Ominous warning from author behind ‘real life Yellowface’: Cait Corrain, who was dropped by her publisher after giving fake reviews to rival non-white authors, said she is ‘terrified of being cancelled’ when her book comes out

A debut author who admitted to creating fake profiles to ‘one star bomb’ non-white writers has been dropped by her publisher as it’s been revealed she feared ‘being cancelled’ after her book came out.

LA-based Cait Corrain was set to release Crown of Starlight – a ‘steamy, sci-fi reimagining’ of the Greek myth of Ariadne and Dionysus – in May 2024.

But her publisher US publisher Del Rey has now officially dropped her.

The imprint of Penguin Random House, stated on Monday that it was ‘aware of the ongoing discussion’ and that the book  ‘is no longer on our 2024 publishing schedule’.

Now in a tweet from January has been revealed where Corrain wrote she was ‘extremely worried about being cancelled for something stupid when her book comes out’.

It comes as Xiran Jay Zhao – #1 New York Times bestselling author of hit novel Iron Widow – provided ’31 pages of receipts’ in a Google doc, exposing fake accounts made by Cait, going as far back as April of this year.

In a video explainer on their X account, Xiran pointed out that the different profiles, who they believe are all Cait, were giving Crown of Starlight favorable reviews on the same niche pages.

The scandal has since been compared to the plot of the hit book Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, where a white writer steals her Asian friend’s identity to become a publishing success.  

Cait has since been dropped by her American publisher and literary agent, and put out a statement on Instagram to issue an apology, explaining that they have been ‘fighting a losing battle against depression, alcoholism and substance abuse’ since June of last year.

In it, she also confessed to leaving reviews ‘that ranged from kind of mean to downright abusive’.

Cait also revealed that after starting ‘a new medication’ in late November, she ‘suffered a complete psychological breakdown’ early in December.

‘During this time, I created roughly six profiles on Goodreads and, along with two profiles I made during a similar but shorter breakdown in 2022, I boosted the rating of my book’ and ‘bombed the rating of several fellow debut authors,’ she continued.

Cait also admitted that she made up a ‘non-existent friend who was supposedly to blame’.

‘I betrayed the confidence of my agent, my pub team, my readers, and my friends, and betrayed my own deeply held vales,’ she added.

Cait said that while she ‘might not have been sober of of sound mind during this time’, she ‘accepts responsibility for the pain and suffering caused’. 

She will also be ‘checking into an intensive psychiatric care and rehab facility’. 

The statement appeared to deny that the authors were targeted due to their race, with Cait writing that she felt ‘no ill will towards any of them’. 

The authors she named were Molly X. Chang, Danielle Jensen, Kamilah Cole and Bethany Baptiste.

‘My memories of this are extremely fuzzy, so it’s possible there are a couple of other authors,’ she also added.

Cait’s American publisher has since dropped her, with Del Rey Books making a statement on X to say: ‘We are aware of the ongoing discussion around author Cait Corrain. CROWN OF STARLIGHT is no longer on our 2024 publishing schedule.’ 

Her agent Rebecca Podos has also since cut ties with the author, taking to social media to write: ‘Cait and I will not be continuing our partnership moving forward. I deeply appreciate the patience of those directly impacted by last week’s events as I worked through a difficult situation.’ 

Meanwhile, the UK publisher – Daphne Press – has also taken to X to say: ‘We’re aware of the conversations around Cait Corrain, one of our 2024 authors.

‘We are looking into the allegations, discussing with relevant parties, and determining how best to move forward once we have all of the information. We will have an announcement once this is possible.’

Xiran had been the one to first publicize the allegations, saying that Cait had ‘expended what must have been a ton of effort to make themselves look legit by rating dozens of books.’

‘But what gave away the game was that they would always rate one particular book, Crown of Starlight by Cait Corrain on a bunch of different lists,’ they said said in an explainer video on the topic.

‘I had known about this for a while but I held my tongue because the victims wanted me to.

‘They wanted to try and resolve it privately at first and this did not work out.

‘They were told to let it go… I was not gonna let it go.’

The document claimed that Cait made at least six fake profiles, where she negatively rated other authors. 

Xiran then recounted that, last week, they posted about the allegation without naming any names in attempt to give Cait the opportunity to come forward – or, if the allegations were false, to allow the culprit to show themselves.

