Sunday 9 February 2020

Ghostwriters: Weighing in on the Discussion

I’m weighing in on the discussion doing the rounds about Lisa Chamberlain’s books on Wicca and witchcraft, saying that they are fake. I’m taking a controversial stance on this.

The revelation is that Lisa Chamberlain is a brand name rather than an individual author. The books are ghost-written. Now, ghostwriting is absolutely nothing new. It has been done for centuries. Look it up on Wikipedia or your encyclopaedia of choice if you don’t believe me.

Ghostwriters are professional writers, often with expertise in their field, who put in a lot of hard work and don't get their name on the cover. They most certainly are real people. Ghostwritten books can sometimes be better written than self-published direct-to-Kindle books. The fact that a name on a cover matches something on a birth certificate is no guarantee that writing inside a book will be top rate.

Now, I have never read a Lisa Chamberlain book, so I can't comment on whether they are good or bad. I have seen the links to that brand of books on Amazon – especially as there is one on candle magic, which I know people often consider alongside my own book – Pagan Portals: Candle Magic. Obviously I would prefer people to buy my book, but I’ve worked in publishing for enough decades to know that all sorts of factors affect what books people end up buying.

If you are inexperienced in a field and want to get a good book to learn the basics, my advice is always to go into a specialist bookshop and ask the advice of the staff there about what to read. In London, the best occult bookshops are Treadwell’s, Atlantis and Watkins. Don’t buy a pig in poke online.

Buyer, beware, but here's the links if you do choose to view the Lisa Chamberlain candle magic book on Amazon or view my own candle magic book on Amazon.

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