UPDATE: It seems the publisher has removed the author from their 2024 release schedule. I don’t normally do reactions but with how much detail there is to a story like this, it felt more appropriate to give full in context thoughts like this rather than the 5-8 minutes a fantasy news story is able to receive. Let me know your thoughts!
I enjoy reaction videos where the person doing the reaction adds significant commentary and participates in a wider discussion (like you did here). Lots of reaction "creators" have a big content parasitism problem, but that's far from what I would expect here if you decide to do this again in the future.
this person got their book published, had incredible cover artists, had positive ARC reviews, had deals with one of the most popular book boxes to make special editions of their book, and they ruined it all by being greedy……. destroying your career like this is WILD
She literally had success served to her in a silver plate, and she ruined it because she was still insecure and needed to bring others down to feel better. Classic mean girl behavior
No, but it might make yours the brightest one left shining. Anything to stand out I guess. The worst part about all of this is that I'm not actually surprised this happened. The only genuinely surprising part to me was how gracious the other authors were in extending an olive branch. It speaks well of them.
Cait has just posted a statement where she admits to everything and apologises, using her mental state (and new meds) as an explanation for the shitty behaviour. It really rubs me the wrong way when people use their mental health like a shield. No, Cait, you did what you did because you thought you could get away with it, not because the medication made you do it.
not everybody perceives explanations as an excuse they also admit that despite the contributing factors of mental health episode, drug use, and new medication she takes full accountability for her actions and they will be taking steps to recover through rehab and therapy, she also states that they will be reaching out to the authors affected and attempting to make amends. personally as someone who has had a similar event, I understand how acute mental episodes can include actions that you would not do other wise and can genuinely go against your core beliefs. it is worth noting that the POC majority was not mentioned in their apology, but may not have actually been a contributing factor as it seems the lists she was trying to get on were the major contributor with her even downvoting works by one major author who gets enough votes that her votes made not real difference. I do not defend their actions and will not be buying this book, but I hate the way neurotypicals approach attempts to explain a situation as "making excuses".
I am 100% not trying to defend her, but I think with the new meds part she may have been trying to say that she was discontinuing old meds and starting new ones that are supposed to have the same effect, so during that switch there would’ve been a period where she was not taking either medication, or only taking them at a low dose (because with a lot of psych meds you can’t just start at the dose you want to take but have to slowly ease into it by taking smaller doses over days). I know someone who is taking mood stabilisers and had to switch medications because the original ones they were taking had serious side effects, and their behaviour changed noticeably during the time where they were switching from one mood stabiliser to the other, and they said their symptoms had become worse. However, this behaviour by this author seems to have taken place over a few weeks and seems very coordinated, which (to my knowledge) is not typical of actions taken during something like a manic episode. Also it’s incredibly unlikely that she would not be regularly seeing a psychologist and/or psychiatrist while switching meds that can have such intense effects, and I’d hope that those trained medical professionals and friends or family would’ve helped her set guidelines that would’ve prevented a situation like this.
It just blows my mind. Cait had *everything* an aspiring author could ever hope for, and she flushed it all down the toilet...because she felt threatened? How? Does she not realize that there's no law that says any given reader can only choose one book in a genre to buy and read? If she actually did all this solely to sabotage PoC authors, then she's a *huge* piece of 💩! Regardless, Cait got exactly what was coming to her. Her career as an author is utterly destroyed -- ended before it even truly began. And she has absolutely nobody to blame but herself.
I was always told that lifting up other authors doesn’t hurt you as an author. In fact, directing your readers toward other authors you think they will enjoy only adds to your credibility. You can’t write enough books to be the only author they read, so there’s space to support one another.
First, Hbomberguy posted a huge video exposing multiple plagiarizers. Then, Xiran Jay Zhao's video about the review bombing situation came out. AND the craziest part is this is all happening while I'm reading Yellowface!
I think characterizing it as mere drama really trivializes the whole affair. This is a targeted harassment of POC authors, which will have an impact on their livelihoods, not some online catfight.
Here are the authors who were affected by this if you want to go support them: So Let them burn- kamilah Cole The poison we drink- Bethany Baptiste To gaze upon wicked gods- Molly X Chang Voyage of the damned-Francis white Mistress of Lies-KM Enright
The messages between the fake account and Cait feel like a mental processing and justification of everything that happened and a way for her to air out the points that people will bring up and already resolve them in her head. A psychologist would have a field day with that
One of the craziest parts of this story was that in Cait’s fake discord chat, they legit admitted to targeting POC “for shits and giggles” like wtf they knew they were being racist !! They had so much potential and still felt so threatened
She is a grown ass woman so yeah. She has no excuse for that horrid behavior considering her age to be honest. Envy and racism in one package, that's Cait Corrain
Quick Tip: If you are a new author. 100% don't give your own books reviews, especially on new accounts. It can get you banned if the Amazon bots notice suspicious behaviour they'll terminate your KDP account in the belief that you bought/solicitated reviews.
@@resir9807the same things will happen *and* people will see your review and not be interested in your work. believe it or not, self-deprecation tends to deprecate yourself
@@resir9807 That depends if you get any publicity at all, like no one might notice if you yourself trash your own book, you need to make sure people know you're the one doing it otherwise you'll get yourself banned for nothing.
I'm a beta-reader with experience in the publishing industry, and I can confirm that she is going to have a _very_ hard time getting traditionally published from now on. Allegedly, big agents and editors have a blacklist of author names to avoid because of bad behavior. I know several aspiring authors who would die to get the kind of golden opportunity she had. Aspiring authors who are actually nice and approachable, and who will even lift up their fellow writers despite the already tight competition. Such a shame.
This whole thing speaks to how horrible the entire publishing thing is. Its hard to trust reviews under the best of circumstances and something like Goodreads is worthless. I often read a book and then check the goodreads reviews to see what folks were saying. Sometimes the effusive praise on a mediocre book is telling, especially when several reviews use the same phrases, word for word when discussing the story. It is so easy to be manipulated in 2023 with tech and social media. The best any of us can do is sort of find a few folks we trust and hope for the best.
I never use good reads. It's not that I don't trust it, I would just rather wander through a store and pick something up that I find interesting, then come to my own conclusion and feelings. I don't really see the point of it, as if I want reviews I'll read actual critics reviews.
That's why it's best to just always do your own research on any given topic. Taking anyone elses opinion before forming your own is never a good idea. Between bots and paid reviews or whatever other bullshit is out there now, it's all so sketchy.
