh… hadn’t heard about this, but of course I had to go and read all about it.
I feel that perhaps the young author felt so unsure about the reception of her debut novel, that she felt the need to somehow push it as much as possible.
However, that does not excuse downvoting and review bombing other authors…
Funny enough, I had a contract with a publisher to put out a book about Wicca and Witchcraft, which I had written together with a friend. In the end, the book was never published and, after several years and lots of back and forth between us and the publisher, we got the rights back.
Nevertheless, the book is still listed on Amazon, and it actually has a 1-Star review, despite the fact that except for my co-author and I, and the people at the publisher’s, *NO ONE* ever saw the manuscript, and the book does not exist.
*sigh*
I always wondered how a book could be rated when it wouldn’t be released for several months. Amazon and Goodreads are not the only groups that ask for ratings in advance of publications, BN is one.
Amazon asks for reviews of products that sometimes haven’t been delivered yet.
And I picked up and followed new authors because of the groups that you, Patty Briggs (as a moderator on Hurog), Jeaniene Frost, and others talked up, with, and recommended. I followed several new authors off of the two Nolacons alone! It’s absolute insanity what she did. Especially given that a number of people familiar with her work were genuinely positive about it! Her apology (“apology”?) that she released references serious issues with mental health and substance abuse and if that is so, I hope she gets the help she needs.
Very well said.👏
Absolutely agree — I am always looking for new authors to read and sometimes all it takes is a mention in a blog I read and I pounce. Who is this author, what other books have they written, google can’t you load the page any faster? My favorite recent post was Mod R’s request for recommendations from the BDH. I am still reading books from that post. Anyway, thanks for highlighting new authors or little known works and know that most of us go out and take a look
Hear, hear.
I’m a SLOW reader and still I’ll ideally have a new book every other week. Even if I loved everything an author wrote and they churned out 2 books a year, I’d need 26 authors. Plenty of room at the inn.
Part of the fun of genre reading is seeing how one author’s books are in discourse with other authors’ books. I have a feeling that the people who behave like this are writing books that are either well outside genre conventions, or derivative in a very limited/limiting way (i.e. they’ve read a couple of similar books and decided they can write a book that will break the field wide open–without having realized that the field is already vast and deep and beloved). Which is to say, I doubt they would have ultimately had amazing careers even without the bafflingly awful behavior.
It’s so true, us book reading fiends always need new books, and therefor new authors, b/c writing is an art, and you authors can’t produce more than a limited number a year (unless you cut quality, like I think I saw on QI that Enid Blython wrote super many books a year, but they were pretty much the same plot over and over).
So I am always looking for new authors, b/c once I find a new good one I read all the back catalog, which might keep me for a few weeks, tops, but then I’m on to looking again.
So I have found the best ways to find new tips that will have a high likeklyhood of being good fits for me is if an author I like recommend something.
Before social media, when bloggs were new (20 years ago? I think that is the time I’m thinking of. Wow, I just felt my age… 🤣), I remember being on e-mail chains for some of my favourite authors, and found many of my “newer” favourite authors that way.
I actually think it was on the “fans discussion email thread for female Fantasy writers who write about female antagonist” that someone recomended the first Kate book, and I found this wonderful book world!
And YES, we had to do that back in the day, b/c I remember a time when fantasy about women written by women was like hens teeth! RARE and precious!
I’ve love Fantasy since I was a child, and my mum had to work really hard to even find books with female characters, or once in a blue moon, a female protagonist! It’s the reason I had to start reading in english so early, b/c the (then) new wave of younger female science Fiction and Fantasy writers weren’t being translated. So I was eleven, and she got me an english/swedish dictionary for christmas that I lugged everywhere, and had under whatever book I was reading the whole first year until I got fluent enough. Sweet memories… 😉
And how much reading and dictionary technology has evolved since then… 🌞
Honestly, that’s such a great story. Sad! But great, and greater because there are so many books about women protags written by women now to enjoy.
