Fake Witchy Authors on Amazon
(UPDATE: This has become a series. Visit the second part, “The World of Fake Authorship” here, and the third part, “I Have Been Contacted by Lisa Chamberlain and May Have Found the Re-Spin Seed” here!)
It all started with this Tweet on Twitter:
and this reply:
Immediately afterwards, The Wild Hunt did a little snippet of an article on it, but they didn’t really dig into it much, so I put it on my list. But when someone in our We Witches Three Facebook group asked for recommendation on a beginner’s audio book from Audible and I did a search to see what was there, that’s when the gravity of the situation struck me and I decided to really dive in.
Starting with the list that Thorn Mooney provided, I started compiling the data:
Lisa Chamberlain [UPDATED 2-11-2020]
I have been contacted via email by Lisa Chamberlain!
This is super exciting because this means that she’s a real person and that’s all we really want right now – a real, genuine author behind the books. She has let us know that she is a very private person and has had issues having interviews done, but here is one from 2017 that she generously shared with us!
She also shared that she has a new multi-book publishing contract with Sterling Publishing, which is really exciting as well! It looks like those are scheduled to be out starting this April!
In addition, she said that she has been fighting her own private battle with Amazon about all these other books, because she feels that they are specifically copying her books (the prevalence of the name “Lisa,” the similarity in titles, and even the similarity in text between her original “Wicca for Beginners” and several of the PLR-style books I bought certainly confirm that suspician).
I’ve also requested a more in-depth interview with her to hopefully discuss her and her practice, her experience and technique in self-publishing (she mentioned a publishing team!) and her experience in dealing with these copycats would be valuable information for the entire community.
I apologize to Lisa for her inclusion in this article, and am so thankful she was willing to share this information with us!
The original text from this article is maintained within the screenshot below (because I’m never going to say that I didn’t say what I said, but I can definitely say I was wrong about Lisa Chamberlain):
Lisa Buckland
Lisa Buckland is the second author on our list and she doens’t have a website, nor any social media presence, and like Lisa Chamberlain, she has done no interview nor made any appearances anywhere at all. She published all eight of her books in 2018, but her books only average about 45 pages in length – not much more than a long blog post.
Do those book titles look similar to the ones by Lisa Chamberlain? We’re going to keep seeing that.
Lisa Crowley
The third author on our list is Lisa Crowley – unfortunately, when I looked her up, there were only three audio books left on Amazon credited to her (which are all published by Lisa Crowley in 2019 and distributed through Amazon Services LLC), despite her author bio saying:
Lisa loves to read, but maybe she loves to write even more, so she started writing a collection of books in which she put all her skills developed over many years of study and practical experience.
~ Lisa Crowley (I assume)
But when I did my initial search for her, I had turned up links on Goodreads and other bookseller sites to her original digital print editions, but when you click on the links on Goodreads and the search results from Amazon for them, it just takes you to a screen that says:
Looking for something?
~ Amazon
We’re sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site. :
Though, as you can see in the screenshot, there are other books by a “Lisa Crowley” about a sexually sadistic woman and her escapades, so maybe this particular author didn’t want to mix genres.
But that’s okay, because we have another Crowley in our midst!
Athena Crowley
Athena Crowley is yet another Amazon author, having published two books in 2019 and her third in 2020. Unlike the others, she actually includes a picture on her author bio!
Unfortunately, it happens to be this Free Stock Image by Allinoch over at my favorite royalty free stock image website, Pixabay:
So, still not a real person, unfortunately. She still doesn’t have a social media presence or any other existance outside of Amazon.
Other Authors
That continues on down the line, unfortunately. Lisa (S) Cunningham (sometimes she forgets her middle initial – I guess it happens to the best of us) has 12 books, 10 of which were published in 2019 (8 in November alone!). Amy Lisa Krystal has 4 books, all of which are published in November of 2019. Harmony Magick has 5 books, all of which are published in August of 2019. And SO MANY OTHERS:
- Samantha Lisa
- Amy Harmony
- Lisa Shadows
- Moon Chamberlain
- Esther Arin Spells
- Lisa Spells
- Crystal Stones
- Lisa Moon
- Gaia J Mellor
- Linda Candles
- Brenwan Jonsdotter
- Emily Stone
- Amber Crystal
- Hermione Tarot
- Isabel Scott
- Crystal Moon
- Dora McGregor
- Crystal Molina
- Lisa Spell
- Arin Corvinus
- Amelia Greenwood
- Lisa Magic
- Lisa Lovegood
- Scott Spells
- …and many, many more!
