TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books

Paulo Coelho, the best-selling author of “The Alchemist”, is using BitTorrent and other filesharing networks as a way to promote his books. His publishers weren’t too keen on giving away free copies of his books, so he’s taken matters into his own hands.

Coelho’s view is that letting people swap digital copies of his books for free increases sales. In a keynote speech (embedded below) at the Digital, Life, Design conference in Munich he talked about how uploading the Russian translation of “The Alchemist” made his sales in Russia go from around 1,000 per year to 100,000, then a million and more. He said:

In 2001, I sold 10,000 hard copies. And everyone was puzzled. We came from zero, from 1000, to 10,000. And then the next year we were over 100,000. [...]

I thought that this is fantastic. You give to the reader the possibility of reading your books and choosing whether to buy it or not. [...]

So, I went to BitTorrent and I got all my pirate editions… And I created a site called The Pirate Coelho.

He’s convinced — and rightly so — that letting people download free copies of his books helps sales. For him the problem is getting around copyright laws that require him to get the permission of his translators if he wants to share copies of his books in other languages.

So is Coelho just seeding torrents of his books? That’s just the beginning. He took it one step further and, as quoted above, set up a WordPress blog, Pirate Coelho, where he posts links to free copies of his books on filesharing networks, FTP sites, and so on. He says it had a direct impact on sales:

Believe it or not, the sales of the book increased a lot thanks to the Pirate Coelho site…

In his speech he talks about how the Internet is changing language and books, and how online “piracy” and BitTorrent have helped him not only be more widely read, but also sell more books! It’s a must watch.

Via P2P-Blog

Related Posts

Previous Post | Next Post

  • Zoft

    Really great to hear :)

  • torrentfun

    right way

  • Wade

    Glad things are working out well for him. Content distribution does help sales, that’s a given.

  • yar

    Great book, by the way.

  • Pingback: Paulo Coelho uses piracy to help sales « Karmafan’s Blog

  • skakidd

    a smart man

  • TotalWimp

    Good to hear, we need more people like him to tell the big cheese’s to F off and get with the program!

  • Bahamut

    Smart man, too bad it only works if the item in question is *good*. All those crappy authors/artists/movies will need to find something called talent (or a new job) because this won’t work for them and therefore, they have to go crying to mommy about the big bad pirate on the interweb.

  • Edwin

    [quote]Smart man, too bad it only works if the item in question is *good*. All those crappy authors/artists/movies will need to find something called talent (or a new job) because this won’t work for them and therefore, they have to go crying to mommy about the big bad pirate on the interweb.[/quote]

    And why it should work for crappy authors? ;)

    Author is one to be rewarded, not PR manager.

  • Ben

    I just left a comment over at the Pirate Coelho blog. I hope it gets back to him.. =)

  • Rycon

    finally somebody is hoping on the money train, i fuckin cant believe there just starting to figure this out..

    THERES MONEY TO BE MADE PEOPLE! Stop whining and hop on the money train like this guy, or die.. whatever, your choice, and you only have these 2.

  • The P!nk Pr!nce

    Top effort to him!

  • Mgr

    Hell yes!

    And for those authors who haven’t seen the light yet, help them out by scanning their books and putting them online:

    http://www.rorta.net/textfiles/free.your.books.singleside.pdf

    http://www.rorta.net/textfiles/liberez.vos.livres.singleside.pdf

  • Anonymous

    And another smart person understands the internet and copyright problems ;)

  • barakuda

    Where are those guys to tell him hes stealing hes own book :)

  • Leo

    Coelho is a very wise man. You know that already from reading his books.

    Today he proves that he is wiser than the entire copyright-industry.

  • tordj

    this is the best news so far.

  • Matt

    Baen Bookss has been doing that for years. Apparently, it’s something like tripled their sales.

  • Zera

    suck on that you corporate shit faces.

  • Anonymous

    It’s always great to hear this. People like him deserve it, too!