I lucked out — I was a huge fantasy and sci-fi reader, and at 12 my teacher gave me Robin McKinley’s ‘The Blue Sword’ one day, no fuss, just dropped it on my desk at school. It was perfect, one I still go back to, and is one I give to my niblings and something-removed cousins when they hit about that age and are voracious readers. Patricia C. McKillup’s ‘Dealing With Dragons’ too. I went back and thanked her years later, because that one move put me on a course I’m still loving. I got to thank Pat, too, via an online Romance Q&A about some of her books, and that’s a highlight.
Now I may start adding Magic Bites a couple of years later, hmmm.
I read Romance, too. My mom always had tons of Nora Roberts around. My dad made fun of her for it once, until she pointed at the book he was reading (‘Naked In Death’ I think) and said “That’s her other pen name. You love her as much as I do.”
Between that and being determined to read every single Star Trek novel written, which were written by a mix of authors, I managed to avoid some of the “Devaluing things by, for and about women” bs that is taught so early in life.
When I found Mercedes Lackey and other sneaky authors with Queer characters and relationships and realized that was ME, well, all bets were off.
Dealing with Dragons is Patricia Wrede.
Whoops! Yes.
I am strongly against this action and attempt, and it was wrong!
I do wish that people would just decry the action, and stop trying to divide people into smaller and smaller blocks/parties/identities/voting blocks.
it was wrong…not wrong because it was mainly against POC, or BIPOC, or any other division of identity.
It would still be wrong if (dare) I say, it would have been done mainly against (gasp) white men. The action was wrong no matter who the victim was.
The blog post never claimed it was only wrong because it was perpetrated against POC/BIPOC 🙂.
However, no one can dismiss the fact that already less-represented voices are more vulnerable from such attacks than well established names.
If you are interested in why it is important to mention BIPOC professionals in all aspects of publishing, as well as to raise awareness when issues affect them, I have a few links for you. Hopefully they will illustrate for you the established ways by which BIPOC are systematically prevented from entering the industry- from paying authors less than their white counterparts to not hiring BIPOC editors:
https://reclamationmagazine.com/2022/11/24/why-should-you-even-care-about-diversity-in-publishing/
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/85450-the-unbearable-whiteness-of-publishing-revisited.html
https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/rethinking-diversity-in-publishing/
https://bookriot.com/diversity-in-the-publishing-industry-2023/
Thank you R. This is a huge issue.
Thank you for posting this. I’d never heard of this author, but that’s unprofessional behavior. And yes, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Think if she had used the time she put into negativity into something positive. To have gotten a deal and then just crash it – such an awful way to fail.
I loved hearing about your group. First of all – great name! And way to support each other. I agree – we devour the books so fast it takes a village to feed us. No, it takes a major metropolitan area to feed us. So thanks for lifting each other up and helping feed us. Cudos.
How sad. And it is a community. I came to your books because of another author I read and liked, and I became a fan of other authors because of some of your recommendations. Too bad she did not realize that.
That was my first reaction. Why? Books are not a limited supply. Just because I like a certain author doesn’t mean I won’t like someone else’s books. What a tremendous waste of time.
It is a fundamental misunderstanding of how authors and readers work, but I first heard about this behavior several years ago when restaurants started giving their competitors bad reviews on Yelp in hopes of boosting their own customer count. Still slimy, but at least comprehensible.
Thank you for this post. I remember reading an article many years ago (before ebooks) about how rather than hurting each other, multiple bookstores in an area actually increased sales for all. Libraries and bookstores lift each other. Reading one good book makes me want to read more. I might resist buying a book at one store, but seeing it recommended again at the next – well, an avid reader can only resist so much. And, I hope people will realize this goes beyond books. It applies to music, art, fashion, food. Good restaurants, pubs, bars don’t hurt each other, they complement each other. I think most entertainment districts have come to realize this.
Well said. I can’t understand the need to tank others to make yourself look better. It seems like such a destrutive cycle.