Is this all the same author!?
That’s a good question to ask, but, no, I’m pretty sure it isn’t. About a decade ago in the romance writer’s community, it happened that someone wrote some books, self published them on Amazon, and then sold them to other “authors” for a fee for them to self publish them as well. And I think this is what is happening here now in the witchy community as well. The people involved in this scheme rely on the fact that there are so many books, their readers are not likely to overlap. And with a few word changes here and there, easily done via “Find and Replace” in any word editor to change locations, years, and people’s names, and perhaps changing out a sentence here and there just to be sure, if someone does pick up two copies, they probably won’t notice, since the core information does not really change. The elements of Wicca are the same are the same are the same. So of course they’ll be the same from book to book.
The romance writer community tends to be on the bleeding edge of technology and innovation in the writing world, so they also tend ot be on the bleeding edge of scandal. And the witchy community tends to lag behind – so of course it is only coming around to us a decade later.
If that is hard to believe, check out these book titles:
“Wicca for Beginners: A Guide to Wiccan Beliefs, Rituals, Magic, and Witchcraft” – Lisa Chamberlain
“WICCA FOR BEGINNERS: The ultimate beginners guide to Wicca candle spells, herbal magic, crystal spells, moon magic, Witchcraft Rituals, and magic rituals” – Scott Spells
“Wicca for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Wiccan Magic, Beliefs, Rituals and How to Follow the Witchcraft Path for the Solitary Practitioner” – Lisa Spells
“WICCA For Beginners: Ultimate Guide to Witchcraft and Wicca Magic. Become a Practioner with Wiccan Rituals, Spells, and Beliefs” – Mary J Moon
“Wicca for Beginners: Wiccan Traditions and Beliefs, Witchcraft Philosophy, Practical Magic, Candle, Crystals and Herbal Rituals” – Dora McGregor
“Wicca for Beginners: A Complete Green Guide to Magic, Witchcraft, Rituals, and Wiccan Beliefs for Living a Magical Life” – Scott Gardner
“Wicca: Wicca for Beginners, Wicca Candles, Wicca Herbal Magic, Wicca Book of Spells. A Complete Guide for Magick Practitioners (Witches, Wiccans and Any Other Looking for a Modern Beginner’s Guide)” – Wendy Crystal
And sets are definitely a selling point here:
Fake Reviews
Some people have said that these folks have also been paying people to leave fake reviews on Amazon. I cannot say with certainty whether or not that is totally true from looking at the reviews myself. I DID notice that this book by Lisa Spells had two painfully similar reviews, though, so there may be some of that going on:
And this book by Moon Chamberlain about Wicca Altars is capitalizing off reviews intended for Lisa Chamberlain’s book on Moon Magic, which is an advantage I HADN’T considered in borrowing popular names:
In this article over on The Guardian, which talks about Plagiarism, “Book Stuffing,” and ghost writing, they also discuss this practice of “repackaging” books with new covers to sell over and over again, stating that Amazon REWARDS authors for putting out books every 60 days or less by increasing their placement in the book rankings. Want to read more about how easy it is to game Amazon’s system? Check out this article from The Hustle.
If buying up cheap ghostwritten content isn’t enough, some scammers are now believed to be buying previously published books and repackaging them to sell as new works, with no disclosure, much to the chagrin of authors like Walker [an author and professional ghostwriter], who has written an open letter to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, pleading for him to address the issue: “They … are flooding KU with recycled works that make the quality of the platform rather questionable, while many authors with new stories, fresh voices struggle to find any visibility at all,” she writes.
~ The Guardian
This buying previously published book and repackaging is exactly what I think is happening with all these damn-near identical books being sold on Amazon. I don’t think you’ll come to any harm in buying them as someone did originally write them professionally and they should be good, general, generic information. But there’s no real telling without reading each and every one of them.
And, yeah, I’m going to read one. I’m just not going to do that TODAY. So stay tuned for an update.
NOTE: if you got listed as a fake author here and you are NOT a fake author – or if you see glaring holes in my reasoning – REACH OUT TO ME and let’s talk!
The Series
This has become a series. Visit the second part, “The World of Fake Authorship” here, and the third part, “I Have Been Contacted by Lisa Chamberlain and May Have Found the Re-Spin Seed” here!
