Daphne Press will no longer publish Corrain’s debut

Daphne Press will no longer publish Cait Corrain’s debut novel Crown of Starlight after Corrain admitted to posting negative reviews about other books on book recommendation website Goodreads under multiple accounts.

Daphne Press launched in 2021 as an arm of book subscription and special editions company Illumicrate, and has grown into publishing original works. 

After originally saying it would remove Crown of Starlight from its 2024 publishing schedule, Daphne Press confirmed last night (12th December) it "will no longer publish Crown of Starlight by Cait Corrain, or any other works on that contract".

Illumicrate, owned by Daphne Press founder, Daphne Tonge, will also no longer feature Corrain’s novel in its May 2024 box.

In a statement, Illumicrate added: "Additionally, Illumicrate will already be featuring three of the authors who were affected, in other monthly boxes throughout 2024, the first one being in January." 

The three featured authors include Frances White for her debut Voyage of the Damned, Molly X Chang’s debut To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods and K M Enright’s Mistress of Lies.

Allegations against Corrain went viral on 6th December 2023 following a post on X by author Xiran Jay Zhao, author of Iron Widow and Heavenly Tyrant. Zhao has since posted a video on TikTok explaining their post on X. 

Del Rey, Corrain’s publisher in the US, announced its decision to pull Crown of Starlight from its publishing schedule on 11th December. Corrain’s agent, Rebecca Podos at the Rees Literary Agency, also announced she will no longer work with Corrain. 

In an apology on X, Corrain said she had been "fighting a losing battle against depression, alcoholism and substance abuse" since 2022. 

"In late November, 2023, I started a new medication, and on December 2nd 2023, I suffered a complete psychological breakdown. 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, bombed the ratings of several fellow debut authors, and left reviews that ranged from kind of mean to downright abusive."

She added: "Two of those authors – Molly X Chang and Danielle Jensen – are fellow Del Rey authors. Kamilah Cole and Bethany Baptiste just happened to be on the wrong Goodreads lists at the wrong time. I felt no ill will towards any of them, it was just my fear about how my book would be received running out of control. My memories of this are extremely fuzzy, so it’s possible there are a couple other authors. If so, please know I take full ownership of what I did to you as well. I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know. There’s nothing I can say to erase what I did to you."

She also admitted to trying to "cover [her] tracks" when allegations first began to circulate by making up a chat with "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 values," she said, adding that she is now checking into "an intensive psychiatric care and rehab facility".

Last month Goodreads revealed changes it had made to limit ratings and reviews to prevent “review bombing".