I worked in the travel business and can’t tell you how many reprehensible shenanigans go on with Trip Advisor reviews so this doesn’t surprise me. Like many of you I often find I key in on certain complaints as a hint that I’ll probably like the book so it can have the opposite effect than intended.
I do think people tend to write reviews on negative things they don’t like rather than post positive comments so it can distort the actual overall picture. We once had someone complain that one of our tours had too much good food at the included meals. Seriously. Just had to get in that one negative.
Good post.
I’d like to comment about another unethical practice-paying for reviews.
I review. A lot. I also belong to a few book groups.
I have been approached, more than once, by persons claiming to be marketing an author. They will pay me to submit positive reviews for their author, negative reviews for who they see as competition. Extra financial bonus to state, in my positive reviews , “if you like *insert successful author name * you will love this book”.
I laugh. I usually respond “Dude, you could not pay me enough to do anything unethical. What you propose is 1. Reason enough not to promote your author and 2. Insulting to the authors who live to write. This is their passion, joy, and art.” Lastly I write “go away”.
I had not heard about this either, but will not be reading her books, regardless of how good they might be.
I’ve been signed up with Goodreads from almost the beginning. I mainly use it to keep a list of books that I want to read, but every now and then I will leave a review or I’ll check a review on a book I’m considering reading. I never give weight to just one review; I read several of them as not every book is for every person. I’m HIGHLY suspicious of reviews on books that haven’t been published yet. I do know pre-release reads are sent to some readers for them to review, but with all the hoo-hah going on around Goodreads, I take those with a grain of salt.
Thanks for your wise and wonderful commentary.
I hope the Goodreads folks pay attention…although since it’s you guys, they actually might!
Wish you’d also been able to comment when the last Romanceland blowup occurred. Whadda mess!!!!!
Cheers, Faith
Awesome post, awesome attitude 👍
I wish that authors could write and publish as quickly as I can read them! If I ever get a genie, that would definitely get major consideration from me!
I found IA from Nalini Singh and from here have found many authors to also read. Both from Ilona’s recommendations and also the BDH’s.
While there’s a lot of books out there, there’s a lot of readers as well. It’s too bad that she felt so insecure that she felt the need to drag others down.
Isn’t it amazing? Kindness and community reap rewards, while being intentionally harmful in an effort to benefit oneself ends up, in fact, getting one kicked down the This Is Sparta hole.
This is simply bazaar behavior. I DO understand how receiving fake 5-star reviews for your own work would encourage sales but how on Earth was review-bombing other new authors supposed to produce good results?
I’m bewildered and confused by this.
Hehehe, they *would* probably throw the author out of Baba-char too!
And into Kolinda if the author is too review bombing.
Nice “pune” ModR 😁
I just love typos sometimes 😁.
Autocorrect has a lot to answer for sometimes but then other days it gifts us little gems so. . .
Hmph! Some people’s kids!
I hadn’t heard about this controversy but my goodness, what stupidity & insecurity. I don’t rate Goodreads at all – I don’t find the ratings accurate, at least to my taste in reading, perhaps. I downloaded a book having great 4/5 star reviews & an intriguing title & it emwas slow, boring with virtually no interaction or dialogue after about 4 chapters (I’d started scrolling through & mot reading by then). could not figure out why the reviews were so good
There are several authors on my must read list who are very prolific. Even in combination they cannot produce as many great books as I want to read. I’m always reading new authors in hopes of finding another source of great books. Unfortunately, most of these experimental reads don’t rise to the level that I’m hoping for. So I totally agree, authors aren’t in competition with each other. of an author writes a book that I love, I will find and read their next book and read it regardless of how many other great books are coming out that year. There simply are never enough.
Someone showed me the “I need to stop reading Brandon Sanderson books” tiktok today and I was in tears laughing. Mostly because I’m partway into White Sands at the moment! I will never catch up. (It’s not a bad problem to have)
“What’s this?”
“The first book.”
“What are these?”
“The rest of the trilogy.”