One book that i loved this year had a 3.5 on goodreads 😂. I do like to read some folks opinions, if i am really indecisive about giving a book a chance but usually i get my recs from the same 5 people and the classics list😂.
I actually only look up the reviews on amazon, if the have the book, and usually start with the long, in depth, bad reviews. They are often far more informative, and i found some really good books this way.
I miss Xiran's posts in TH-cam. That being said, I'm super excited for the sequel to Iron Widow. This is some really petty behavior. They were getting hype, good reviews. Why? Wow. Review bombing an author gave you a blurb? Yuck.
I also miss their TH-cam posts!! Though it's a bit personal, since I actively avoid "X" (Twitter) and go through long phases of not checking Tumblr... so it's my own fault that I don't see their posts, lol. But they have great takes, I've learned a ton about the French Revolution, and Iron Widow is a wild ride!!! Can't wait for Heavenly Tyrant!
I’m so baffled by their choice to do this. I understand insecurity and all but other authors aren’t your competitors! Their book sounds interesting, the cover is gorgeous and eye catching, they have (had) a pretty big name publisher putting it out. If it’s at all well written they were going to see success. This is just ASTOUNDINGLY stupid.
I've been on many strong meds to treat my mental illness, that I've had horrible reactions and side effects to. Doing anything like this doesn't seem like something you can blame your meds on. When you're mentally ill, you already have to fight against being seen as crazy and irresponsible. People like this just contribute to the stigma, in order to save themselves from responsibility and it's disgusting.
What's more heinous is Cait's book has main characters who are poc Congratulations to Cait for being the most wtf book community story since that author that faked her death and took donations for her funeral
LSP: "Oh my Glob, you guys...Drama Bomb!!" Shows how far out of the loop I am that when "The Reylos" were described as getting involved...I assumed that was a reference to some group I didn't know anything about, until I looked at the text, and realized, oh no, these actually ARE literal Reylo shippers! Nothing wrong with that, just kinda surprised that's still a major thing...
I was going to skip my Illumicrate January subscription which featured Voyage of the Damned by Frances White…because I saw it was rated so low on GR (I am new to GR) I didn’t know review bombing was an issue… I ended up not skipping it and gave it a chance.. and now I am finding out all this… yeah never using GR 😂
@@Liam-zn6pkAn LGBTQIA+ author took those one-star reviews he got from bigots and printed them on the back cover of the physical version of the book. His pettiness is what made me buy it 😂
I honestly don't trust Goodreads anymore because of review bombings. I only get my book recommendations from friends or TH-camrs who I've been following for years and I feel like I can trust.
I really appreciate the way you covered this and the fact that you told people not to harass the author. She deserves to be punished (and it sounds like she was), but not by an internet mob.
A few months ago something like this happened in royal road where a couple of stories that are on rising stars got review bombed. Honestly it is terrible to do this as a creator to destroy anothers work
I heard the author used the feedback of Greeks for her story - something necessary but unfortunately rarely done for Greek Myth retellings. Had the book entered the market, this type of cultural feedback could be more normalised, especially for Greeks. She literally screwed everybody, including people of the culture she tried to represent.
This reminds me of a situation that occurred in my microcosm of the indie horror community, where an author (who also ran a couple of small presses) started review bombing other people in the community, and when they got found out it took a lot of "receipts" before they admitted to it, and they still tried to deflect for a while until admitting it was insecurity, but by then the damage was done and they dissolved their publishing businesses and unlisted their books - career over! Authors should be standing together; other authors are not competition. Surely we don't want to make people think every other book in the genre we're writing is bad, right? As an author myself (fantasy, some sci-fi, and horror/weird fiction, plus some superhero stuff), I will ALWAYS try to encourage and support my fellow writers because I understand how hard this industry is! Anyway...this was a great reaction, it felt very fair and balanced even with their being a clear "villain" in the drama, and your commentary was very informative (and you gave the original commentary the time to shine rather than talking over it).
I don’t doubt authors making fake accounts (or asking friends to do so) to boost their books, but doing the extra of hating on everyone is just evil. She had it all for a successful debut and threw it all down the toilet for her pettiness.
It's wild what narcissists are willing to do if they don't think they'll get caught. Different realm, but I saw a fan of a rival sports team say they were sent death threats from fans of a team - When asked for proof she sent screenshots and you could see the 'edit' button... So she accidentally outed herself as creating a fake fan account of a rival team, sending herself death threats, and then sharing it to try and make the opposing fans look bad... Just crazy unhinged behavior.
Yeah I was just thinking of the times I've seen something sorta like this in other fandom spheres. For me it was fanfic that jumped to mind. I remember when it was somewhat common for a popular fanfic author in a fandom to get a gang of their friends together to collectively go drag other fics that were gaining popularity in the space. They'd either create a ton of bad reviews (sometimes with totally made up information in them, like that the fic had untagged character death or sexual content) or lobby to get fics other than their taken off of reference lists for BS reasons.
@octo448 Wow, that's crazy too. I'm sure there is a lot of stuff like that happening that we'll never know about too. Take everything with a grain of salt if not from a trusted source, and make up your own mind - Lessons that everyone will need to learn in the internet age.
Wow, I think I know EXACTLY what drama you are referring to lol, and you're right, it is a very good comparison. (At least, I'm assuming I know the drama you mean. College football, correct? If so, as a fan of the same team as that woman....Yeah, she's a moron.)
i may be wrong since i'm not aware of Cait's history or if she wrote for reading apps (or something similar), but this feels like terminally online behavior 😮💨 like "it works on [this site]" without any awareness that lack of accountability doesn't really exist anywhere else. shame that most people will only know her for this now.
@@LarenOz The Reylo fandom pulling out a google doc of every single Reylo tweet in order to prove that Lilly never existed is on another plane of existence with how absolutely insane that sounds.
Keep in mind her publisher dropped her from their 2024 schedule, but they haven't mentioned dropping her entirely. On Amazon, while the physical edition is no longer available for pre-order, the kindle edition of the book has been bumped back to May of 2027. I think all they did was bump the release date back to let this blow over. It's crappy she's blaming her mental illness and insecurities on her behavior. You don't get a free pass just because you suffer from those things. You're a crappy person, people are going to treat you like a crappy person.
The hype for Crown of Starlight was massive and Cait Corrain just threw it all away for racism. I’ve been a long time fan of Xiran and my respect for her grew so much from this.
