Now scandals have been the trend of 2023 so far, and the concerning tradition is continuing with the latest addition to the world of authors, Cait Corrain whose career might be over before it even properly got a chance to take its first breath.
Until it all blew up for her, Cait was ready for her first big step as an author. The first-time author was eagerly awaiting her sci-fi fantasy novel A Crown of Starlight to be published, which was originally supposed to come out in May 2024. But unfortunately, Cait indulged in a lot more than waiting as insecurity for her book’s success (despite the positive early reviews) clouded her senses. Thus, now, when she was just months away from living her dream, she has essentially been fired by her representative and publishers for her actions.
What did Cait Corrain do?
From very early in 2023, writers and readers on Goodreads (Amazon’s popular book review site) noticed many profiles giving very similar one-line one-star reviews on upcoming books by several debuting authors of color that their books are “so bad.”
These included fellow Del Rey author Molly X. Chang’s book To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods, and others like Kamilah Cole’s So Let Them Burn, Bethany Baptiste’s The Poisons We Drink, as well as Xiran Jay Zhao’s The Iron Widow. Suspiciously, these profiles were giving Cait’s book on Goodreads very glowing reviews, high star ratings, and listed it as their favorite upcoming title, going as far as to add it to more than 30 lists on the site and upvoting it.
As the slew of negative one-liners continued, the writers in question and readers started piecing together the anomalies. It’s safe to say the completed picture did Cait Corrain no favors.
- In the last 10 months, all the suspicious profiles were active around the same days.
- When tweets discussing this weird pattern began cropping up on Twitter and according to Zhao, when the targeted authors reached out to Cait’s agent in early December 2023, these Goodreads profiles disappeared.
- Then Zhao, who had been connecting the dots for long and was justifiably done with Corrain’s unwillingness to issue a proper apology, posted a long, 31-page Google document on Twitter where they presented a timeline of hard-to-deny events that pointed all fingers in Corrain’s direction.
As the possibility and extent of Cait’s actions became public knowledge and a topic of speculation, she finally offered an “answer” in the Slack made up of the 2024 debut authors — that it was all done by her friend “Lilly.” According to her and some very poorly photoshopped screenshots of a Discord conversation, “Lilly” was the one who went after the other authors in an ill-schemed plan to help Cait.
Evidently, Cait had told Lilly about the specific authors whom she considered to be her competition, hence presenting a possible collective hurdle in her book making it to the top. So, to ensure that A Crown of Starlight bagged a better chance at being a success, Lilly made the fake Goodreads profiles — but upon being confronted by Cait, she even turned on her “friend.”
When her excuses failed to make a dent, and the authors in the Slack chat demanded more proof — like a way to contact “Lilly” — Cait offered yet another flimsy detail, saying that “Lilly” was an unhinged Reylo (Star Wars’ Keylo Ren and Rey shippers). Once again, her explanation sank faster than the Titanic, as the closely-knit Reylo community openly debunked her claims and established that no person matching “Lilly”’s description exists amongst their ranks.
After this, Cait disappeared, again, this time locking down her social media handles, and swiftly deleting the Tweet she made earlier claiming to be a victim of the review-bombing as well.
What has Cait Corrain said about the review-bombing allegations and “Lilly?”
With Corrain’s initial cover getting blown, and her further attempts to fix it with more lies seeming to face a similar fate, her reaction was to lock down her social media profiles, and go silent on Slack. Her public response — one which was instantly labeled as a half-baked apology — came in the form of a letter on X/Twitter on Dec. 12, 2023, in which Cait professed to take “full ownership” of what she did to the other authors, and stressed that her behavior mostly happened because she was struggling with substance abuse, depression, and experiencing breakdowns.
“Let me be extremely clear: while I might not have been sober or of sound mind during this time, I accept responsibility for the pain and suffering I caused.
I know some of you won’t forgive me, and I recognize that you’re not required to.”
From the looks of it, Cait’s apology has only served to push her into a more negative light. Claims of having “fuzzy” memories of the exact number of fake accounts she made are not sitting well with many, who also can’t wrap their head around her logic of targeting authors of color as a side-effect of her medication.
What have been the consequences of Cait Corrain’s actions?
Whereas Cait took her time to publicly confess to, and apologize for, employing unethical success strategies, even admitting that no “Lilly” ever existed, those associated with her and A Crown of Sunlight have acted far more swiftly to abandon ship — one whose own captain drilled a hole in it.
Rebecca Podos, Cait’s literary agent, has dropped her and posted on Twitter that their association is not going to move forward anymore. Illumicrate, the special edition retailer and famous subscription box, has assured that Cait’s book is no longer a part of their May 2024 box. But the biggest announcements come from her book’s U.S. and U.K. publishers — Del Rey and Daphne Press, respectively — who have both removed it from their 2024 publishing schedules, with the former completely severing all ties with her.
Though the majority of the comments support the decisions made, a few are questioning what the cancelation of her current contract means. Will the publishing houses sit on Cait Corrain’s book for a few years, waiting for the controversy to die down, and then publish it? There has been no further explanation provided on how the author is going to face the consequences of her decisions — and the attempts to cover it up — on a long-term basis, especially when Amazon still lists her book, currently with the release date of May 11, 2027.