A book for the price of a song

Paulo Coelho books

http://static.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?hash=9tjmx

I am delighted to know that one of my US publishers, Harper Collins, following a conversation with my agent Monica Antunes at the London Book Fair 2012, have decided to reduce the price of all my ebook titles (except The Alchemist) to 0,99 USD.

Which means a book now costs less than a cup of coffee!

This is a crucial decision for me. For years I have been advocating that free content is not a threat to the book business. In lowering the price of a book and equaling it to the price of a song in iTunes, the reader will be encouraged to pay for it, instead of downloading it for free.

For the moment it is only in Kindle, but I will update this post as soon as I get the confirmation from Nook and iBoostore.

The email also does not specify for how long the promotion will last. If you are familiar with my presence in social communities but you never read any of my books, I strongly encourage you to act now.

If you download all the titles priced 0,99, you will spend USD 10,89 for 11 books (instead of USD 74,19, the normal price).

Here is the link to

• Paulo Coelho Kindle Books
• Paulo Coelho Nook Books
• Paulo Coelho Kobo Books

However, if you decide to download only one title, below you will find the list in best selling order (sales worldwide).

1] The Alchemist (not in the promotion)
2] Eleven Minutes Kindle Nook
3] The Pilgrimage Kindle Nook
4] The Manual of the Warrior of Light Kindle Nook
5] By the River Piedra I sat down and wept Kindle Nook
6] The Zahir Kindle Nook
7] Veronika decides to die Kindle Nook
8] The Witch of Portobello Kindle Nook
9] Brida Kindle Nook
10] The devil and Miss Prym Kindle Nook
11] The winner stands alone Kindle Nook

It is my (open) secret wish that pricing for ebooks will follow this trend.

And I count on you to help me to propagate this post. This may create a new paradigm. As I tweeted not so long ago: “life is changed by examples, not by opinions”.

— Paulo Coelho

Originally posted by Paulo Coelho on his blog.

I have long argued e-books are obscenely overpriced. Paulo Coelho is to be congratulated for his generosity in making e-books available at a realistic price.

He has in the past supported Pirate Bay (which legal actions blocking access to from the UK) and has uploaded books to frostwire.

• Paulo Coelho featured on FrostWire
• Paulo Coelho calls on readers to pirate books

Let us hope the e-books are stripped of DRM (Digital Rights Management) in order that they may be passed on, shared.

E-books are not real books, a Kindle is not a book. Have you ever tried sharing a Kindle?

• Nothing is as good at being a book as a book is

We can but hope this leads to more people reading more books.

This follows hot on the heals of World Book Night when a million books were given away free in the UK. 2.5 million if we count US, Ireland and Germany.

One of the 25 titles given away free in the UK was The Alchemist. One of the Top Ten most widely read books in the world.

Will HarperCollinsUK be following the excellent example of HarperCollins USA and offering e-books for download at 99 pence?

The euro zone is in economic meltdown, in Spain unemployment at 25% (for young people 50%). Will the publishers across the euro zone get their act together, offer a little good cheer, and offer e-books at less than a euro?

Writers write to be read, musicians play to be heard.

Musicians have found if they put their music on bandcamp, where it can be listened to on-line, can easily be shared, can be downloaded for free or pay-what you-think-it-is-worth, not only do more people listen to the music, more people purchase it too.

• Steve Lawson on books, music, communication and sharing

How many other authors will follow the bold example of Paulo Coelho and offer their e-books for download at less than a dollar. How many unknown authors will follow his excellent example, or do they write to remain unread, do they prefer to languish in obscurity?

Paulo Coelho has rocked the publishing world. No doubt we will hear the pathetic bleating of vested interests as we do with the major record labels and the lobbyists who whore for them.

• Tracking Amazon: Coelho E-books Dropped to $1, Skyrocket

At the end of the day, books are meant to be written and read, music played and listened to. What we do not want is major corporations treating either as a commodity.

Note: Download Paulo Coelho books for 99 cents currently only applies to US and Canada.

Note: Music Price Tag performed by the incredibly talented Shadowboxer. They perform, produce and engineer. Who needs a major record label? Recorded at a studio session in Wales. Their music is available for free download on bandcamp.

Tags: books, Paulo Coelho