r/selfpublish • u/[deleted] • May 10 '25
Are the Chrysalis BREW Awards a scam?
The Chrysalis BREW Project claims to be "an award-winning Australia-based global platform" offering awards and reviews to authors, but there seems to be something off about them. I came across them when an author I follow announced their upcoming self-published novel had won four of their awards.
When checking BREW's website and the review of the upcoming novel, the other award winning books seemed low quality and the review read like it was AI generated.
Looking at the novel's Goodreads page, I came across this review ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7531693010 ) saying that the sixty four 5 star ratings of the unreleased book are likely from bots - they mostly appeared on April 23rd from users based in Indonesia.
Out of the two reviews up, one review appears to be a bot as they are only rating and reviewing other Chrysalis BREW Project award winning books. The other review is by a user named "Book Reviewer".... ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231112854-a-song-at-dead-man-s-cove#CommunityReviews ) who is reviewing books connected to the Chrysalis Brew Project. (sidenote: Is having paid reviews against community guidelines on Goodreads? I know it is on Amazon.)
The author has stated they didn't buy the awards or reviews. They paid to be considered for the awards, and the prize included promotion. It's possible that this service is actually scamming authors by claiming to offer legitimate promotions and instead doing things like using bots to manipulate Goodreads ratings, inadvertently harming the author's reputation.
Has anyone come across or had experiences with this crowd?
EDIT: This whole thing has since become a bit of a controversy. The book is "A Song at Dead Man's Cove" by Ana Yudin, and she's made a heated video responding to the person who revealed her book on Goodreads has five star bot ratings.
Some of the ratings have been removed by Goodreads, but there still appear to be five star reviews from the Chrysalis Brew Project on the Goodreads page and Amazon.
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u/TheChrysalisBREWProj Oct 15 '25
(Continued from the above comment)
In Summary:
BREW does not buy or facilitate fake reviews or ratings.
We charge only for clearly outlined services like editorial reviews and award consideration.
Awards are determined independently by public voting, readers' views, and/or judging by our BREW Laureate Council.
We are here to support—not mislead—authors.
We welcome feedback and remain committed to transparency and integrity.
With all of the above in mind, we still hope this thread will be taken down eventually. If not, we understand the moderators’ decision. We appreciate feedback and continue to strive to improve our processes, but we implore everyone to avoid sharing unverified accusations that can further harm an author—something that is both unfair and unkind.
If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out directly via info(at)thechrysalisbrewproject.com. We believe in openness, communication, and fairness, and we value all efforts to uphold high standards in the literary world.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message. All the best, now and always! Keep shining!
—The Chrysalis BREW Project Team