Goodreads Staff Bullies: Kara Erickson, Emily Finley

As everyone knows by now, I have taken on the fight against cyber-bullying and stalking. Just as the website STGRB has. The fact is, I didn't really have much of a choice in the matter seeing that I was recruited to fight this battle by the bullies themselves.

The biggest battleground, for me, started on Goodreads. Not to take away from what is happening on the Amazon forum boards. Most of the bullying taking place on both of these sites are done so primarily by the same people. The fact that Amazon has bought out Goodreads hasn't lifted any spirits of these bully attacks being stopped any time soon.

These bully attacks started out against primarily Independent authors. Recently, however, the bullies have started to attack reviewers as well. But only those reviewers who write poor reviews or rate poorly, books written by the authors who run with the bully crowd. In many cases, reviewers have seen their accounts on Goodreads get deleted because of this.

One of the biggest questions being asked is; Who are the people deleting these accounts? Obviously, the bullies are in cahoots with someone at the top of the Goodreads chain. (And I'm not just talking about bully supporter, and Goodreads community manager, Patrick Brown.)

My advice to Indie authors and reviewers would be, if you are targeted by the Goodreads bullies, don't expect help from Goodreads. Today I am going to introduce you to two people that perhaps at first glance, you may think they will be able to help you if you are attacked, but in reality, are in cahoots with the Goodreads bullies.

Many times, when reading articles on STGRB where people are reporting their Goodreads accounts being deleted, and them receiving some kind of email response from a Goodreads employee, that response is coming from Kara Erickson or Emily Finley, two Goodreads employees. In some cases, their name appears on the "deletion" notices.

My point is this, do not be fooled into believing that these two women will be able to help. Or willing to help you, because they can't, and they won't.

So if you are a member of Goodreads, and you get attacked by the Goodreads bullies, or if you witness an attack and think you can get some kind of assistance from any of these two women, or Patrick Brown, know this - you won't. If anything, going to them may only worsen the situation. And / or get you banned from Goodreads.

The best course of action is to just block and ignore these bullies. Most of them don't have a lot of friends anyway because many of you have caught on to who these bullies are, and already are staying away from them. But for those who have yet to figure out who's who in Bully Nation, and you cross paths with these people (which is a nice way of saying, if you are targeted by them) then you might want to refrain from contacting any Goodreads employees. Especially, these two females.

You may also want to be careful about contacting any Goodreads librarians. A good majority of the bullies are Goodreads librarians so, be careful. If you are friends with any Goodreads librarians, and you get attacked or witness an attack, do not complain about it to them, but simply, ask questions like, "I saw such and such going on and wanted to know what you think I should do to help the victim and or prevent this kind of thing from happening again."

Just remember that many of these librarians are friends with other librarians too. Make sure you are confident that your friendship with a Goodreads librarian is stronger than their relationship with another Goodreads librarian. Other wise, you might find out the hard way that you got profiled as being an instigator and the next thing you know, your Goodreads account is deleted and you are banned.

I'm not saying you have to back down or roll over and run away from these vile individuals, but if you choose to stand your ground, do so as respectively as you can if you value your Goodreads account.

I hope this post has helped you in some way. I think the key to having the best experience possible on a website that is filled with such nasty people such as Goodreads or Amazon Forum Boards is to know who to avoid and to know your best course of action once they decide to target you or someone you know.

As for Kara and Emily, this next screenshot is a response they sent to author Eve Thomas telling her that she had been banned from Goodreads after the bullies attacked her on her GR blog and her books. (STGRB covered it) And when Eve tried to reach out to them and apologize, what did the bullies do? They contacted Eve's charity and tried to get her into trouble. This is how criminal these bullies get.

In this next screenshot, we see TinaNicole mentioning something interesting. Take a look. 

It certainly paints a picture that Angela Horn is in deep cahoots with Kara and Emily. Or at least they were until finally, Angela got the boot. Then again, Patrick Brown knew that this post was coming. He may have done this to try and discredit the notion that he and his staff don't support the bullies. However, there's still way too much evidence that suggests otherwise. The thing is though, Angela Horn didn't get the full boot, her sock account, "ETA:Soon", is still very much active. Nice try, Patrick, but you're not fooling me any. Thus, you're not fooling my readers either.

Eve tried to explain the situation to Kara and Emily but obviously, Kara and Emily (like Patrick Brown) are in cahoots with the bullies. Poor Eve didn't stand a chance.

You have been informed. What you do with this information is now up to you.


Update:

In a recent STGRB POST - it was reported that Goodreads is now in the process of deleting "author bashing" reviews. They show screenshots of Kara explaining their "new" rules or "policy". However, this is a false claim. (Not STGRB's fault) Because the truth is, Goodreads is only removing author bashing reviews / bookshelves, and member accounts of those people who show signs of supporting either myself or STGRB. Or from bullied authors who have yet to show their support for me and or STGRB. In other words, if you're an author and they (Goodreads staff) like you, you're safe. But if they don't like you, then they are not going to enforce their ToS. 

I got an email the other day from a girl who showed support for me and other authors by listing books in bookshelves of those authors who are a part of Goodreads Bully Nation with nothing more than "Will Not Read" titles. And she listed those authors who were bullied in positive shelves. This girl also informed me that she rarely commented on the site for fear of retribution. Meanwhile, none of this mattered. But because she showed support for me, her account got deleted recently once this new "policy" change was posted by Kara.

Another friend of mine flagged the reviews of my books that "talk about me and in return, her account got deleted.

Also, Mary Shelly made this comment in response to the Goodreads announcement on STGRB's post. Take a look.

And what did Patrick Brown, Kara and Emily do in response? Take a look for yourself.

That's right, they deleted Mary's account.

Nothing has changed. Goodreads continues to side with the bullies. Patrick Brown, Kara Erickson, and Emily Finley continue to target those whom they do not like. Or those the deem to be supporters of myself and STGRB. Anything they say to the contrary is a smoke-screen and utter bullshit. Which is why anyone who stands against the bullies must continue to hide anonymously for fear of retribution, not only from the bullies themselves, but from the bully staff on Goodreads. (Patrick Brown, Kara Erickson, and Emily Finley) 

I am sorry for you, Mary, in what Patrick Brown and his bully staff did to your account. And to the girl who emailed me her story. 

So in short, please do not believe Kara or any staff member on Goodreads when they make such announcements on the site that might indicate they are doing something about the bully problem within. The truth is, they are not going after the bullies, they are going after those who stand against the bullies on Goodreads. And why? Because it's simple, Patrick Brown and his bully staff do not see the real bullies as bullies, nor themselves, but rather, they see anyone who supports me and STGRB as the real bullies. So it would stand to reason that those would be the ones they would target.

I'm Carroll Bryant .... and this is The Looking Glass.

Things We Learned Today:

* Just because they are Goodreads employees, doesn't mean they are "good" people

* Goodreads continues to support / protect the real bullies

* Patrick Brown, Kara Erickson, and Emily Finley (and the rest of the Goodreads staff) are bullies themselves.

* If The Goodreads staff don't like you, you're gone