The Great Pyramid Robbery - pirated!

The Muse is proud to report that The Great Pyramid Robbery is Katherine’s first pirated book! It appears on several sites for download (I won’t encourage the pirates by listing them here) and downloads appear to run into the thousands. Katherine of course receives no payment for these copies and nor does her publisher, which means no golden oats for me… so why is my horn glittering?

1. Because it proves people want to read this book, even if they can’t afford to buy a copy or can’t find one. The latter is understandable, since the GPR does not (as yet) have an American edition so all of its 30,000 sales so far have been in the UK or export markets. It’s also been nine years since its first publication so libraries might have cleared out old copies as they fall apart and not been able to replace them.

2. Because it's free advertising! If people enjoy the pirated version then they might want to get hold of the much more beautiful print edition produced by HarperCollins with a spooky cover showing the magical scarab opening to release its curse.

3. Because GPR is the first book of a series based on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. So if people enjoy this one, they might be tempted to seek out the (so far unpirated) other six books. See Katherine's website if you're curious.

In addition, the Great Pyramid Robbery has the honour of being Katherine’s most popular book loaned from libraries, and has been translated into ten languages, so gets the glitter award for being her Most Travelled Book.

The latest edition is Greek – The Great Pyramid Revenge - translated by the wonderful Anna Vasileiadi-Dardalis and produced by Chatzilakos, who published “I am the Great Horse” last year and will be publishing the remaining Seven Wonders books soon. (If you visit Anna's site but don't read Greek, click on the English flag at the bottom to perform a magical translation).

In which format and/or language have YOU read this book? Did you buy it or was it a gift? Or did you pirate it? I’ll only give you a tiny poke with my horn if you did…