AI rip-offs targeting sapphic books (Update)

The sapphic book community has been facing a lot of challenges lately, from the growing fear of LGBTQ+ book bans and censorship to a noticeable drop in sales for many authors.

Now we are faced with a new threat: AI rip-offs are flooding the sapphic book market.

I’m not talking about people who use AI to churn out books instead of writing their own stories. While I’m not a fan of generative AI in creative spaces and consider it unethical, it’s not illegal at this point. This scammer also goes far beyond that.

This specific scammer feeds the blurbs (book descriptions) of published sapphic books into AI and asks it to re-create the story. Then they use AI to generate a new cover and often translate the book into multiple language with the help of AI. They are trying to make a quick buck by stealing other authors’ book ideas while heavily relying on AI as a tool.

Here are a few examples:

“Eventide Embers” is a rip-off, stolen from Midnight Rain by Haley Cass. The rip-off even kept the “A Those Who Wait story” subtitle of the original!

“Behind the Headlines” was stolen from Sometimes We Fly by Cheyenne Blue. More on the parallels below.

I first discovered what this person is doing in April 2025. Since then, this scammer has published more than 1,000 titles under 98 different pseudonyms. More are added almost daily.

There are strong indications that all those “authors” are the same person, as they all follow the exact same pattern.

Note: A previous version of this blog post listed a pattern of 14 red flags, but it’s been pointed out to me that despite all the caveats I put into that version, some readers might skip reading the caveats and end up accusing a new author of being a scammer just because they share one or two characteristics with the scammer (not the entire pattern). So to err on the side of caution and protect innocent authors, I took out the list of red flags. Instead, I’m sharing just the list of the scammer’s pseudonyms below.

What’s the big deal?

Since this scammer isn’t copying our stories word-by-word and the AI introduced enough differences to the originals, it likely doesn’t count as plagiarism. Ideas aren’t protected by copyright, only the specific way an author wrote that idea is. The law hasn’t caught up with what AI technology can do, so authors likely don’t have much legal protection in these cases.

You might be thinking: If this doesn’t meet the legal definition of plagiarism, then what’s the big deal?

Frankly, as an author who spends hundreds of hours creating complex characters, coming up with story ideas, and creating realistic plots, I don’t much care about the legal definition. To me and to all other authors I talked to, this is theft.

Authors who use generative AI to write books or create covers are already in ethically questionable territory because those AI tools were trained on the works of human authors and artists without their consent or compensation. It was recently revealed that Meta used millions of books from an ebook piracy site to train its AI, including all of my books and those of pretty much every sapphic author I know.

These scammers are taking it even further by stealing from individual authors in addition. These people are not writers. They use AI to scrape our plots and our characters to make money without putting in any of the work. They steal from real books written by queer women, nonbinary writers, and other marginalized creators, likely without having any idea of what it means to be part of the LGBTQ+ community.

If a single scammer published more than 1,000 rip-offs within 9 months, can you imagine what it will do to the sapphic book community long-term? They will flood the market with mass-produced AI rip-offs, making it harder for readers to find authentic books and threatening authors’ livelihoods.

These books also erode readers’ trust in authors. Readers might start to hesitate to take a chance on a new or new-to-them author, fearing that any author they aren’t familiar with might be one of the AI-spamming culprits.

For some authors, this might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and makes them give up writing—because what’s the point if anyone can just steal their ideas, toss them into AI, and make money off it?

That’s why I’m speaking up and taking the time to write this blog post.

Caveat: Authors using the same tropes is not plagiarism or a scam

Be very careful not to jump to conclusions and accuse potential real authors of plagiarism or being a scammer.

Some similarities might be coincidental or due to both books being based on the same tropes.

Not every book with a similar idea is a rip-off. Romance novels often use the same tropes, which naturally leads to books having similar key scenes. For example, fake relationship romances usually have a scene in which the characters have to kiss to convince others they are a couple. That’s not necessarily plagiarism or a sign of a rip-off. The books this scammer creates have more specific, obvious similarities that can’t be explained by mere coincidence or two authors using the same trope.

For example, the scammer published a book that was a rip-off of Sometimes We Fly by Cheyenne Blue. In both books, the main character is a newsreader with a 16-year-old daughter who is arrested, so the main character is dragged to the police station at the beginning of the book. Those are very specific parallels that can’t be explained by both books using the same trope.

The suspected “authors” who very likely create AI rip-offs

Here’s a list of “author” names I very strongly suspect of creating AI rip-offs. I’m not accusing anyone lightly. They all check every single of 14 indicators I identified.

I’ll keep this list updated and add more names to it whenever I find more scammers, so you might want to check back every now and then.

There’s a very clear connection between all of those authors, and I strongly suspect they are all the same person operating by the same pattern.

• Abigail Bennett
• Addison Smith
• Alex Harper
• Alfred W. Brink
• Alicia Nieves
• Alisa Blair
• Amanda Cole
• Amber Hayes
• Ana Bash
• Angela Carter
• Anna Clint
• Ashic Denver
• Becky Jordan
• Ben P. Smith
• Brenda L. Mueller
• Brynn Delaney
• Carlos Paz
• Charlie Myers
• Charlotte West
• China Cass
• Chloe Ashbourne
• Clara Mareni
• Daniel Hawley
• Dorothy Lake
• Denise S. Willard
• Diana Kidd
• Edwin V.
• Elara Skye
• Elaria Wren
• Elen Voss
• Elena Jacob
• Elena Rossi
• Emily Jack
• Emily Johnson
• Emily Parker
• Erick Lahm
• Evelyn M. Whitlock
• G. Tapp
• Glee Mavin
• Hailey Potter
• Harlow London
• Jan P. Johnson
• Jasmine Amir
• Jess Betah
• Judith Tucker
• Julie Hills
• Julie Zaza
• Juliet Walker
• June Montoya
• Kaelen Rook
• Kasie Trent
• Kate Wills
• Kyle Park
• Lee Walsh
• Lisa Rnill
• Lola Greenwood: This person also stole artwork and covers from other authors
• Lommi Bain
• Love Jackson
• Luna Pierre
• Lydia Stones
• Marsh Copper
• Mary Jones
• Maya Ramos
• Megan Brown
• Melanie Sunstorm
• Melly Tenn
• Meredith Snow
• Mindy J. Zavala
• Nicole Carr
• Nile Zarin
• Paul Granderson
• Penny Adu
• Queen Ingram
• Queen Xavier
• Rachel Riley
• Rei Marlow
• Robert Stjepan
• Roman Vale
• Rosa Francisca
• Rose J. Hogan
• Ruth Smith
• Sage Hardy
• Sally Anderson
• Sandra Benson
• Sarah Jones
• Sarah Williams
• Sonia Wills
• Sophia Cooper
• Steph Sacker
• Tamsin Vale
• Theo Blackburn
• Valerie Smith
• Valerie Wills
• Vera Duke
• Vera Hayes
• William Ellison
• Zain Brooks
• Zoey Scarlett