Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books
Written by Smaran on January 24, 2008Paulo 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
Previously: Comcast’s BitTorrent Throttling Acceptable? Not Quite!
Next: Virus Threatened to Kill File-Sharers, Creator Arrested for Copyright Infringement
114 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 » Show All
Go Paulo, your speech has made my morning. You are always thinking outside the box. That is why I buy all of your books.
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.
@ 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.
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…
i am looking forward to buying his next books, he reveals what i consider secret.
i expect unexpected things in his works.
19 references to this post
Pages: « 1 2 3 [4] 5 » Show All
Add your response