28 Comments
Pamela Cummins
Scammers are all over Amazon and that includes books. Sadly, plagiarizers steal many authors’ years of hard work that is easy to do on Amazon for fast money. Then there’s the so-called author writing books on topics they know nothing about and/or did a little research. This is why before buying a book, research the author’s website, blog, and social media platforms. Better yet, buy your books from other online stores where this is less likely to happen, such as Barnes and Nobles, Apple Books, Google Play… Buying your books elsewhere also stop the Amazon monopoly on books, which makes this Indie author very happy.
Nathara
Absolutely this! Like I said, we are one of the last genres to be hit by this phenomenon – absolutely NOT the first nor even among the first – so like you said, it’s already well and truly rampant on Amazon. And there are other great services that will provide eBooks and credit your favorite local bookstore! Libro.fm is one that I’ve heard a lot of really great things about!
Wendee
As a total beginner this angers me! Please provide s list of authentic and safe resources for those of us searching for truth and understanding.
Nathara
That is a great comment, Wendee, and I had not considered that providing a recommended list would be an important aspect to this! I am already planning a second part to this, so that will definitely be included!
Karen
I have two books on Amazon. I am a real person published under the pen name Chasendreams. I had no idea people are stealing work. Guess I better look into it. I don’t go into magick till the second book.
Nathara
Luckily, Karen, most of the plagiarizers/fake authors don’t alter the title TOO much, so take a peek at the titles most similar to your own. Also, you’ll notice that the book summaries and covers are shockingly similar, too!
Michelle G
Thank you so much for doing the research on the fake books. I myself was looking at a few of those listed. Appreciate the info.
Nathara
You are so welcome! They LOOK really great, and I’m almost sure that the content is… fine, just broad and generic, but I will be buying a few of these books and reviewing them over the next couple weeks just to be sure of that. In the next part, I will also be including recommended books, too.
Nicole
Lisa Chamberlain approached me and asked me to write a book for basically pennies. I turned her down. Wow!
Nathara
Wow, Nicole! I would LOVE to hear more if you would be willing to share more? Let me know!
S. Heart
Well, this is a good article about why the authors are most likely not real people, but you didn’t talk at all about the content of the books themselves, so I don’t think this article supports your argument about the books themselves being fake. I read this article hoping to learn more about fake Wicca practices and things of that sort that would make the books fake, but so far, the books still seems as real as any other, except maybe with a ghost writter.
Nathara
That is a great point, S Heart – and as I stated in the article, I am pretty sure that the books are just generic and broad, recycling whatever basic information you can find anywhere else, but I do intend to buy a few to review specifically (and compare to see how similar they really are) and will be back with a second part.
Ghost writing is usually thought of traditionally as someone taking your story, via an interview of some sort, and putting into words for you – but it seems in the year 2020, that has also grown to include people researching entire topics and fabricating person experiences and histories as well, and to me, and a lot of other people, that is very fraudulent.
Taylor
A few examples of actual authors would have been a nice addition to this article…
Nathara
I have received a couple other comments on this as well and it’s a great point! In the next part of this, I will definitely include recommendations as well. Thank you.
Yvonne Aburrow
Wow that’s very concerning. I’m also deeply angry that my books were pirated off of Lulu by people who have free downloads of books on their sites within days of me publishing on there. Need I remind people that (real) authors don’t make tons of money out of writing books, so please buy our work rather than downloading it for free.
Nathara
Pirating books is a whole other, but very real, issue! Real authors do not make enough from their book sales already which is why this kind of stuff is so frustrating!
Elise
I did like you article, however I do agree that a list of reputable authors would have been good. I have many book and do own a few from your listed authors. They are very vague and not to much detail they tend to repeat themselves and you will find similarities in the writing between many of these. A very good rule of thumb is to not only research the author but the content itself and I am not talking about google. This is the time to start heading to the good old fashioned library. The reason I say this is, google is full of tons of info but anyone can put anything up there. Now I’m not saying don’t use google but cross research and use that intuition ( gut feeling). Enough of my rambling good luck and blessed be.
Nathara
I agree, Elise, a list of reputable authors is coming! And this is great advice – researching people is so important – that is why I talked about looking them up and trying to find them on social media, that they had done an appearance somewhere, that they had held classes, that there was an interview – SOMETHING to show they were a real person. I absolutely recommend researching authors before you buy. I know even pre-internet I had bought many books by reputable authors from real publishing house that I just ended up not liking their personality and writing style and I would have been better served and learned more if I had bought from people I identified more with.
