Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits, and it’s where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Check out all the past topics if you want to join in the bookish discussion fun.
I haven’t seen the June 2024 topics posted yet so I’m going back and doing some past topics that I missed but have an interest in. This week’s topic is from April 2024:
Do Author Controversies Impact Your Reading Choices?
Suggested by (Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)
Prompts: For this topic, Jillian wrote that she thought of this topic because of the situation with Cait Corrain, the author who lost her book deal after posting fake negative Goodreads reviews of other books in attempt to sabotage those authors. Did you hear about the Cait Corrain situation? Do you often keep up with or read about author/bookish controversies? Do situations such as this one impact your reading choices?
Did you hear about the Cait Corrain situation?
As part of the bookish community, I think the Cait Corrain situation was pretty hard to miss because it blew up and snowballed into absolute madness over the following weeks/months. It was the hot topic that took over my feed on every platform! I remember even getting a message from my sister, who’s very far removed from this sphere, asking me about the situation because she’d heard murmurings about it.
It was so awful and the more I heard about it, the worse it became, and the more it left me baffled trying to understand how anyone could think doing something like this would be good. Especially being a debut author and knowing what it takes to get to this position, why would you even risk entertaining such an inane idea? 🤯
Do you often keep up with or read about author/bookish controversies?
I don’t think I’m chronically online but I do spend enough time on social media to inadvertently come across brewing controversies. I don’t seek it out myself because the world is already depressing enough and I don’t need to go looking for more bad news. However, I think since most of my online presence is related to books, even if I don’t catch news “hot off the press” I do usually end up seeing it at some point, especially if the drama gets big enough. Also, if the situation sounds ridiculous/messy enough, I find myself seeking out more information about it. 🤣 (I know that’s not a great measure for concerning myself but alas, it is what it is, lol)
That said, being part of these spaces where books are spoken about so often has made me aware of just how messy publishing, authors, and some people in the community can be. There has been a wild amount of controversy this year alone and we’re only just halfway through! But I do think it’s important when people speak up about these things and all the bat shit gets pulled out in the open.
Do situations such as this one impact your reading choices?
It does impact my reading choices. It’s a pity what happened with Cait Corrain because her book was actually on my radar of anticipated releases because it sounded awesome—I also don’t think her books were being poorly rated either by the (real) people who received ARCs, but I immediately chucked it off my list following the drama. There have been other authors who I’ve put on my “nope” list or who I have quietly taken off my TBR because of “authors being bad” and it made me think twice about spending my money on their work. I’m not rigid when separating the art from the artist because yes, I’m sure there are problematic authors still on my list, but there are also so many authors who don’t do problematic things that I’d much rather support them by buying their books.
How do you feel about author controversies? Are you in the loop with what happens in the book community? Does it influence your reading choices?
dinipandareads 
I definitely think it plays a role for me! I see a lot on twitter or on some book pages on facebook and I can’t help but make choices based on it lol.
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I didn’t even find out about the Cait Corrain drama until I was halfway done with the book. I was more mad that the publisher didn’t reach out to say “Hey, we’re pulling the book. Don’t review.”
Conterversies with authors do play into what I read. I will not read or finish reading books because of that.
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I pretty much agree with everything you’ve said! I’m not active on Twitter which is where I believe all of the controversy gets big, so I’m a bit late to any news, but they do reach me eventually. These controversies do impact my reading choices, but sometimes, when I’m sooo curious about their books, I still end up reading them, but I WON’T buy them. I’ll probably find some place to borrow them. If that’s not possible, then I won’t read them. But when I do end up reading them… it’s difficult for me to separate the art from the artist. I usually end up hating them, or being more critical of them.
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This is a great topic of discussion, I have such strong feelings about it. I also couldn’t avoid hearing about the Cait Corrain and it certainly made me remove her book from my tbr. I don’t know if I always hear about all of the controversies but at least I hear about the big ones. Authors behaving badly (as well as publishers . Ahem. St. Martin’s Press, for example) go onto my anti-read list. I certainly don’t go around googling everyone before I read their books but whenever I hear something about an author that doesn’t sit right with me I’m happy to make my tbr shorter. Even if I hear something about an author after I’ve read something of theirs, I just don’t recommend their works anymore!
Life is too short to spend my money on art by people who actively cause harm and I do not believe in the death of the author; every piece of art has a piece of its creator embedded in it no matter if it’s intentional or not. So to pretend otherwise for the sake of entertainment is disingenuous and borderline irresponsible. But that’s just my 2 cents. haha like I said, I feel very strongly about this.
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I actually didn’t hear about the St. Martin’s Press controversy until one of the booktubers I follow brought it up. However, compared to other controversies that have cropped up this year, I feel like that one is still more “obscure” and a lot of people still don’t talk about it. I don’t even know is that something that was resolved—did St. Martin’s respond or are they still continuing to ignore it? I’m much the same where I stop recommending or talking or reading an author if I find out something about them after I read them. That has happened quite a few times actually and I’ve even removed my reviews and ratings for the books. This is definitely an interesting topic and seeing people’s opinions on it is interesting too! Thanks for sharing your two cents! I enjoyed reading it and I agree with you 😃
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I agree it feels like a lot of people aren’t talking about it so for some reason it’s less well-known. I follow someone on IG who is very vocal about the boycott so I’ve been following it for a while. St. Martin’s did eventually give an answer but it was more like a non-answer and didn’t address any of the boycott’s specific demands therefore it’s ongoing.
Yes this has happened a few times for me as well and it is so disappointing when it happens but oh well 😦
Yeah for sure I really liked your post and happy to share my thoughts with you 🙂
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So, I just google Cait Corrain. Wow! Why do authors do stuff like that? Yeah, that definitely makes me run from an author’s work.
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How wild is it, right!? Like, why would someone do this to themselves? It still baffles me and I guess it’s good that I’ll never understand that kind of mentality but it’s just… I don’t know. Sad.
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Like you, it probably affects my reading in some way, but I don’t go out of my way to do a background check on every single author I read. If I become aware of something that I personally don’t agree with, then I either won’t read/buy their book, or if I read it I don’t publicly review it. I do think some of the “must be squeaky clean” mentality is detrimental—we all make mistakes, including authors, and we all can learn from our mistakes.
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I agree, it’s much the same for me. I don’t go out of my way to look up an author before reading them, especially if they’re new to me but if I hear about something that doesn’t sit right with me, I take more time to look them up before deciding whether to read them or not. Most of the time it’s a no, lol.
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[…] Let’s Talk Bookish: Author Controversies Impacting My Reading […]
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Sometimes I’m just scared to look at Goodreads reviews of new authors these days. So often things have gone of the rails in the last few years with debut authors. (I also feel some don’t get the right kind of guidance for how hard this process can be of publishing your books and people having opinions about it.)
I have cut of books from my list because of problematic authors. My tbr is too long to keep them on if I have nothing with them regardless. And their have been others that I’ve stopped reading. And then there are some that have whispers about them that make me be on the fence on picking up their books. So I just haven’t picked them up yet.
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[…] the first week of June, Dini @ Dini Panda Reads wrote about author controversies impacting her […]
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[…] Let’s Talk Bookish: Author Controversies Impacting My Reading […]
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