“What are THESE?”
“The other books written about that same series.”
“… and what’s this?”
“The book I wrote while we were talking.”
I can say that most of the authors I read today I discovered because they were similar to what I was already reading. Some are direct recommendations from a favorite author. Even if I don’t like something, I’ll probably still recommended it to others in case it’s more their thing.
I read like the universe is gonna end tomorrow. I’m ALWAYS on the hunt for something new…
100% agree! I’m always looking for “if you like this author/book” recommendations because authors can’t keep up with my voracious appetite. I also like to know what my favorite authors are reading – like Charlaine Harris’ book recommendations.
I’ve always believed that only good authors get publishing deals, and good authors by definition have to have high levels of self awareness. This story has made me question both parts of that – I’m off to wallow in chocolate with my existential angst. It’s actually a pleasant distraction from the awfulness of the state of the world.
“I’ve always believed that only good authors get publishing deals, and good authors by definition have to have high levels of self awareness.”
Isn’t it pretty to think so?
Is the three musketeer Dragon book on the table for shopping around? I loved the snippet you posted from it previously and you mentioned that Maggie might not work for traditional publishing. Would that other book idea work? How do you decide what works well for traditional publishing vs independent publishing?
The “musketeer book” featuring Puffles the dragon was never completed as a manuscript, I’m afraid 😟.
Poor Puffles 😢🐉
I could do with more Puffles, but understand that House Andrews had reasons ect. I do still go to that shared story part (at least mentally) regularly to daydream about where it could have gone. I do the same with many snippets…..
Especially every time the copier breaks at work
At least we had Puffles for a while. Then Puffles went poof. 🙁
Thanks for such a balanced encapsulation of the noise around this… mess.
Other authors in the same genre are colleagues and, if you’re lucky, your friends.
I tried twice to get the review book off my NetGalley shelf, but they said they couldn’t remove a book once it was there. Today it was magically gone. So I guess a big scandal will do the trick every time!
Goodreads is pretty bad with putting up unreleased books. I remember calling Barnes and Noble about a book about a book that had been up there for ages and found out that the author died without ever publishing it.
Goodreads gives me a headache. If I can’t decide what to read next, I just go through BDH recommendations and I’m all set. 😉
Ditto—I haven’t opened my goodreads in years. Actually about the same time that the bookbub ppl started charging extravagant fees to get listed as a book in their email chain which had been a great source for book recs and lists before that crap started. Once I heard about that I got rid of the newsletter period… humans love to monetize everything. And “marketing and advertisers” will bash you over the head with it for years and ruin the grassroots nature of some things…
Long term friendships grew
thats lovely
this blog post started sad and ended on a high note
thanks
For a moment I thought this was a haiku. If it isn’t I would say it is because super cool.
The reviews on Goodreads that I detest are the one star with no comments. If you didn’t like the book, tell me why!
😳absolutely stunned by this article – did not know this situation occurs. (Australian citizen) I grew up with the adage “if you can’t say something positive, keep your mouth shut”. If I don’t like a book, I don’t review.
My biggest beef re new, often self published authors is they rely too much on their word program checking the writing, reading the incorrect spelling or sentence structure is jarring. A decent editor routine could fix most issues. One of my big enjoyment of reading the IA books is due to the excellent editing, thank you to all your team. Plus, love the great stories – they are part of the limited re-read library that sustains me.
I didn’t hear about this either. All I can say is whoa. ☹️😬
Do people, who post these “reviews” not realize other people might take them seriously?
This makes me substantially less sad that I never review anything online. I’ll rave about you guys and my other fave authors to my friends and family, but I don’t post much of anything official. I generally rev up the ones I like and am silent on the ones I don’t. I wouldn’t have thought in a million years that posting something would leave me open to such unhinged behavior, I was just ducking the ‘common’ asshole behavior you find online.
Good gravy!