15:13 I honestly believe it’s because she realised the extent of what she had done and doubling down made her the victim. Suddenly what had happened to these authors was nothing compared to what happened to her. SHE was the one whose friend betrayed her, SHE was the one whose insecurities were weaponised and used against her. Like sure these authors got 1 star reviews but SHE was the real victim, she got the real world hurt, she lost a friend, yadayadayada Utterly pathetic and I feel for all the people she’s hurt.
2023 has been an interesting year in books. We started with an author coming back from the dead and ended with an author committing professional un-aliving. On a bright note, some of the targeted books look amazing. Updating my reading list with them.
Thank you Daniel, Instagram has been absolute crap for me today and is not allowing me to watch videos right now, so I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to learn about this situation since I don’t have TikTok or Twitter, but this video has aloud me to see what’s up
This whole story was wild, and I’m baffled by Cait’s audacity. But I’m glad it seems she’ll be facing repercussions from this, with her agent and publisher dropping her, and Illumicrate also severing ties (but strangely the special edition publisher Daphne Press said they’re still “looking into the allegations.”) I’m definitely going to be checking out all the authors impacted, and hope they end up doing very well in the future.
I watched this unfold pretty much live, and I still don't understand Cait and her motivations. It is clearly malicious and she just tanked herself, on purpose. Did she think this wouldn't come out?
I’ve been review bombed, and I know other indie authors who have. Getting a book to go below 4 average stars is usually a killer for sales. I’ve heard it’s jealousy that drives them, even though there’s plenty of room for everyone in these marketplaces. It’s despicable, and now that I hear they’re doing it for bigoted reasons … damn, I’m not surprised.
When you were almost caught, you lied on Twitter acting surprised that someone made these fake accounts, committing a "nasty" act of bashing smaller authors when it was you all along. So, you were fully aware of your actions and how horrible they were you just never thought you'd get caught. That alone dismisses everything she said in her apology statement for me, hope she learn from this.💔
Once again, this highlights the problem with Goodreads. But like you, Daniel, I would love to know who has that much time? I don't understand petty insecure writers. Seriously, who has time to make separate accounts to review bomb writers and create an entire conversation with a "friend" and go after other debut writers? It's like, readers don't just read one author and be like, "I'm never reading any other writer again." It hurts my head when I hear stuff like this. It blows my mind because she was able to get published by a publisher. A tremendous feat already and she just took the yoke of her airplane, turn the throttle to max, and pointed the nose of the airplane straight down to the ground. Why?
had to stop mid-video at the mention of LO to go HECK YES LORE OLYMPUS!!! I adore that series - I buy coins on webtoon solely to read the early chapters. excited for the future review! -- on the actual subject of the video, appreciate the coverage and commentary on this situation!
This woman's behavior was RACIST and UNACCEPTABLE. We all need to stop sugar-coating what she did as "debut nerves," "jealousy," "mental health issues," and greed. IT WAS RACIST. PERIOD. I'm glad the publisher decided to revoke their offer to her. I wish they had revoked their offer in their initial statement AND with an explanation for the revocation (not solely after receiving a flood of comments). However, the end goal was achieved. At least in this case. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if another publisher picked her up (under a pen name). Or, she decides to self-publish (since there are people out there who support her actions and would support her racist ways by buying her books). So don't be surprised if you see her on a best-seller list at some point. A sad but realistic thought. Unfortunately, the authors who received the low-star ratings were not only affected by readers (and potential buyers viewing those ratings) but I'm sure THEIR mental health was affected! I pray they can recover and receive support for their books. I will certainly purchase each of their books once they're released. As BIPOC authors, we have a lot to contend with during the traditional publishing process already, and to have a fellow author commit such an act is truly a dagger to the heart. Thanks for the video.
This whole thing is wild but I’m honestly so curious how this was caught in the first place! Because I don’t look at reviews and accounts that closely on GR to notice who’s who.
Unfortunately, I feel like it takes a lot of time to gain the self-awareness to grow from something like this if you're willing to do it in the first place. We're not going to get actual accountability from them any time soon :/ At least, not with the intention of actually setting things right. The author is probably purely in self-preservation mode and only cares about manipulating their way out of this situation since they seem to perceive getting caught in their bs as worse than hurting other people.
Yep, master manipulators ONLY know how to manipulate. When caught, the only answer to “get out of this”, is to manipulate more. Look at the deals she got for a debut. Probably did A LOT of manipulating to get that much success thrown at her.
There was another book she rated 5 starts: Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. By her own admission in her interview with the "Let's talk about myths, baby" podcast, that's her favorite comic. But she also rathed 1 star to many other Greek Mythology retellings like Song of Achilles
I had heard some subscription box services were going to feature the author’s book before this all happened, I wonder if they can replace it with something else or if too late because of printers and contracts?
Apparently, the publisher has pulled the book from their publication schedule so there isn't going to be anything to put in the boxes. Hopefully, Illumicrate and any other services had backups on standby
I think you'll really like Iron Widow, Daniel. Xiran handles their theming really well and the book isn't afraid to go dark and heavy with its themes while still having these really big, crazy moments. It's really fantastic. One of my favorite reads of the year.
Unrelated by gods I hate Lore Olympus. The author is so creepy and their creepiness seeps into every fiber of that comics. The weird dynamics, the INSANE AGE GAP, the stalker, possessive, borderline abusive behaviour of Hades, how all the women around Koré/Persephone just normalise the relationship, the whole thing just creeps me the fuck out and I'm even more creeped out by how popular this has gotten despite the weird behaviour of the author, their characters and the whole fanbase around it. I really hope you won't neglect to mention the super rapey vibes if you ever do a review of it.
the thing i dont get is why try to fake the discord messages ? if she had just denied any knowledge of this it would have been hard to decide if she was actualy guilty.
@@IamAlmostRealWitch i could have believed that if she hadnt clearly photoshoped those chats. (she actualy apologized and said it was her in the end btw. but people are not realy happy with her apology )
Yeah, if Cait wanted to escape true culpability, she should have just continued to deny the allegations and suggest that maybe it was the work of a crazy super fan, instead of actually trying to fabricate such an elaborate, absurd story. It makes me wonder if her accusers had more damning evidence against her than what we know of.
Following this whole situation and Cait digging a deeper and deeper hole for herself makes me want to grab a bucket of popcorn and watch her career fully implode
I like the Reddit approach to comments. You automatically like your own comment. It just makes sense. You should only say things that you like. You should also give yourself a 5 star review because hopefully you like your own stuff! An author is a person too.
John Green, in one of his too many videos to souurce, said that reviews aren't for auuthurs. They are for their readers. All of my visual novels and small projects I've put out, I've managed to not divorce them in my mind from my insecurities and have never reviewed one myself.
