February 1, 2012

Paulo Coelho wants YOU to pirate his books!

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On January 28th international bestselling author Paulo Coelho announced on his blog that he was participating in a “new and interesting system to promote art” by giving away works of music, film and literature for free.

Here’s his full post, punctuation (or not) is original:

Promo Bay

by PAULO COELHO on JANUARY 28, 2012
The Pirate Bay starts today a new and interesting system to promote arts
Do you have a band? Are you an aspiring movie producer? A comedian? A cartoon artist?
They will replace the front page logo with a link to your work.
As soon as I learned about it, I decided to participate. Several of my books are there, and as I said in a previous post, My thoughts on SOPA, the physical sales of my books are growing since my readers post them in P2P sites.
Welcome to download my books for free and, if you enjoy them, buy a hard copy — the way we have to tell to the industry that greed leads to nowhere.Love
The Pirate Coelho

Coelho has now joined a very vocal minority of authors who support piracy. (For example, see Corey Doctorow‘s latest article about it.)

I’m not coming down on either side of this argument, no need to start a totally pointless flame war, but I am wondering. . . Has anyone ever purchased a book after reading it for free? It does seem counter-intuitive doesn’t it?  And a little scary for anyone who spends a great deal of time and money producing content. We can see Coelho’s point, though: it’s not as risky if everyone on the planet has already read your work ….

 

  • http://twitter.com/ClassicBookworm Sylvia

    Yes. I do it all the time with library books. If I like it, I buy it. If I can’t try it, I’m less likely to buy it. Same with music and movies. I rarely buy media I haven’t already read/seen/heard.

  • Heather

    Neil Gaiman has repeatedly said on his blog that giving away his work for free has increased his sales. He read the entire Graveyard Book aloud on a reading tour, and recorded it chapter by chapter. The Graveyard Book spent an obnoxious amount of time on the best seller lists, and whenever he saw a dip in sales, Gaiman would repost the link to those performances and the book would go back up the bestseller lists.

    And yes, I have purchased a book that I had read for free. Many of the books I’ve checked out from the library I have subsequently purchased. I started prescreening all my book purchases via the library because I got tired of buying books I didn’t like. I’m more willing to spend the money when I know I’ll like it.

  • Matthew

    I have bought a few books that I’ve already read, partly so I have them on my bookshelves but, more importantly, so that I can lend them out to people whom I think would enjoy them. A friend lent me SEX DRUGS AND COCOA PUFFS by Chuck Klosterman, and I bought it a few days later to be able to lend it out to my friends.

  • Natasha

    Generally, I don’t buy a book I’ve read for free unless it’s a book I decide I want someone else to read. Then I buy them a copy — whether it’s the dead-tree or digital version depends on their preferences. Note: even if I have access to a pirated version of the ebook, I’ll always buy the ebook I give.

    If I like an author after reading a free version, and especially if I feel some connection with the author and/or the publisher, I’ll generally buy the next one I read if I can’t get a legal free version.

    Note: I’ve purchased ebooks from a couple of publishers that have been so full of typos and so poorly formatted — and so expensive — that I’ve vowed never to let them have any of my hard-earned dollars ever again. (Not Melville House, obviously!) Those books are only worth stealing, frankly.

  • http://twitter.com/neontrotsky Neon Trotsky

    It’s not just about you buying a book you’ve already read for free (which I’ve done). It’s also that the reader might recommend the book to other people who then might go buy it.

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