I am an artist
I encourage other artists
Its so up to individual taste anyway…
I may love Franz Marc and someone else may love John Garre from Montana
It’s the same with books…after reading all your books I often look for your reading suggestions…
I have to think this Cait person was beyond insecure .
Brilliant quote “As an author, you’re not competing against other authors. Your biggest enemy is obscurity. Other authors can help with that.”
That author had definitely fallen off the crazy wagon and was competely out of touch. Sad that she her default thinking was to hurt what she viewed as “competition.” SMH
Well said. It’s a real shame that author felt the need to drag others down to try and lift herself up. I hope the authors who were negatively affected by her actions continue to receive support from the public now that everything’s come to light.
Goodreads has been problematic for a while and has not fixed these issues. I use it to catalogue my physical books, but that’s pretty much it. I haven’t really used other features in a long time. Goodreads needs to read the room and make this better.
So sad that someone was so money hungry they faked reviews. And obviously thought those actions were ok. Then lied abt it when caught – still thinking lying is ok. All ME ME ME attitude.
I’m with many others here that pass on reading reviews and rely on this group and favorite authors for suggestions.
Thanks to this blog I found Jessie Mihalik and Natalie Singh. Go BDH!
Such a good take! Thank you for sharing
Wow! I hadn’t heard of her and the controversy but I think it’s not only appalling but also sad that her self esteem was so low as to do it.
I started with Goodreads thinking I would use it to track books but quickly stopped when I too ran across unpublished books that had ratings and reviews – very disappointing.
Just Wow. When looking for new books for my Kindle, I look at reviews, one top, one middle, and one bottom. That along with book description works for me. I don’t leave reviews myself, who cares what I think. I support authors I like by buying their books. In the article, it said that some people were bombing the guilty authors site with negative reviews, I don’t think that is the mature thing to do. She’s had her worse case punishment by losing all she worked so hard to achieve.
Wow, what a sad lack of manners and common sense! I do read reviews but have noticed the scarcity of lower stars for most of them. I don’t want the story recited, I want to know the level of violence, swearing, etc. so that’s what ends up in my reviews. I request a sample of any book or new author before I buy it as I mostly get ebooks now. I love “free” books then pay for the rest of the series.
Hadn’t heard about this, but omg what was she thinking? She has now ruined her career as an author. She’ll have to write under a pen name, I suppose, assuming she can find a publisher now.
I’ve tried to be better recently about writing reviews, but I’ve pretty much never trusted good reads. Just kept hearing weird stories like this. So I only post wherever I buy the book.
I have read some of the authors you mention in your blogs and am very grateful to find really new good writers. I admire both of you for helping new writers find an audience. My cruise ship likes the high tides. Thank you for being the type of people you are.
I liked Goodreads because they did have the complete line of M&B/Harlequin Presents listed since the line began. I have every single one of them since they started up to about 2002, when I became more selective. It was really a great place to connect with people who shared my interest and wanted to talk about Vintage HPlandia.
But I think when Amzn bought the platform, it all kinda went down hill from there. Now I use literature map to find things I like.
Painful lesson for her. Valuable story for us.
I like your idea about having a “no reviews until ARCs are sent” or “ARC reviewer” statuses to cut down on this! It’s definitely led me to think books were out when they’re still several months from being published.
(I’ve also seen cases where people will 1-star books they haven’t read, and will leave reviews like “will update stars once I’ve actually read it.” That’s…not how we placeholder things??)
That author clearly was, and likely still is, in the throes of a mental health crisis. Nothing about that behavior would have seemed like a good idea to anyone who was thinking rationally. How very unfortunate that she has tanked her career for the foreseeable future. It’s a sad story.
You guys are good people. I love your books but I adore that you are a class act. Much love to Ilona, Gordon, and Mod R as well as your furry overlords, erm I mean pets 😊😆
And case in point, I was not familiar with Rebecca Yarros until this post and now I am looking up and about to buy a book about dragons!
I own a small nursery in Central Texas specializing in Texas native plants. I realized a long time back that I can’t supply everything that people want. If I don’t have it, I will recommend other nurseries that might. I hope they do the same for me.