To me, this seems to be a stark, tragic object lesson; an admonition in most grim cast... one that I believe epitomizes one of *_C.G. Jung's_* most dire warnings --- the *_absolute necessity_* for each and every one of us to acknowledge and thusly govern our *_Shadow_*_ ...lest it _*_wield_*_ us_
goodreads reviews have become fairly useless, for evidence I'd like to point to the glowing reviews of thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch, a book waiting to be finished for almost a decade. But Goodreads allows reviews and ratings oif unpublished books.
The first time I bumped into this was on Instagram a few days ago. I'm still shocked. I totally don't understand the motivation or the drive to do this. It sounds like something I did as a grade schooler when I told a lie and got found out. I grew up. She should have too.
Dropping this as a separate video was definitely the right move. Devoting a large section of what needs to be a fast paced collection of the weeks news to a pause, react, pause again section would have been an error. Dropping this video and being able to direct fantasy news viewers to it instead, is just good form.
I thought giving your own book was pretty common. I know Chloe Gong does it. Mark Lawrence also reviews his books but doesn't give them ratings anymore.
i think everyone's problem is the fact that they were leaving a lot of 1 star reviews on books of other debut authors (and mostly POC), rather than them leaving good reviews on their own book
I shelve my own books but never rate them lol, I did it when I first started publishing and now I find it cringe. My favorite is Nenia Campbell who will rate her own books one star and just post a review that says "I can't believe this bitch thinks she can write" lmao.
Author sabotage doesn't make sense because reading is a consumption hobby. Nobody ever just reads one book?? Writing books should NOT be a competitive career. Other authors are not your competition - they are your colleagues. So stuff like this doesn't make sense, especially in an industry so dependent on marketing and perception.
Racism is not "a mistake" nor is the pattern of malicious behavior she exhibited. I do believe she has mental health issues and am sympathetic to that, however, her unwillingness to fully acknowledge what she's done and properly apologize for it is quite telling. Her career also isn't ruined. Once this blows over, she will be on her merry way.
And this was all *despite* her (former) literary success and achievements that most aspiring writers would give their left eye and arm for. There is just no satisfying some people. 🤷♂
I wonder if they were told by the publisher or their editor or someone that all these other authors are their competitors? Because although it's technically true, that's not how authors view each other, that's more how publishing companies view similar genre books (like Divergent vs. Hunger Games).
UPDATE: It seems the publisher has removed the author from their 2024 release schedule. I don’t normally do reactions but with how much detail there is to a story like this, it felt more appropriate to give full in context thoughts like this rather than the 5-8 minutes a fantasy news story is able to receive. Let me know your thoughts!
wild stuff 😳 great coverage and i like how respectful you are, you just dragged the author’s actions, no personal attacks
You did good here 👍🏿
Thank you
Good on the publishers to yank her book. No rewards for assholes like this
I enjoy reaction videos where the person doing the reaction adds significant commentary and participates in a wider discussion (like you did here). Lots of reaction "creators" have a big content parasitism problem, but that's far from what I would expect here if you decide to do this again in the future.
Publisher, Agent, and Illumicrate are all cutting ties. She's done.
this person got their book published, had incredible cover artists, had positive ARC reviews, had deals with one of the most popular book boxes to make special editions of their book, and they ruined it all by being greedy……. destroying your career like this is WILD
What blows me away is they gave her a chance to just apologize and promise not to do it again, and she refused it and kept lying.
What’s the book name that they published,I just don’t want to buy a book from this author accidentally.
@@Omar-kl3xpthe book deal got pulled, I believe, so their book hasn't been published.
Crown of Starlight@@Omar-kl3xp
She literally had success served to her in a silver plate, and she ruined it because she was still insecure and needed to bring others down to feel better. Classic mean girl behavior
the author could’ve used all this energy to promote her book.
Envy is a scary thing
my thought exactly - why not just do some real marketing?
The refusal of the olive branch got me too. Pure ego. Blowing out someone else's candle is not going to make yours shine brighter.
No, but it might make yours the brightest one left shining. Anything to stand out I guess. The worst part about all of this is that I'm not actually surprised this happened. The only genuinely surprising part to me was how gracious the other authors were in extending an olive branch. It speaks well of them.
@@nofacej1 I mean, it's normal. It's only the usual asshole. Who cares? What is the point of being angry at an idiot?
Cait has just posted a statement where she admits to everything and apologises, using her mental state (and new meds) as an explanation for the shitty behaviour. It really rubs me the wrong way when people use their mental health like a shield. No, Cait, you did what you did because you thought you could get away with it, not because the medication made you do it.
That’s even 💩ier than what she did! That shows a major lack of accountability
Whom amongst us hasn't turned racist due to changing medication?
@@hardnewstakenharder maybe the new medication was a pragerU membership or smth
not everybody perceives explanations as an excuse they also admit that despite the contributing factors of mental health episode, drug use, and new medication she takes full accountability for her actions and they will be taking steps to recover through rehab and therapy, she also states that they will be reaching out to the authors affected and attempting to make amends. personally as someone who has had a similar event, I understand how acute mental episodes can include actions that you would not do other wise and can genuinely go against your core beliefs. it is worth noting that the POC majority was not mentioned in their apology, but may not have actually been a contributing factor as it seems the lists she was trying to get on were the major contributor with her even downvoting works by one major author who gets enough votes that her votes made not real difference.
I do not defend their actions and will not be buying this book, but I hate the way neurotypicals approach attempts to explain a situation as "making excuses".
I am 100% not trying to defend her, but I think with the new meds part she may have been trying to say that she was discontinuing old meds and starting new ones that are supposed to have the same effect, so during that switch there would’ve been a period where she was not taking either medication, or only taking them at a low dose (because with a lot of psych meds you can’t just start at the dose you want to take but have to slowly ease into it by taking smaller doses over days). I know someone who is taking mood stabilisers and had to switch medications because the original ones they were taking had serious side effects, and their behaviour changed noticeably during the time where they were switching from one mood stabiliser to the other, and they said their symptoms had become worse.
However, this behaviour by this author seems to have taken place over a few weeks and seems very coordinated, which (to my knowledge) is not typical of actions taken during something like a manic episode. Also it’s incredibly unlikely that she would not be regularly seeing a psychologist and/or psychiatrist while switching meds that can have such intense effects, and I’d hope that those trained medical professionals and friends or family would’ve helped her set guidelines that would’ve prevented a situation like this.