  • Brazillian reader

    Does everyone in here praising this guy is serious? He is a hack. The majority of people here in brazil with a little academic education hates this guy. He is a joke in a lot of circles. His writing is an pseudo-mystical ego trip… Please dudes… Maybe the translators are doing a better job than he is… But his success overseas seriously amazes me…

  • Crandom

    Protocol Bittorrent = new Protocol();
    BigCompany.Profit.AddNewRevenueStream(Bittorrent);
    MessageBox.Show(BigCompany.Profit.ToString());

    ^ For those who only speak C#.

    Result:

    Loads of money. Just like cd/tape.

  • db

    The Alchemist is my favorite book, simply awesome… all his other books looked a little too inspirational for me, so I’ve never read them.

  • Jasper van Weerd

    great speaker

    good innititive

  • skrape

    He is so right, i like this guy!! He understand the whole thing.

  • n1

    good to see more and more ppl daring the step into the future, rather than clinging to the past.

  • Fingerless Bob

    .,mcvxkj p h p[q98 f[kbje;woih /’knlasc jlkbxzc ,. m /ln,lzsd.,

  • Jaxxo

    ok man right, Paulo is a smart man okay?

  • Anonymous Cop

    Haahahahahaha I will arrest you all too, I can persuade the FBI to send people to Guantanamo bay.

    All I have to do is anonymously send one of your IPs, tell the FBI you sent me a terrorist threat and you wanna bomb america, and boom your gonna be tortured.

    I win you assholes.

  • Anonymous Cop

    Soldiers this website support al-queda.

    Get Them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • James.

    wow.. this anonymous cop guy has some real issues.

  • Syndicate

    I’m going to buy the book.

  • Trottsky

    This makes me want to pick it up at B&N more. Well played sir.

  • Fan

    I think this is really great I love his books x3 plus hp’s got a commercial with him on it.

  • .

    Now if only college textbooks could be picked up via bittorrent…

  • BillIsGay

    You see, all you have to do is to embrace the power of sharing. Just because some of use uses bittorent tech that doesn’t mean we don’t buy we just have to try it first before we’re sure that it’s worth the bucks.

    And it’s obvious that “The Alchemist” is worth the bucks so cheers!

  • bpcomp

    @Brazillian reader

    So what if his writting sucks, (hanvent read any personally so I don’t know). Thats not the point. The point is that he’s selling his books by giving them away. We’re talking about economics, not content.

  • Marius

    The “PIRATE COELHO” blog is NOT really Coelho’s site! It’s a fan who put download links of Coelho’s books. And he says that Coelho has nothing against him posting the books. Read the About page…
    Does he really say that in the (too long) speech ?

  • Pingback: www.enchilame.com

  • Thomas

    One reason why this works especially well with books is that people still prefer reading paperbooks than sitting infront of a screen reading.

  • strangetpwn

    What I can’t believe is that publishers are so blinded by greed and their insistence on one-user/one-device one license that they can’t see how obvious the argument for sharing is.

    Books have always been something to enjoy and share. Who hasn’t borrowed a book from a friend, really enjoyed it, and then gone out and bought other books by the same author? All of my personal favourite authors were discovered this way.

  • Mgr

    @34:

    Try http://textbooktorrents.com for textbooks, and see the guide in post #12 for tips on scanning your own and helping the community :).

  • Pingback: www.planetalibro.com.ar

  • fjaak

    Nice. Especially since I’ve been preaching the same for quite some years now.

    Very few people wants to read an entire book on a computer. If the book is good they’re going to buy it. Electronic distribution is a great means to get people to know about the book, and will only improve sales.

    Electronic versions otoh is a great asset since it lets the reader quickly find a part of the book, which is much faster than searching through the book manually.

    Therefore in my oppinion all printed books should be delivered with an electronic version, if they’re not already made available on the web, which would be ideal, both for the user and the seller.

