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Pirate Yourself, Become a Best-Seller

Posted by kdawson on from the old-time-religion dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "It sounds like a dotcom-era business plan: 1) give it away, 2) ???, 3) make pots of money. Author Paulo 'Pirate' Coelho leapt out of obscurity and onto the best-seller list by giving away his books on the Net. The best-selling author of 'The Alchemist' will even help you pirate his books via his blog. His publishers were not pleased, but then his books went from selling 1,000 copies to 100,000 and then over a million. He gives special credit to pirate translators who are making his work accessible to a wider audience and convincing more people to read his book."

15 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. He's not the only one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    These guys recently released their newest game as a free download, with a $30 charge to register an account to play it online. Both this and TFA are exactly what us slashdotters have been telling people to do for a long while now, and it appears to be working (S2 claims they are "very impressed" with initial sales figures).

    Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with S2, nor am I a fan of their game, just their business model.

  2. How long have we been saying it? by erroneus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Over and over and over again; We've stated that we believe that it doesn't matter if we can get it for free or not. What matters is that we like it. And in the cases of books, movies and music, if we love it, we will want to buy a copy to place on our shelves!

    I have yet to meet anyone with enormous digital collections of copyrighted works that didn't also have enormous physical collections of copyrighted works.

    This is yet another clear illustration of what really drives the consumer and forgetting about lawyers trying to justify their existence, let the MARKETERS take notice that this is most likely to be a very successful business model for the future.

    1. Re:How long have we been saying it? by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know tons of people. I know people with 20 GB of MP3s who don't own a single CD. I know people with spindle after spindle of burned movies who haven't bought a single DVD in their lives. I also know people who have downloaded tons of stuff but also buy a lot, and I've met people who have tons of bought stuff but don't download anything. And then there's people who are too wrapped up in something else, and don't read, listen to music, or watch movies, at least not unless it's broadcast on TV/Radio. I think that artists giving away their stuff for free, or asking for whatever the consumer thinks is a good price is a good thing, and will help them get noticed more easily. However, don't kid yourself into thinking that everyone will pay. There will always be people who will not pay. But I don't think the artists are losing much from those people anyway.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:How long have we been saying it? by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But I don't think the artists are losing much from those people anyway. Exactly. You can't get blood from a stone, and a hoarder of movies/mp3s is going to do his hoarding. I grew up with a father who dubbed every movie that we rented and almost every movie that came onto HBO, almost reflexively. It was an impressive collection - almost never used, and one that ultimately cost the studios absolutely nothing.

      I think that the reason CD sales have taken such a dive is that single sales have made a comeback. People have complained for a long time that albums only contain one or two good songs. Buying those two songs as CD singles would have cost as much as the whole album, but now you can get both singles for $2 via a number of sources. It doesn't take a genius to see how going from a $15 sale to a $2 or maybe $3 sale is going to hurt the industry. When they attack piracy they are not addressing the problem. Hell, if I ever felt the slightest shred of guilt in pirating, the industry sure has cured that!
      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  3. Corroborating evidence by stjobe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Baen Free Library has had much the same experience. Give it away free, sales go up.

    --
    "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
  4. Mal Reynolds from Firefly said it best.... by JBHarris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    About fifty percent of the human race is middle men and they don't take kindly to being eliminated.
    --Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity
    This is the where the music labels and book & video game publishers fit. Think about it when you see the RIAA fighting to survive. That is their purpose. The tubes have made them non-important. If your only purpose for existing was being made irrelevant by some new technology, wouldn't you fight that with everything you had? I'm not saying I agree with it, but it certainly gives you insight into the reasons "WHY".

    Brad
  5. Same for Education by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is what I've been saying for a long time to the people I work with. I work for a medium-sized community college, and one of my jobs is creating media for our online classes, videos, podcasts, narrated powerpoints, etc. We have so many instructors that are worried about protecting their "intellectual property," as if it was academic gold. I tell them make you stuff open, share it with the public. Who cares if somebody at some other college uses our stuff? That only makes us look better. The one guy we have here that is actually doing what I'm saying has TONS of chemistry videos on Google Video, and as a result receives feedback from all over the world, and has been asked to speak at a few conferences because of it.