It just blows my mind. Cait had *everything* an aspiring author could ever hope for, and she flushed it all down the toilet...because she felt threatened? How? Does she not realize that there's no law that says any given reader can only choose one book in a genre to buy and read? If she actually did all this solely to sabotage PoC authors, then she's a *huge* piece of 💩! Regardless, Cait got exactly what was coming to her. Her career as an author is utterly destroyed -- ended before it even truly began. And she has absolutely nobody to blame but herself.
Her reputation is ruined. Any author can easily start over with a psuedonym. Assuming they can really write.
some of the authors she review bombed were even on the SAME IMPRINT! the same publisher. toxic and deranged!
One of them had the same agent as her i think, and the agent dropped her she announced it on twitter😊
Wow, backstabbing your agent after they got you published. That's so wild. @@gizemunver6188
And one of books she review bombed was even her FRIEND's, Thea Guanzon's book (The Hurricane Wars). Her friend even gave good reviews on her book.
I'm guessing Reads With Rachel is going to have a new Authors Behaving Badly episode.
Omg yes, I love Rachel
Can’t wait
OMG yes!
I’ve been waiting for this!
Yeees! 😂
I was always told that lifting up other authors doesn’t hurt you as an author. In fact, directing your readers toward other authors you think they will enjoy only adds to your credibility. You can’t write enough books to be the only author they read, so there’s space to support one another.
First, Hbomberguy posted a huge video exposing multiple plagiarizers. Then, Xiran Jay Zhao's video about the review bombing situation came out. AND the craziest part is this is all happening while I'm reading Yellowface!
Ha! Perfect book for the situation xD
I think characterizing it as mere drama really trivializes the whole affair. This is a targeted harassment of POC authors, which will have an impact on their livelihoods, not some online catfight.
She had the INTENT of impacting their livelihoods negatively. It actually had the opposite effect. It tanked her livelihood and boosted theirs.
Well there’s the event, and then there is the drama surrounding it. The actual event itself was absolutely horrible though.
We're getting toasty standing this close to the dumpster fire.
Thank you to Xiran Jay Zhao for going so in depth for this.
Here are the authors who were affected by this if you want to go support them:
So Let them burn- kamilah Cole
The poison we drink- Bethany Baptiste
To gaze upon wicked gods- Molly X Chang
Voyage of the damned-Francis white
Mistress of Lies-KM Enright
Also The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
The messages between the fake account and Cait feel like a mental processing and justification of everything that happened and a way for her to air out the points that people will bring up and already resolve them in her head. A psychologist would have a field day with that
One of the craziest parts of this story was that in Cait’s fake discord chat, they legit admitted to targeting POC “for shits and giggles” like wtf they knew they were being racist !! They had so much potential and still felt so threatened
I expect this kind of petty attitude from a 14-16 years old. But I suppose this author is sadly much older ?
She is a grown ass woman so yeah. She has no excuse for that horrid behavior considering her age to be honest. Envy and racism in one package, that's Cait Corrain
Yes she is an adult
Let’s face it, if someone can’t even write a convincing conversation with a ‘friend’, how good could the dialogue in the book be? 😏
Yeah, the fact that they couldn't write convincing dialogue for the screenshots there was a bit on the nose
Lool true. That fake convo was painful to read.
More like the fact they couldn't write a more believable lie shows bad on her book lol like plot twist, girl, you're the villain
"I TRUSTED YOU" top 10 never said by anybody in a discord chat unironically.
Quick Tip: If you are a new author. 100% don't give your own books reviews, especially on new accounts. It can get you banned if the Amazon bots notice suspicious behaviour they'll terminate your KDP account in the belief that you bought/solicitated reviews.
What if I go the "all publicity is good publicity" route in my reviews and fucking ANNIHILATE my book
@@resir9807the same things will happen *and* people will see your review and not be interested in your work. believe it or not, self-deprecation tends to deprecate yourself
@@resir9807 That depends if you get any publicity at all, like no one might notice if you yourself trash your own book, you need to make sure people know you're the one doing it otherwise you'll get yourself banned for nothing.
I'm flabbergasted by this behavior. Leave your book reviews alone in all senses of the concept, right?
I'm a beta-reader with experience in the publishing industry, and I can confirm that she is going to have a _very_ hard time getting traditionally published from now on. Allegedly, big agents and editors have a blacklist of author names to avoid because of bad behavior.
I know several aspiring authors who would die to get the kind of golden opportunity she had. Aspiring authors who are actually nice and approachable, and who will even lift up their fellow writers despite the already tight competition. Such a shame.
This whole thing speaks to how horrible the entire publishing thing is. Its hard to trust reviews under the best of circumstances and something like Goodreads is worthless. I often read a book and then check the goodreads reviews to see what folks were saying. Sometimes the effusive praise on a mediocre book is telling, especially when several reviews use the same phrases, word for word when discussing the story. It is so easy to be manipulated in 2023 with tech and social media. The best any of us can do is sort of find a few folks we trust and hope for the best.
I never use good reads. It's not that I don't trust it, I would just rather wander through a store and pick something up that I find interesting, then come to my own conclusion and feelings. I don't really see the point of it, as if I want reviews I'll read actual critics reviews.
I think good reads is a little helpful if you can find specific reviewers to follow, but thats about it.
That's why it's best to just always do your own research on any given topic. Taking anyone elses opinion before forming your own is never a good idea. Between bots and paid reviews or whatever other bullshit is out there now, it's all so sketchy.
One book that i loved this year had a 3.5 on goodreads 😂. I do like to read some folks opinions, if i am really indecisive about giving a book a chance but usually i get my recs from the same 5 people and the classics list😂.
I actually only look up the reviews on amazon, if the have the book, and usually start with the long, in depth, bad reviews. They are often far more informative, and i found some really good books this way.
I miss Xiran's posts in TH-cam. That being said, I'm super excited for the sequel to Iron Widow.
This is some really petty behavior. They were getting hype, good reviews. Why? Wow. Review bombing an author gave you a blurb? Yuck.
IRON WIDOW was brutal as fuck! Loved every minute of it. I can't wait for Heavenly Tyrant and I have no idea what to expect.
Why did I think Daniel had actually read a book by them? 🤔🤔😅
I also miss their TH-cam posts!! Though it's a bit personal, since I actively avoid "X" (Twitter) and go through long phases of not checking Tumblr... so it's my own fault that I don't see their posts, lol. But they have great takes, I've learned a ton about the French Revolution, and Iron Widow is a wild ride!!! Can't wait for Heavenly Tyrant!
