Author pirates his own books, gets thousands of new readers

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The best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho told the audience of the Digital Life Design conference last week in Munich that he has been secretly helping online book pirates - and in turn has gotten thousands and thousands of new readers.

Coelho said that he had some great experiences with free promotional book downloads, but oftentimes foreign publishers wouldn't support the idea of giving away his books. So he got creative and mingled with the pirates.

Coelho went to Torent sites and downloaded copies of his books in all kinds of different languages. He then started a Wordpress blog called Pirate Coelho and uploaded all those pirated copies there, free to download for everyone. Of course, he had to make some publicity for this site, so he decided to "find" it himself. From his keynote speech:

"We put up a link on the blog, like I was very surprised. (...) The link is on the main page of my blog. I have to play a little bit naive, that I don't know. But people go there, they download the book, and, believe it or not: The sales of the book increased a lot."

Paulo Coelho has sold over 100 million books worldwide, and his works have been translated into 66 languages. He told his audience in Munich that he believes authors can benefit from following his example and giving away their works:

"At the end of the day people are going to buy it because it stimulates people to read and it simulates people to buy."

:source: Source: http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-466.html

That's interesting, I would be pissed if I had bought one of his books.

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Originally Posted by Diiyad

That's interesting, I would be pissed if I had bought one of his books.

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You are lame, and so are the ones who think like you

I have a few books from him and i'm sure i would buy more if i had the time to read those he has on the net.

They are wonderfull, and if you read any book of him you would buy it too, you would want to make part of it, to crave for your rightfull piece of art.

I'm glad he is not only allowing more people to enjoy his art, but also unveilling some light to publishers.

...
My personal toughts on this

And that's what's happening, with music games and everything that publishers call "piracy". More people try it, and more people enjoy it, even that they could keep the "pirated" stuff with all the benefits that someone who paid has, they still buy it, they want a piece of it too, and not that anyone cares, but sales increase.

Many publishers clame revenue loss every year, but they forget there's an economic crysis going on and i guess they would loose more if there wasn't that thing called "piracy".

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Originally Posted by jokzor

You are lame, and so are the ones who think like you

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Let me use this opportunity to teach you a lesson on how to post on forums. Avoid using the word "you" in a negative connotation. "You are lame" sounds more confrontational than "I don't like the idea that. . . ." Not only does it make you look bad, but now your opinion on the topic has been ignored.

he is a great author. i guess he might be doing it, is to get the people who arent reading, to start reading his books.
i have 2 of his books, and those are great reads

Paulo Coelho has earned plenty plenty plenty off of his books, and especially since his work seems to be about inner health, which should be shared. it seems only logical that he does this.
Respect.

Good for him. Its good to see that some people realize promoting your book through back channels can often lead to higher profits.

Now if only the music industry could see this.....

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Originally Posted by Diiyad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jokzor

You are lame, and so are the ones who think like you

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Let me use this opportunity to teach you a lesson on how to post on forums. Avoid using the word "you" in a negative connotation. "You are lame" sounds more confrontational than "I don't like the idea that. . . ." Not only does it make you look bad, but now your opinion on the topic has been ignored.

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actually i won't let you use this opportunity to teach anything at all, if you read my opinion you would have learned something so far, no matter how ignored my post can be, it is better than "i feel bad cause i paid for it and now i could have it free" so learn how to be, before teaching anyone how to post.. lame

great news

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Originally Posted by MattieTK

great news

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great post :)

It's nice to see piracy portrayed in a more positive light but I do see Diiyad's point. The people who paid for the book beforehand might feel ripped off. Perhaps a better option would be to offer the book for free and then put out the physical copies in stores. That way, people can buy the book in order to support the author.

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Originally Posted by Demigod

It's nice to see piracy portrayed in a more positive light but I do see Diiyad's point. The people who paid for the book beforehand might feel ripped off. Perhaps a better option would be to offer the book for free and then put out the physical copies in stores. That way, people can buy the book in order to support the author.

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well said, but try to understand, even now people with good filesharing knowledge buy things they could get for free and earlier than rushing to the stores don't they? they buy because they care and wish to support, so why would they feel ripped off if it was free later?

I borrow or buy (mostly borrow) books because i enjoy it more in its hardcopy then staring at a computer screen. But jokzor, some people obviously do feel ripped off about this guy giving away his books online, or else they wouldn't have posted that way here. try and see others perspectives instead of pushing yours on everybody else. Your posts in this thread alone all seem to come off with you thinking you're more 'right' and important then everyones else is. in reality you're just coming off as stuck up and not likeable, at least to me

demigods suggestion is the most logical, but i'd say if you want to do something good for everyone, release them both at the same time, for people who would rather have the hardcopy. This guy torrented his books as some kind of publicity stunt, much like radiohead's In Rainbows, which was offered for free, but not at an optimal bitrate. He isn't some kind of hero in the p2p world, just a businessman

if they emanate that maybe they are right

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Originally Posted by jokzor

if they emanate that maybe they are right

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this isn't a 'right or wrong' subject you fucking idiot.


how old are you, 8?

My wife, a huge fan of Paulo, told me about this several months ago, and she still buys his books, like most things, if you love it you will support the artist, and if you just want to see it or listen to it a few times you won't.

He also wanted to pirate his books for another reason... in some countries, some of the publishers that bought the printing right for his books (not from him but from the company that has the world rights and sold individual country rights), would not agree to his requests on pricing, and priced the books way too high for the cost of living in those countries, especially in 2nd and 3rd world countries, so he wanted those people especially to be able to get his books for free.

He really is an interesting character, a real forward thinker.

Cheers!