  • jensguld

    Has been done before with success.
    See here:
    http://home4.inet.tele.dk/jensguld/Flint.htm
    or go to http://www.baen.com, click on Free Library and then Prime Palaver #6.
    There are statistics and numbers. Study them.

  • bubbakush

    this guy could teach the riaa,mpaa a lesson.

  • dole

    Duh!!!!

  • ScreaminJay
  • Anonymous

    This won’t work once devices like the Sony Reader make it as enjoyable to read electronic copies as it is to read paper versions.

  • Anonymous

    easy to do for movies and music if the dinosaur could think..

    Simply include something that cant be digitalized and instantly purshasing a movie box will give you more then if you got it for free online, and that might be enough for most to buy movies again because of added “value” and not just a 10pence generic plastic disc in a cheap plastic cover..

    Its called adapting me thinks

  • Pingback: The Distant Librarian

  • Pingback: Support this story on Stirrdup

  • Anonymous Cowherd

    Brazilian Reader: I share your astonishment; Coelho is one of the worst writers I have read in my life.

    This story is all the more frustrating because I am 100% in favour of the free distribution of ideas that Coelho is advocating. I only wish this was done by somebody with better ideas to distribute.

  • The Flea Circus Film

    It’s an interesting variation on viral marketing techniques. The web is opening up lots of new marketting and moneytorising opportunities for publishers of many forms and I certainly intend to make use of them for the Flea Circus Film.

  • Michael Z. Williamson

    My first novel is available for free on the publisher’s site, and not only does it still sell well, I get lots of email from people who read it, then bought my other works.

    And a lot of them go out and by the hardcopy, too.

  • Paulo Coelho

    I used a “fan” site because, due to the translations rights, I cannot put the site in my name.
    As for the Brazlian reader comments, I encourage him to at least read my books. This is again the classical prejudice of an elite that talks about “academic” when we are here talking about Web 2.0

  • Dani

    [quote comment="271216"]Does everyone in here praising this guy is serious? He is a hack. The majority of people here in brazil with a little academic education hates this guy. He is a joke in a lot of circles. His writing is an pseudo-mystical ego trip… Please dudes… Maybe the translators are doing a better job than he is… But his success overseas seriously amazes me…[/quote]
    Claro, a porra dos brazucas que não reclamassem ou gozassem com o sucesso de alguém… n mudam mesmo!

  • Nullzero

    baen books http://www.baen.com has known and taken advantage of this for years.

  • Paulo Coelho

    Disregard everything I said above; I, in fact, love the taste of cock.

  • saunde.blogspot.com

    Someone that understands the internet world

  • Pingback: Politia inchide 2 trackere mari din iasi! - Page 2 - TORRENTs.RO

  • Anonymous Cowherd

    Paulo, nothing in Brazilian Reader’s post suggests that he hasn’t read your books. You seem happy enough to accept awards from the elite that you accuse him of being part of.

    And if that really was you saying that you love the taste of cock, then good for you.

  • Kuja

    Not even free I want those

  • Pingback: Paulo Coelho piratea sus libros e incrementa sus ventas | El blog de Jesús Amieiro

  • Why not provide a download

    Agreed this is going to be great for his fans.

    But, just a thought. He can just provide free direct downloads of the electronic versions of his books on his website, right ? Why would he have to take a bit of circuitous route to provide download through torrents only ?

    I find no one has raised this in the comments section, so is the question stupid or just not thought of ?

    Neways, Thanks Mr.Paulo Coelho. I enjoy your books.

    Gowri, Bangalore, India

  • Pingback: Veo veo » Paulo Coelho piratea sus propios libros

  • Pingback: Pirate My Books!

  • Pingback: Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books

  • Pingback: WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M

  • Billy Gattes

    That’s good!

  • Pingback: The first Sunday Salon -- aquatique.net

  • Pingback: Ikusi makusi » Paulo Coelhok bere liburuak pirateatzen ditu

  • TypingLOL_CauseCancer

    I know if I enjoy something a lot, I’ll buy it. Coelho knows what he’s doing, so good for him.