Same!! Tho i saw that heavently tyrant got pushed back to september in the uk idk about canada release
I also miss their long TH-cam videos!!
I’m so baffled by their choice to do this. I understand insecurity and all but other authors aren’t your competitors! Their book sounds interesting, the cover is gorgeous and eye catching, they have (had) a pretty big name publisher putting it out. If it’s at all well written they were going to see success. This is just ASTOUNDINGLY stupid.
I've been on many strong meds to treat my mental illness, that I've had horrible reactions and side effects to. Doing anything like this doesn't seem like something you can blame your meds on. When you're mentally ill, you already have to fight against being seen as crazy and irresponsible. People like this just contribute to the stigma, in order to save themselves from responsibility and it's disgusting.
What's more heinous is Cait's book has main characters who are poc
Congratulations to Cait for being the most wtf book community story since that author that faked her death and took donations for her funeral
wait what? who's that lmaooo
@@lastseenontuesday6040 iirc that author is Susan Meachen, i'm like 90% sure that Reads with Rachel has a video about that whole debacle 😅
LSP: "Oh my Glob, you guys...Drama Bomb!!"
Shows how far out of the loop I am that when "The Reylos" were described as getting involved...I assumed that was a reference to some group I didn't know anything about, until I looked at the text, and realized, oh no, these actually ARE literal Reylo shippers! Nothing wrong with that, just kinda surprised that's still a major thing...
Albino Snakes are animals that exist. Her friend really tried to deflect.
I was going to skip my Illumicrate January subscription which featured Voyage of the Damned by Frances White…because I saw it was rated so low on GR (I am new to GR) I didn’t know review bombing was an issue… I ended up not skipping it and gave it a chance.. and now I am finding out all this… yeah never using GR 😂
Be mindful of when things are rated low especially if it features LGBT characters. The Far Right love review bombing my existence
@@Liam-zn6pkAn LGBTQIA+ author took those one-star reviews he got from bigots and printed them on the back cover of the physical version of the book. His pettiness is what made me buy it 😂
I honestly don't trust Goodreads anymore because of review bombings. I only get my book recommendations from friends or TH-camrs who I've been following for years and I feel like I can trust.
I go to the library and let the unicerse guide me
@@aquariussolaris2492 finding an amazing random book from the library is a certain feeling i can’t describe
Apparently both Illumicrate and their agent dropped them 😬😬
As of 4 hours ago *their publisher too*. Like... Their book deal is no more.
What’s the author name ?
@@Omar-kl3xp cait corrain
I really appreciate the way you covered this and the fact that you told people not to harass the author. She deserves to be punished (and it sounds like she was), but not by an internet mob.
A few months ago something like this happened in royal road where a couple of stories that are on rising stars got review bombed. Honestly it is terrible to do this as a creator to destroy anothers work
I heard the author used the feedback of Greeks for her story - something necessary but unfortunately rarely done for Greek Myth retellings. Had the book entered the market, this type of cultural feedback could be more normalised, especially for Greeks. She literally screwed everybody, including people of the culture she tried to represent.
We the Greek people will survive.
What really sucks is how she targeted mostly poc writers. Pure meanness.
Really? You mean people of the White color?
This reminds me of a situation that occurred in my microcosm of the indie horror community, where an author (who also ran a couple of small presses) started review bombing other people in the community, and when they got found out it took a lot of "receipts" before they admitted to it, and they still tried to deflect for a while until admitting it was insecurity, but by then the damage was done and they dissolved their publishing businesses and unlisted their books - career over!
Authors should be standing together; other authors are not competition. Surely we don't want to make people think every other book in the genre we're writing is bad, right?
As an author myself (fantasy, some sci-fi, and horror/weird fiction, plus some superhero stuff), I will ALWAYS try to encourage and support my fellow writers because I understand how hard this industry is!
Anyway...this was a great reaction, it felt very fair and balanced even with their being a clear "villain" in the drama, and your commentary was very informative (and you gave the original commentary the time to shine rather than talking over it).
Yes this is needed!
I don’t doubt authors making fake accounts (or asking friends to do so) to boost their books, but doing the extra of hating on everyone is just evil. She had it all for a successful debut and threw it all down the toilet for her pettiness.
I get fake reviewing your own books, but wtf even is the point of fake reviewing other peoples books???
Like, how does that even really benefit you
It's wild what narcissists are willing to do if they don't think they'll get caught. Different realm, but I saw a fan of a rival sports team say they were sent death threats from fans of a team - When asked for proof she sent screenshots and you could see the 'edit' button... So she accidentally outed herself as creating a fake fan account of a rival team, sending herself death threats, and then sharing it to try and make the opposing fans look bad... Just crazy unhinged behavior.
Yeah I was just thinking of the times I've seen something sorta like this in other fandom spheres. For me it was fanfic that jumped to mind. I remember when it was somewhat common for a popular fanfic author in a fandom to get a gang of their friends together to collectively go drag other fics that were gaining popularity in the space. They'd either create a ton of bad reviews (sometimes with totally made up information in them, like that the fic had untagged character death or sexual content) or lobby to get fics other than their taken off of reference lists for BS reasons.
@octo448 Wow, that's crazy too. I'm sure there is a lot of stuff like that happening that we'll never know about too. Take everything with a grain of salt if not from a trusted source, and make up your own mind - Lessons that everyone will need to learn in the internet age.
Wow, I think I know EXACTLY what drama you are referring to lol, and you're right, it is a very good comparison. (At least, I'm assuming I know the drama you mean. College football, correct? If so, as a fan of the same team as that woman....Yeah, she's a moron.)
i may be wrong since i'm not aware of Cait's history or if she wrote for reading apps (or something similar), but this feels like terminally online behavior 😮💨 like "it works on [this site]" without any awareness that lack of accountability doesn't really exist anywhere else. shame that most people will only know her for this now.
Honestly in terms of fanfic/fandom this whole episode is pretty tame. Though the Reylo involvement was like some sprinkles on top! 😂
@@LarenOz The Reylo fandom pulling out a google doc of every single Reylo tweet in order to prove that Lilly never existed is on another plane of existence with how absolutely insane that sounds.
Keep in mind her publisher dropped her from their 2024 schedule, but they haven't mentioned dropping her entirely. On Amazon, while the physical edition is no longer available for pre-order, the kindle edition of the book has been bumped back to May of 2027. I think all they did was bump the release date back to let this blow over.
It's crappy she's blaming her mental illness and insecurities on her behavior. You don't get a free pass just because you suffer from those things. You're a crappy person, people are going to treat you like a crappy person.