In the few instances of nurseries that I can’t recommend, I still make an effort to be diplomatic, not derogatory.
Makes no sense to trash competition authors. We readers want more, more, more good books! I love it when my favorite authors recommend others! Of course my to read pile reaches to the moon and back…
Huh, first I’ve heard of this. I’m in my 70’s and have been an avid reader all my life. So it’s perhaps why I haven’t heard of authors trashing other authors. I don’t like that kind of behavior. And, I reread a lot of my favorite authors, such as, wait for it, Ilona Andrews!!! Of course I keep up by reading the blog, for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because I love Ilona Andrews. So, long story short, too bad about this. But I still buy and read Ilona Andrews and yes, sometimes authors suggested here on this blog.
Thank you for this interesting post. I especially appreciate that you ended with the explanation about how authors can work together for the benefit of all – and become friends into the bargain. There’s really nothing better than being part of a supportive and friendly community. 💜
Writing aside, it’s sad that a person, who obviously writes well enough to have an agent and book deal, has such a low opinion of her own work and such low self esteem that she was prepared to do this.
Like any craft, you improve over time and there aren’t too many shortcuts. I hope people who are starting out take note of the lessons in this. Very disappointing, but not entirely surprising to be honest.
Your stronger together 🙂 It is the same in other industries as well. Hermitcraft is an excellent example.
Re: ARCs, they’re really not that difficult to get if you’re willing to review every single one.
When I worked at the bookstore, we always had a pile of ARCs on the staff room table for people to take home. If there was only one copy, folks might ask that it come back, but if there were a bunch it was yours. They were ususlly trade paperback, too, which was a relief after lugging hardcovers around all day.
When ebooks and ereaders had just started out, I was grateful to some publishers like Tor as they were happy to send me ebooks. They still send me books now and then, despite me having closed my netgalley account when I changed jobs. They have my email address, and well, free books!
NetGalley was where you could search out ARCs for books you wanted to read, and all they asked for was for you to review it somewhere then link back. Anyone in the customer-facing part of the industry like booksellers, librarians, teachers etc were eligible. I’m not sure how BookBub works but I’ve heard plenty.
I think Audible has some things right, that it doesn’t allow for reviews until something has been released, and you have to have listened to a certain percentage of the book before you can review it. It does mean things like library books or books from other sites are ineligible for review unless you do some Amazon shenans. That starts to feel suspiciously like work.
I definitely would feel better if things were curated better and there were distinguishes between say bookseller, top reviewer, etc etc. Like when I got my local guide thingy on Google maps.
Had a point, but rolled saving throw vs sleep, came up with a 1. Definitely sleep time.
I stopped relying on Amazon reviews when I noticed a Harry Potter book had 5 stars even before it was written. one reviewer basically said something to the effect of “I’m sure it will be great because the other 4 were so good”.
I love this article and can’t agree more if it was not for another author that I like giving a good review to the Ilona Andrews books I might not have found such marvelous authors
Love the picture of the Turkish Chai glasses with samovar really took me back.
I love your line of “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Such a powerfully simple thing to say with a wonderful visualization – for all things in life. May we all help raise the tide so boats can lift 🙂 Happy Holidays!
I believe Cait Corrain uses exclusively they/them pronouns
She goes by she/they according to her own social media accounts and official sources, including her now taken-down website where the About section referenced “her debut novel, Crown of Starlight” 🙂 (preview still visible on Google)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2023/12/12/author-cait-corrain-goodreads-review-bombing-controversy/?isMobile=1 and
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/author-cait-corrain-goodreads-review-bombing-allegations-fallout-rcna129134
From the article referenced above:
“Del Rey Books, owned by Penguin Random House, said Monday on X that it was “aware of the ongoing discussion” around Corrain, who goes by she/they pronouns, and that her book, originally scheduled for publication on May 14, is no longer on its 2024 publishing schedule.”