"Review bombing" and lost book deals: The Goodreads scandal explained

The literary world is no stranger to scandals, but the latest is certainly strange: It involves the popular book-reviewing app Goodreads, first-time author Cait Corrain and a practice now referred to by some as "review bombing." Here is a timeline breaking down the events of the scandal: June 2023: Cait Corrain snags a book deal and distributor for "Crown of Starlight" The first-time author officially secured herself a book deal with Del Rey Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and book distributor Daphne Press. Tuesday, Dec. 5: Author Xiran Jay Zhao tweets about the alleged review bombing Internet personality and sci-fi author Xiran Jay Zhao tweets: "If you as a debut author are going to make a bunch of fake Goodreads accounts one-star-bombing fellow debuts you're threatened by can you at least not make it so obvious by upvoting your own book on a bajillion different lists with those same accounts." I did not positively review my own book with false accounts.” In a Slack group for debut authors, Corrain claimed she had evidence that linked the view bombing to her friend "Lilly." Dec. 12, 7:02 PM: Del Rey Books tweets that they have dropped Corrain as an author and "Crown of Starlight is no longer on their 2024 schedule After her apology, Corrain's publisher Del Rey Books announced on X that "We are aware of the ongoing discussion around author Cait Corrain.