Absolutely wild the things people think they can get away with online, ESP WHEN THEY COME FROM NOTORIOUSLY OBSESSIVE ONLINE COMMUNITIES
The hype for Crown of Starlight was massive and Cait Corrain just threw it all away for racism. I’ve been a long time fan of Xiran and my respect for her grew so much from this.
Just a friendly heads up that Xiran's pronouns are they/them.
@@kimyoonmisurnamefirst7061 thanks for letting me know
Looks like someone is angling to be subject to a Yellowface sequel
15:13 I honestly believe it’s because she realised the extent of what she had done and doubling down made her the victim. Suddenly what had happened to these authors was nothing compared to what happened to her. SHE was the one whose friend betrayed her, SHE was the one whose insecurities were weaponised and used against her. Like sure these authors got 1 star reviews but SHE was the real victim, she got the real world hurt, she lost a friend, yadayadayada
Utterly pathetic and I feel for all the people she’s hurt.
2023 has been an interesting year in books. We started with an author coming back from the dead and ended with an author committing professional un-aliving.
On a bright note, some of the targeted books look amazing. Updating my reading list with them.
What author came back from the dead?
Thank you Daniel, Instagram has been absolute crap for me today and is not allowing me to watch videos right now, so I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to learn about this situation since I don’t have TikTok or Twitter, but this video has aloud me to see what’s up
*Allowed
Sorry
@@neondemon5137 changing it from allowing to allowed makes the sentence feel wrong though. Why incorrectly correct someone and then say sorry.
@@thejadedjester4935 Read to the end of the sentence to see what was actually being corrected...
This whole story was wild, and I’m baffled by Cait’s audacity. But I’m glad it seems she’ll be facing repercussions from this, with her agent and publisher dropping her, and Illumicrate also severing ties (but strangely the special edition publisher Daphne Press said they’re still “looking into the allegations.”) I’m definitely going to be checking out all the authors impacted, and hope they end up doing very well in the future.
The special printings have probably been a pretty big investment relative to the volume, so that might be why.
I watched this unfold pretty much live, and I still don't understand Cait and her motivations. It is clearly malicious and she just tanked herself, on purpose. Did she think this wouldn't come out?
People who do this sort of thing, think it’s normal and she probably did it a lot before and didn’t get caught.
Dude, I appreciate how mature you are. Because you’re absolutely correct. People would take something like that too far with possible violence lol
Excited that you're reading Lore Olympus!
Sounds like someone tried to pull a Ms. Scribe but wasn't nearly as clever about it.
So sad to find out that Daniel is a smoker, and smokes indoors, that is even worse. I hope he atleast owns the house he is ruining.
I’ve been review bombed, and I know other indie authors who have. Getting a book to go below 4 average stars is usually a killer for sales. I’ve heard it’s jealousy that drives them, even though there’s plenty of room for everyone in these marketplaces. It’s despicable, and now that I hear they’re doing it for bigoted reasons … damn, I’m not surprised.
What's the name of your book, dude?
@@akamal92 I have two, and a third on the way. Space opera by the name Odysseus Bound.
Never gonna trust book reviews on a star scale. Just gonna find reviewers similar to my taste, who I can trust.
When you were almost caught, you lied on Twitter acting surprised that someone made these fake accounts, committing a "nasty" act of bashing smaller authors when it was you all along. So, you were fully aware of your actions and how horrible they were you just never thought you'd get caught. That alone dismisses everything she said in her apology statement for me, hope she learn from this.💔
Once again, this highlights the problem with Goodreads. But like you, Daniel, I would love to know who has that much time? I don't understand petty insecure writers. Seriously, who has time to make separate accounts to review bomb writers and create an entire conversation with a "friend" and go after other debut writers? It's like, readers don't just read one author and be like, "I'm never reading any other writer again." It hurts my head when I hear stuff like this. It blows my mind because she was able to get published by a publisher. A tremendous feat already and she just took the yoke of her airplane, turn the throttle to max, and pointed the nose of the airplane straight down to the ground. Why?
She's clearly practicing her drama dialogue, I applaud her for her dedicated method acting
had to stop mid-video at the mention of LO to go HECK YES LORE OLYMPUS!!! I adore that series - I buy coins on webtoon solely to read the early chapters. excited for the future review! -- on the actual subject of the video, appreciate the coverage and commentary on this situation!
This woman's behavior was RACIST and UNACCEPTABLE. We all need to stop sugar-coating what she did as "debut nerves," "jealousy," "mental health issues," and greed. IT WAS RACIST. PERIOD.
I'm glad the publisher decided to revoke their offer to her. I wish they had revoked their offer in their initial statement AND with an explanation for the revocation (not solely after receiving a flood of comments). However, the end goal was achieved. At least in this case.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if another publisher picked her up (under a pen name). Or, she decides to self-publish (since there are people out there who support her actions and would support her racist ways by buying her books). So don't be surprised if you see her on a best-seller list at some point. A sad but realistic thought.
Unfortunately, the authors who received the low-star ratings were not only affected by readers (and potential buyers viewing those ratings) but I'm sure THEIR mental health was affected! I pray they can recover and receive support for their books. I will certainly purchase each of their books once they're released. As BIPOC authors, we have a lot to contend with during the traditional publishing process already, and to have a fellow author commit such an act is truly a dagger to the heart.
Thanks for the video.
11:53 was the perfect encapsulation of my reaction to all this.
This whole thing is wild but I’m honestly so curious how this was caught in the first place! Because I don’t look at reviews and accounts that closely on GR to notice who’s who.
The Yugi and Obama in her background photo is killing me lmao
Author drama is some of the best there is
Unfortunately, I feel like it takes a lot of time to gain the self-awareness to grow from something like this if you're willing to do it in the first place. We're not going to get actual accountability from them any time soon :/ At least, not with the intention of actually setting things right. The author is probably purely in self-preservation mode and only cares about manipulating their way out of this situation since they seem to perceive getting caught in their bs as worse than hurting other people.
Yep, master manipulators ONLY know how to manipulate. When caught, the only answer to “get out of this”, is to manipulate more.
Look at the deals she got for a debut. Probably did A LOT of manipulating to get that much success thrown at her.
There was another book she rated 5 starts: Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe. By her own admission in her interview with the "Let's talk about myths, baby" podcast, that's her favorite comic. But she also rathed 1 star to many other Greek Mythology retellings like Song of Achilles
I had heard some subscription box services were going to feature the author’s book before this all happened, I wonder if they can replace it with something else or if too late because of printers and contracts?