  • Sodsa

    It simply works. I read downloaded versions of Harry Potter and as it was brilliant stuff, not only did I purchase all the books, I would not shut up about how good the books are to everybody that I met. Just as I did with The Alchemist.

    May it be books or movies (American Gangster is a prime example), if the art is good, not only will it generate sales through good publicity, but a lot of people (like me) will spend money on it just to make sure that the artist gets the payment he rightly deserves.

    I only wish artists would publish their work for free and give people the option for people like us to donate to them, leaving out middle men like the record Industry and publishing houses.

  • Pingback: Eat More Custard | Beneath the Cover

  • Pablo

    Go Paulo, your speech has made my morning. You are always thinking outside the box. That is why I buy all of your books.

  • chessboxing

    I liked the last guest his speech. It was more fundamental. Creativity being endorst by the corporations, religion,… thus powers. They wan’t to keep the past because it is more secure and been there, so seen what was good for them at the glory times. It is deeper then just “steeling” which is easy the accuse people of.
    Nice and very intriging.

  • Pingback: Times Emit: Apt’s links for January 30th

  • Pingback: film online

  • Pingback: Author Pirates Own Book, Boosts Sales « Orion Spur

  • Pingback: Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books |

  • Pingback: Paulo Coelho afirma que BitTORRENT é bom para autores

  • Pingback: پائولو کوئیو، کیمیاگر وردپرسی تورنت‌باز! « از نگاه چشم به دیده عقل با تفسیر منطق

  • Pingback: Paulo Coelho uses piracy to help sales — karmafan.com | blog

  • brazillian reader

    @ Paulo Coelho: “As for the Brazlian reader comments, I encourage him to at least read my books. This is again the classical prejudice of an elite that talks about “academic” when we are here talking about Web 2.0″

    Web 2.0?? I’m not judging the form, Paulo, but the content, as all book criticism must surely be directed. Does the covers of your books matter as well as the text? You can market horseshit in the prettiest and shinniest package. In the end of the day, dear “”alquimista”", is it not still horseshit? I have read a couple of your sorry excuses for literature… and I must say I feel sorry for your so called “fans”. You sir, are an untalented hack, and always will be. You dispise the “elite” for having the clarity and tools to judge your pathetic little work. Success and quality are absolutely not directly proportional.

    Cheers.

  • Pingback: Músicas e livros grátis, o futuro?

  • WhoCares

    Brazillian Reader, let Paulo be a hack… at least he’s something, what are you?

    And frankly if the alchemist is the kind of stuff you call a hack or a joke, then you simply don’t get the message behind it and it’s a better thing for all of us who did…

  • Pingback: litfarm.com » how to get rich as an author: pirate yourself

  • Pingback: Times Emit: Free (conomics)

  • Pingback: The Rise of Free Online Books « Postcard Headlines

  • Pingback: janep.org | the singapore and sydney blog » Blog Archive » Coelho pirates his own books

  • Pingback: The Long Tail and Sharing at NP-Contemplation

  • Pingback: Sorting Out the Future of Publishing at TOC | Medialoper

  • Pingback: planetalibro.com.ar

  • Pingback: » It’s Round-Up Day!

  • Pingback: Pirate Us? | The No Starch Press Blog

  • rebazghazi@yahoo.com

    i am looking forward to buying his next books, he reveals what i consider secret.

  • rebaz ghazi

    i expect unexpected things in his works.

  • Pingback: Cult of Mac » Blog Archive » Free Copies of Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod on FileSharing Networks

  • Pingback: Free Books by Wired.com’s Leander Kahney | MeltedCube

  • Pingback: The Young Writers Blog » Blog Archive » Giving Away Books For Free?