‘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,’ they penned.

‘I’m not going to leak the extensive receipts so I don’t ruin this person’s career before it even starts but if they do anything further in a similar vein….action will be taken.’ 

Xiran said they were then contacted by ‘an associate of Cait’s’ who claimed that the accounts were made by a friend who ‘thought they were being helpful’.

In the video, they shared screenshots of the alleged conversation between Cait and a friend called ‘Lilly’ – which Xiran said felt ‘stilted’.

They also said that the timestamps between the messages kept jumping between ‘today’ and ‘yesterday’. 

‘I did not believe this explanation,’ Xiran said, and added that they demanded more screenshots between Lilly and Cait – which were never provided.

They said that, later, in a private Slack for 2024 debut authors, Cait ‘confessed’ to being subject of the posts and ‘continued with the friend explanation’.

She even shared screenshots of the same conversation, but ‘the group did not buy it’, and also demanded further proof that Lilly existed – which wasn’t brought forward.

Xiran revealed that when they finally publicly shared the document, it was like they ‘dropped a nuke on Book Twitter’.

They’ve slammed the ‘heinous’ actions taken by Cait, who is said to have been close friends with one of the authors who was ‘bombed’ by the accounts. 

Xiran also hit out that, before Cait’s name was confirmed as being the subject of the allegations, they went on X to try and ‘paint themselves as one of the victims to further promote their book’.

The original post is no longer available, but the extensive Google doc includes a screenshot which claims Cait wrote: ‘Nasty surprise of the day was learning there were fake accounts messing with my GR ratings recently.

‘If you’ve ACTUALLY read my book and want to rate and review it, that would be great, as reader interest pre-release tells my publisher that my book is worth investing in!’

They added: ‘I guess this explains why my rating was fluctuating so much. If you like my book, please rate & review it.

‘If you hated it, you’re also entitled to share your opinion but making fake accounts to manipulate my book’s rating is something else entirely. I’m gonna go be sad now.’

‘I honestly do not know why Cait made the effort to do all of this while they had a traditional publishing deal,’ Xiran concluded.

‘It was super hyped… it was getting really great reviews from advanced readers.

‘You ever seen someone destroy their own life? Jealousy is a disease, y’all.’

The writer, who is based in Los Angeles and uses she/they pronouns was on track with a hit book – a ‘snarky, queer, lushly romantic duology set in a galaxy of monstrous mortals, bloodthirsty gods, and love fierce enough to shatter the cosmos’.

In June, Bookseller reported that the highly anticipated work had been ‘scooped’ by Daphne Press after ‘commissioning editor Davi Lancett acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Rachel Kind at Penguin Random House US’.

However, since Xiran’s expose, readers have taken to social media to blast Cait.

‘The whole Cait Corrain thing is really, really disappointing,’ one user said. ‘I’d been following her since the Tumblr cosplay days, and I was really happy to see her succeeding. 

‘This whole situation is absolutely horrible. I’m disgusted.’

Another penned: ‘This Cait Corrain stuff is CRAZY how are you gonna have a not yet debuted book… reader LOVING ur arcs, and then risk self sabotage by review bombing fellow debut authors who also justtt happen to be poc??? that’s insane like.’

Some social media users have also likened the situation to the plot of the hit book Yellowface.

The novel tells the story of Athena Liu, a young darling of the literary world and Juniper Hayward – her jealous friend.

When Athena suddenly dies in a freak accident, Juniper steals Athena’s just-finished manuscript about Chinese laborers in World War I. She publishes it under another name – which is racially ambiguous – and takes all the credit for the book, which is a runaway success. 

Exactly how far Juniper – who is white – will go to defend her project provides the jeopardy in the highly-rated satire.

However, some online also stressed that Cait’s situation is part of a larger issue with the industry.

‘Listen Cait Corrain should be held accountable for the Goodreads debacle, but we also have to hold publishing accountable to a certain extent.

‘Can we PLEASE stop telling authors these metrics like GR or TikTok matter more than the in-house marketing & publicity and support?’ 

MailOnline has reached out to Cait for comment. 

According to Xiran, the books most impacted by the bad reviews were: So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole, The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste, To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang, Voyage of the Damned by Frances White, Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright and the Gods of Hunger Series by R.M. Virtues.