Apparently, the publisher has pulled the book from their publication schedule so there isn't going to be anything to put in the boxes. Hopefully, Illumicrate and any other services had backups on standby
I never heard that saying about a snake in the hen house or anything about this book or situation.
well now you have
I think you'll really like Iron Widow, Daniel. Xiran handles their theming really well and the book isn't afraid to go dark and heavy with its themes while still having these really big, crazy moments. It's really fantastic. One of my favorite reads of the year.
Oh I love Xiran. I miss them. I haven't seen them in ages cause they haven't posted on TH-cam in ages. 😢
I have some suspicion that Wings of Fire was review bombed but in the other direction.
Grrrrtrrrrrr I care not but care a little. I’m tired
BRUTAL.... As an author, and a person, I can't imagine doing this.
Love you
Xiran Jay Zhao is the GOAT. Their prose might not be for everyone but I really enjoyed Iron Widow and am very excited for the sequel next year!
People look at Goodreads ratings?
Right?! I stopped trusting their ratings and most book influencers a while back
Watching this after the empire of silence review, glad Daniel covers the underbelly of our little hobby
Unrelated by gods I hate Lore Olympus. The author is so creepy and their creepiness seeps into every fiber of that comics. The weird dynamics, the INSANE AGE GAP, the stalker, possessive, borderline abusive behaviour of Hades, how all the women around Koré/Persephone just normalise the relationship, the whole thing just creeps me the fuck out and I'm even more creeped out by how popular this has gotten despite the weird behaviour of the author, their characters and the whole fanbase around it. I really hope you won't neglect to mention the super rapey vibes if you ever do a review of it.
the thing i dont get is why try to fake the discord messages ? if she had just denied any knowledge of this it would have been hard to decide if she was actualy guilty.
yeah, it could be some fan of her. people on internet are unhinged and review bombing is really common.
@@IamAlmostRealWitch i could have believed that if she hadnt clearly photoshoped those chats. (she actualy apologized and said it was her in the end btw. but people are not realy happy with her apology )
@@IamAlmostRealWitchCait confessed that it was all their doing and that apparently has been review bombing and making fake accounts since 2022.....
Yeah, if Cait wanted to escape true culpability, she should have just continued to deny the allegations and suggest that maybe it was the work of a crazy super fan, instead of actually trying to fabricate such an elaborate, absurd story. It makes me wonder if her accusers had more damning evidence against her than what we know of.
Following this whole situation and Cait digging a deeper and deeper hole for herself makes me want to grab a bucket of popcorn and watch her career fully implode
I like the Reddit approach to comments. You automatically like your own comment. It just makes sense. You should only say things that you like. You should also give yourself a 5 star review because hopefully you like your own stuff! An author is a person too.
I didn't know you were going to cover this, so Im settling in. (Also, thank you for your thoughts.)
Giving different scores to different books is surely an attempt to look legit. Accounts that only give 1 stars would be removed right?
The manic effort, wild. Humans often disappoint.
Szeth pose Thumbnail 😂
John Green, in one of his too many videos to souurce, said that reviews aren't for auuthurs. They are for their readers. All of my visual novels and small projects I've put out, I've managed to not divorce them in my mind from my insecurities and have never reviewed one myself.
Does anyone remember the Requires Hate drama from about a decade ago? It was very similar but had death threats and she pretended to be Thai.
To me, this seems to be a stark, tragic object lesson; an admonition in most grim cast... one that I believe epitomizes one of *_C.G. Jung's_* most dire warnings --- the *_absolute necessity_* for each and every one of us to acknowledge and thusly govern our *_Shadow_*_ ...lest it _*_wield_*_ us_
goodreads reviews have become fairly useless, for evidence I'd like to point to the glowing reviews of thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch, a book waiting to be finished for almost a decade. But Goodreads allows reviews and ratings oif unpublished books.
The first time I bumped into this was on Instagram a few days ago. I'm still shocked. I totally don't understand the motivation or the drive to do this. It sounds like something I did as a grade schooler when I told a lie and got found out. I grew up. She should have too.
Yes she's acting like a child 👶
This and the author who is Arguing they’re plagiarising her sun magic is just wild 😂
Dropping this as a separate video was definitely the right move. Devoting a large section of what needs to be a fast paced collection of the weeks news to a pause, react, pause again section would have been an error.
Dropping this video and being able to direct fantasy news viewers to it instead, is just good form.
I thought giving your own book was pretty common. I know Chloe Gong does it. Mark Lawrence also reviews his books but doesn't give them ratings anymore.
i think everyone's problem is the fact that they were leaving a lot of 1 star reviews on books of other debut authors (and mostly POC), rather than them leaving good reviews on their own book
And Amie Kaufman also reviews her books and it helps make people learn more about the tone and style of the story
I shelve my own books but never rate them lol, I did it when I first started publishing and now I find it cringe. My favorite is Nenia Campbell who will rate her own books one star and just post a review that says "I can't believe this bitch thinks she can write" lmao.
thats really scummy to do something like this.
First hbomberguy, then TitS, and now this. How have I found myself in dramatube?
I feel like you're trying to lure me into a joke, but what's TiTs?
@@rvantong Todd in the Shadows
This reminds me I still need to finish hbomberguy video. But I also find it weird that I've also ran across each of those videos in the same order.
@@arthurmarshall6825 Well that's the order they were posted in.
It's almost like Cait read R.F. Kuang's Yellowface and took notes
Tragic
Author sabotage doesn't make sense because reading is a consumption hobby. Nobody ever just reads one book?? Writing books should NOT be a competitive career. Other authors are not your competition - they are your colleagues. So stuff like this doesn't make sense, especially in an industry so dependent on marketing and perception.
Racism is not "a mistake" nor is the pattern of malicious behavior she exhibited. I do believe she has mental health issues and am sympathetic to that, however, her unwillingness to fully acknowledge what she's done and properly apologize for it is quite telling. Her career also isn't ruined. Once this blows over, she will be on her merry way.
This is actually very sad and I hope she seeks help, imagine being that insecure and miserable.
And this was all *despite* her (former) literary success and achievements that most aspiring writers would give their left eye and arm for. There is just no satisfying some people. 🤷♂
I thought she was going to make a TH-cam video about it, I didn't know it was in TikTok instead. Now I see what it was all about.
Her debut was just cancelled by Del Rey Books
I wonder if they were told by the publisher or their editor or someone that all these other authors are their competitors? Because although it's technically true, that's not how authors view each other, that's more how publishing companies view similar genre books (like Divergent vs. Hunger Games).