It is affirming to hear that about the authors sounding the same as each other from book to book – that is exactly what I expected to find when I read some of them myself, so thank you for that.
Raven Lancaster
As someone who has actually read these books (you can find them for free if you’re persistent enough) I can say the Lisa Chamberlain books are close to each other in their style, word use, tone, and general framework. That is something you expect from a single or two authors writing about the same general topic. Yes the books are basic, but all the information is together in one place. They are beginner’s guides. The others of these “authors” I’ve read are poorly written and filled with “cut and paste” sections with just enough difference to try to pass it off as original. They also sound like teenagers or young college age as their grammar is wretched. You can frequently find these other books for free with a quick search under “free kindle books Wicca” and they remain free for days at a time.
Nathara
Wow, thank you so much for the information! After publishing this article, I have been getting a lot of information from people about the various authors – some seem to be more like a shared authors name with one person acting as a “director” of the series (this seems to be the case with Lisa Chamberlain) whereas the others seem to be more like cut-and-paste, just like you’re saying here, so it’s super useful to hear that information from someone who has read the books! Thank you!
Lisa Murano
These are not fake, they’re just made using PLR. Basically, someone writes a bunch of books then sells them with the rights to publish it under the buyers name. It happens in every niche….which explains why sometimes when you look up a recipe, you find the exact pictures on several sites!
Nathara
Yes! As I had mentioned, this trend or “technique” is hitting the witchy genre last (or nearly last) – it is not unique to us or new in any way – I first heard about it happening in the romance genre about 10 years ago. But I didn’t know the term for it, “PLR” – so I appreciate you SO MUCH for sharing that with me! It’s a frustrating thing and I hate to see people buying books and receiving the exact same text (or nearly the same text) over and over and over again – how frustrating, what a waste of money, and it takes money out of the hands of real authors, especially in the case of Kindle Unlimited and the way that pricing and payout system works.
Jeanne
What is the intention behind this scam? Deception obvs but bigger picture wise. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Nathara
The oldest motivation in the history of civilization – the most money made for the least amount of effort required. And I am working on spelling that out, so hold tight.
Amy Marsh
Thanks so much for an eye-opening look at an aspect of publishing that I knew nothing about! I’m published in other areas (human sexuality, mostly), and am working on two novels, so I’m suddenly feeling very queasy indeed. That said, I also appreciate the cautions about fake authors of witchcraft books. My current faves are Aidan Wachter’s Six Ways, Daniel Foor’s Ancestral Medicine, and Misha Magdalene’s Outside the Charmed Circle. Jason Miller has some good stuff too. I have bought other books based on interviews with authors on podcasts such as Down at the Crossroads. Author interviews are a great way to figure out if you want to buy that person’s book. Thanks again for all you do!
Nathara
Oh, I just ran across a recommendation for Aidan Wachter’s Six Ways and put it on my Wishlist to buy later! I ALSO love interviews and podcasts for finding new authors and really recommend them as a source to find and connect with new authors, too – it’s a great way to find out how well you’re going to conncet with a particular author before investing in a book. I hate to buy a book that has a great sales pitch only to find out that the author and I have opposing world views. Unfortunately, the self-help/pop psychology genre is already full of these books! But persist anyways, because the more people know, the more they’ll be able to discern the difference! And I LOVE that we have a witchy person out there writing in human sexuality, too. <3 Keep up the good work!
Briana Blair
As a legitimate author who has put out 28 books in my 19 year career, this is sickening. It’s no wonder I have such a hard time selling. I write in a few genres because I’m an eclectic person, but I prefer to write in the spiritual field. It’s just another example of people who do real work and write good content being pushed out of view by scammers and fakes.
I do have to say that short books don’t automatically mean bad books though. I’ve put out short books because that’s all the topic needed. Books for tips, poetry, etc., don’t have to be long to be of value. I’ve put out 25 page quick references and 600+ page books as well.
Nathara
Great point about short books not automatically being bad – I have purchased fantastic books that are really short – novellas and poetry, shortly, but also really short how-tos on programming, so they definitely have their place! But they are rarely marketed as the complete guide to a complex, in depth topic. So it’s a matter of discernment and keeping in mind the page number to topic ratio is a good thing for people to have in mind. I am so sorry you’re having a hard time selling, though, but I’m glad to at least provide reassurance that it isn’t you? If you’re comfortable doing so, shoot me a link to your books and maybe we can set up an interview to give you a boost?