First, I would like to state that the reason I'm defending these author's isn't for the fact that I work their material but it's for the fact that they're getting a bad rep for no reason on this site. Also, how can you knock someone's work if you've never read their material in the first place and that's what leads me to believe that a lot of people are being mislead on some useful information.
Silver Ravenwolf, is hated on this site for what reason I don't know. Looking through the forums it would seem like a lot of people on this site would be into her work. I've read her material, though it doesn't fit along the lines of any set tradition and is loosely based on wicca at best, some of her material is reliable though. From what I gather her writing style on the subject is based on her personal experience alone and what works for her. The only way you could judge her is by working her methods and seeing the results for yourself. All any author does in the occult is give you the basic formula to whatever it is your looking for and it's up to you, the magician to take that knowledge and run with it making whatever modifications necessary to make it work. Some of her info may be wrong on traditions and such but that doesn't change the fact that some of her material works for the average practicing magician.
Silvia Brown (lol my Favorite)
I don't even know where to start on this because she isn't a witch and has never claimed to be one. My mother reads her books because she is all into the day time t.v. kind of thing and I have had the opportunity to read her work as well because of my mother. The only positive thing I have to say about this author is that she does have a clue on how to establish a relationship with your Holy Guardian Angel. You know, from the Golden Dawn, Abramelin, that sort of thing. She does provide a lot of info on meditation and if you were to judge her work on this alone and say it's not worth a damn then you would be saying the same thing about any other occult author out there that talks about meditation and visualization. Some of her meditations can be compared to Konstantino's work and I have yet to see anyone knocking that author on this site.
What is magick? Silvia Brown does touch people's lives with her "magick" whether it be some form of hypnosis or the ability to create an environment to cold read people. The fact is whatever her process is it doesn't matter. She has the ability to change people's lives and make them believe whatever it is that she wants them to believe so that they keep forking over money to her. It takes talent to read people and isn't easy by no means to do. It takes a lot of self discovery to have that kind of gift and that gift is to read people and bend them to your will. By my terms that's the work of a dark magician, and her jedi powers haven't failed her yet because she is sitting on a fortune.
Magick is magick, and if you can use it to create change in this world for personal gain then good for you. I don't support these authors because they don't fit in my particular beliefs and their style is to dry for me but some of their work should not be discredited. You should judge these people if you've personally worked their material or read it.