Tuesday, January 19, 2016

I got catfished by an author.



An associate from Penguin Random House named Corinne contacted me two months ago, asking if I would like to be put on a list of reviewers to receive books monthly in exchange for a review per month. I thought this was such an amazing opportunity! It looked legit, since she had a penguin email account and everything.  It also turned out that a couple of my best friends, Sierra and Emma, had also received the email.  It was awesome!

A month passed, and the bibliothon girls were preparing for our readathon.  The day before it started I woke up and opened up the group message the 7 hosts use and saw a message from Sierra saying, "I wish Kassie were awake. She's going to be pissed."  I was suddenly very awake! What had happened??

Emma and Sierra explained that Corinne was in fact an author named Christine who had faked everything and was a self published author who was lying to get her book read.  Sierra was right. I was pissed. WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT.

I'm so conflicted about the whole thing too, because although I'm angry and frustrated at the situation from my point of view: she lied to me, she has now made me more distrustful of authors/publishers who contact me, etc... I also am so saddened by the fact that she so quickly and abrubptly destroyed her own career. She's only a nineteen year old girl, and it could have easily been insecurity that led her down this path.  Does that mean she gets a pass from me? No.  But it does make me feel bad for her.

I made a video on my channel talking about this situation as well so if you'd like to check it out, here is a link.


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