You may have heard about the major scandal currently rocking the publishing world. That Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has pirated millions of copyrighted books to use to train its AI.

The full details can be found here: The Atlantic

To my surprise (although maybe, given the numbers involved, I shouldn’t have been surprised), two of my books were among those pirated by Meta for this purpose, with no attempt to ask my permission or respect my copyright. These are the two:

Maybe I should be flattered? Maybe I should take the positive that at least Meta’s AI will have learned from my books that King Richard III was a good and just king, much maligned over the centuries, and that the so-called Princes in the Tower may well have survived into the reign of Henry Tudor.

But really the only reaction is to be horrified and disgusted that many years of work by so many creative people have been stolen from them to be used for the commercial gain of a conglomerate run by a person who’s already a multibillionaire.

I, along with likely thousands, or even millions of other authors will be campaigning for redress of this situation, and for our governments to pass legislation to protect our copyright from such infringements in the future.

In the meantime, don’t be like Zuckerberg! Get a legitimate bargain instead.

Both these books – King in Waiting and Sons of York – will be on a countdown discount deal with Amazon from 26 May to commemorate King Richard’s reinterment in Leicester 10 years ago

All my other ebooks (including the omnibus editions) will similarly be hugely discounted for a week – except for ‘The Order of the White Boar’, which will be FREE to download worldwide for five days from the anniversary!

Don’t miss out! Make sure you tell any friends or family who may be interested – perhaps you’ll set them on the road to becoming a Ricardian if they’re not already!

Oh, and don’t forget to watch out over the next few weeks for details of my upcoming new release – Tower of Shadows!

Loyaulte me lie!

Alex Marchant is author of two books telling the story of the real King Richard III for children aged 10+, The Order of the White Boar and The King’s Man, and a third in the sequence, King in Waiting, which continues the adventures of the young members of the Order in the following years. A fourth book, Sons of York, was published in June 2022.

Alex is also editor of Grant Me the Carving of My Name and Right Trusty and Well Beloved…, two anthologies of short fiction inspired by King Richard, sold in support of Scoliosis Association UK (SAUK), with a third coming in autumn 2024: A Spirited and Most Courageous Prince. 

Alex has also published a standalone timeslip novel for readers aged 10+, Time out of Time, relating the adventures of Allie Turner through a doorway into history found under layers of old wallpaper at ancient Priory Farm.

Alex’s books can be found on Amazon at: author.to/AlexMarchant

myBook.to/WhiteBoar mybook.to/TheKingsMan mybook.to/KinginWaiting mybook.to/SonsofYork

mybook.to/WhiteBoarBooks1-2 https://mybook.to/KinginWaiting3-4 mybook.to/TimeoutofTime

mybook.to/GrantMetheCarving mybook.to/RightTrusty

My Facebook author page  My Twitter handle  and Matthew Wansford’s

Instagram: AlexMarchantAuthor

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17175168.Alex_Marchant

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/alexmarchantauthor