  • Pingback: Zwartbaard.nl » Blog Archive » Publisher Posts Mac Books on The Pirate Bay

  • Pingback: The Cult of Mac i The Cult of iPod dostÄ™pne na Pirate Bay - Apple Blog

  • Pingback: Publisher Posts Mac Books on The Pirate Bay at IDTorrent Blog

  • Pingback: The Newest iPod » Blog Archive » Cult of Mac/iPod books go legit and DRM-free on P2P

  • bob

    BwNgDR hi good site thx http://peace.com

  • Aryo the Prince of Persia

    [quote comment="271216"]Does everyone in here praising this guy is serious? He is a hack. The majority of people here in brazil with a little academic education hates this guy. He is a joke in a lot of circles. His writing is an pseudo-mystical ego trip… Please dudes… Maybe the translators are doing a better job than he is… But his success overseas seriously amazes me…[/quote]

    ok! u have academic education… good for you !
    so what?! whats your point???
    we love him, and we love his works. if your “educated people” got something better, then they should publish it, and then :
    let the readers decide! … (but i’m sure they already have decided !)

  • Pingback: Book Authors See BitTorrent As a Promotional Tool | TorrentFreak

  • Pingback: ehcrea.blog » P2P Destekçisi Yazar

  • SLS

    The Alchemist is a wonderful book. While everyone else is crying about the pirating and saying it is cutting into their profits Paulo is making it work for him. Great to see a forward thinker.Pirating is making artist step up the quality of their work. Let’s put it this way, if you look online and it is difficult to find your work i.e. (movie, book, song…) being pirated, then your work sucks and you shouldn’t get paid anyway.

  • Pingback: Best-Selling Author Turns Piracy into Profit | Clint Is A Geek.com

  • Pingback: Best-Selling Author Turns Piracy into Profit | CyberLaw

  • Pingback: Zwartbaard » Blog Archive » Best-Selling Author Turns Piracy into Profit

  • MUDIT

    AWESOME BOOK…………..
    IT CAN CHANGE ONE’S LIFE…
    EVERY ONE MUST READ IT ONCE…
    ITZ A GEM OF A BOOK….

  • Pingback: Pirate Coelho at Paulo Coelho’s Blog

  • Pingback: Como livros na internet aumentam as vendas de livros na livraria « EM-BAR-CA-DO

  • Pingback: Reich durch Piraterie - The Inquirer DE

  • Pingback: Furious Author Cancels Pirated Book | TorrentFreak

  • Pingback: Filesharing und Bücher (Beletristik) « G33KY^2 - The Nerd Strikes Back

  • Pingback: Boycott Novell » Links 05/09/2008: Sub-$100 GNU/Linux Laptop, KOffice on Maemo

  • Pingback: Freemium: Paulo Coelho

  • Pingback: The Pirate Bay Clashes with Book Publishers | TorrentFreak

  • Pingback: ' + title + ' - ' + basename(imgurl) + '(' + w + 'x' + h +')

  • Pingback: The Pirate Bay Clashes with Book Publishers | Torrent Searcher News

  • Pingback: The Pirate Bay Clashes with Book Publishers - Zwartbaard

  • Pingback: cwest.gavrilo.net » Informasjon, Kommunikasjon og Mennesker

  • Pingback: Speakeasy » Blog Archive » The Perils of Being an Author in a Digital Age

  • BTGuard - BitTorrent Anonymously

NewsBits

Even more news...

  • Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm on Freedom of Speech

    Freedom of speech is a highly valued commodity, but should people be allowed to say whatever...

  • Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

    An anti-piracy system present in all official Blu-ray players since 2012 has received a fresh update...

  • Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

    One of the main reasons why people turn to piracy is the lack of legal alternatives....

  • UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

    Last year an Internet user known as El Nomeo leaked version 3.70 of Sony’s Playstation3 SDK...

  • Pirates Can Be Identified Despite Sharing IP Addresses, ISP Claims

    Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation is a network mechanism through which many Internet subscribers can share the...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

CopyQuote

Left Quote

“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.

Peter Sunde Left Quote

PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.