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The Goodreads plot that tanked a writer's debut

Jael Richardson, Syrus Marcus Ware and Sarah-Tai Black talk about the bizarre drama on book review platform Goodreads that led to a debut writer’s book deal getting cancelled.

Jael Richardson, Syrus Marcus Ware and Sarah-Tai Black weigh in on the online book drama

CBC Arts ·
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Goodreads, an online platform where users can post book reviews and interact with their favourite authors, generally has a wholesome brand: it gives book lovers a place to geek out about their fandom, and can also give authors a big boost in publicity.

But when anything gets as popular and powerful as Goodreads has become, it turns out there will be people who try to game the system.

This recently happened in truly bizarre fashion — and it backfired badly on one author, who lost a two-book deal with Penguin Random House.

For this Friday's wrap panel, Jael Richardson, Syrus Marcus Ware and Sarah-Tai Black join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the drama, as well as Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali's poignant Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.

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