The Alchemist and Aleph on special offer

The Alchemist

The entire Paulo Coelho back catalogue, with the exception of The Alchemist, was made available earlier this year at download for 99 cents per e-book, but restricted to US only.

• Download Aleph for 99¢
• A book for the price of a song

The 10th anniversary edition of The Alchemist is available for download at $3.99. This is not restricted to US only.

If you receive an e-reader for Christmas and nothing to read, then download The Alchemist.

Still expensive for an e-book, but better than the usual price.

E-books are way over-priced. They are priced at what the market will bear and bear no resemblance to the actual cost of e-books which is close to zero. The manuscript is delivered to the publisher electronically, robots convert to the appropriate download format, the cost of the download platforms have been written off years ago. Contrast this with real books where there are real costs: printing, warehousing, distribution, retail.

At the e-book debate at the Guildford Book Festival the former head of digital marketing at HarperCollins said no matter how off the scale were their forecasts for e-books sales, these were far exceeded.

Calibre is a must for managing e-book libraries, stripping off DRM and converting between e-book formats.

If using a Kindle, be aware that Amazon can at any time without rhyme nor reason delete all your e-books. Keep the wifi turned off (saves battery too), download to computer, then transfer to Kindle via cable. Other reasons for not using a Kindle: a propriety format not an Open Source format for example ePub, Amazon dodge UK tax.

Aleph is available in The Works at £2.99. UK only.

The Works is a remainder bookshop chain, 99% rubbish but occasionally something worth having. The last two books of the trilogy by Carlos Ruiz Zafón set in Barcelona, The Angel’s Game and The Prisoner of Heaven are on offer, but not The Shadow of the Wind.

• Paulo Coelho calls on readers to pirate books

And do not forget audio book of The Way of the Bow is free!

Out next year, Manuscript Found in Accra.

Tags: Aleph, books, e-books, Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist, The Alchemist and Aleph on special offer