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  6. Re:I for one by sm62704 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Shiver me timbers! Yarr, it oin't piracy unless thar's blood spilled, matey. We pirates don't infrinege copyright, we rape pillage and plunder and drink gallons of rum.

    Stupid copyright infringers don't even steal, they're in trouble for giving shit away. We REAL pirates don't give nothin' away, we cut yer throat and keep it ourselves. Now get your arsse on that plank, yer gettin' keel hauled.

    While I got you here, I'm feedin' ya some Spam since thar ain't no real meat today. Now tell me before I run ya through, should I find a publisher for The Paxil Diaries?

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  7. Re:In piratese... by AceJohnny · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's spelled authaaaaaar. Fool, know you nothing of pirate linguistics? You extend the consonants, not the vowels!!! it's "autharrrrrrr" !
    --
    Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
  8. Paulo Coelho ... by Qetu · · Score: 5, Informative
    Paulo Coelho leapt out of obscurity? WTF?

    from wikipedia:

    Coelho has sold over 100 million books in over 150 countries worldwide and his works have been translated into 66 languages (Goodyear, Dana (2007-05-07), "The Magus", The New Yorker: 38-45, ). He has received numerous literary awards from a variety of countries, including La Legion d'Honneur (France), Grinzane Cavour (Italy). In addition, he has written Maktub[5], which is a collection of his best columns published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, The Manual of a Warrior of Light, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept[6], The Fifth Mountain, Veronika Decides to Die, The Devil and Miss Prym, Eleven Minutes, Like The Flowing River and The Valkyries[7].
    1. Re:Paulo Coelho ... by gaspyy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just to clarify - Coelho was very popular long before his blog. I know some of his fans, and none of them even knows he has a blog. Come to think of it, I don't even think his target audience is into reading blogs.

      I am willing to bet that releasing the books in electronic format for free hasn't increased his popularity by more than 1%.

      Disclaimer: I can't really stand his novels. They are pretty light, claiming and trying to seem deeper and more meaningful. Umberto Eco he clearly ain't.

  9. Re:Change bank by NorbrookC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So giving away product increases sales? If the sale price is zero how do you make money?

    Because you're overlooking an important point. You're talking about the "product" existing in two different formats. One, the electronic version, is being given away. The other, the "dead tree" version, is being sold. The production costs of the first are minimal compared to the second. There is also a real difference in the user experience and quality between the two. Giving away the first product leads to interest in it, and increases the likelihood of someone purchasing the second product.

    Publishers already "give away" their product. Go to any library, and you can check out a book "for free." This can lead to interest in a given author, and make the people who read the "free" book look for, and purchase, other books by that author. This is well-known, and has been for years. The only difference is that it is now being extended to electronic media. In effect, the "free" stuff is a loss-leader. You're not making your money off the free stuff, but to increase the sales of the stuff you are making money from.

  10. Re:I for one by stjobe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How about libraries? How do these fit in with your theory of "if you want it, you need to pay for it"? And what is the difference, if any, between loaning a book from a library and downloading it off the Internet?

    As an aside, my local library now has e-books as well as audiobooks and music available over the Internet for anyone with a library card.

    --
    "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
  11. Re:In piratese... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fool Know ye nothin' of insultin', you lily-livered, muck-swabbin', chum bucket eatin', son of a scurvied land lubbin' dog?
  12. Obscurity? Paulo Coelho? by BlackCreek · · Score: 5, Informative

    Paulo Coelho obscure?

    Yet another proof that slashdot editors really don't control anything that gets posted here

    Paulo Coelho has sold around 100 million books on 150 countries and has been translated to more than 66 languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho. Somehow the bozo submiting stories will credit all of that to torrent publicity? Check out (in the portuguese wikipedia) http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Coelho the number of international prises he got way before torrents were in any way popular. Please just read the list of prises he got BEFORE 2000.

    Yeah, obscure all the way. Indeed.

    BTW, what's the name of that obscure comedy writer that released a book on the internet, and after he got famous, decided not to do that again? Oh, yeah that would be (otherwise unknown) Scott Adams http://www.themillionsblog.com/2007/11/giving-it-away-for-free.html ... Another usurper of the torrent comunity no doubt!