PARIS (Reuters Life!) - The promotional power of piracy and artistic merits of blogging are among the themes to be discussed by bestselling author Paulo Coelho in his opening address to the Frankfurt Book Fair this week.
The 61-year-old Brazilian writer behind titles such as “The Alchemist” and “Eleven Minutes” is gaining a reputation as a digital pioneer for his enthusiastic embrace of online media.
Coelho maintains a personal blog as well as profiles across several social networking sites. He uses the mobile blogging tool “Twitter’ and regularly uploads videos to YouTube under the heading Privacy Zero. A few years ago, he even started distributing digital versions of his books for free over the internet. Reuters Television correspondent for technology, Matt Cowan, spoke to the author at his Paris home.
Q: What is the main reason you do all of this?
A: Fun. It’s such a pleasure to do this. I’m not a person that socializes very well. I don’t go to cocktail parties. I don’t go to parties in general. I discovered this fantastic world behind the web that helps me a lot as far as a professional, as a writer.
Q: How does it help you?
A: Not only is it a way to remain engaged but the basics of any writing is people and human conflicts. People are very reluctant to talk about their private lives but then you go to the internet and they’re much more open. Of course they have a persona. You never know if it’s true or not true but at the end of the day, even the persona has a good story to tell.
Q: Why do you think blogging is worthwhile?
A: If you asked the monks in Medieval times what they thought about Gutenberg and the press, they’d say “oh, what is the validity of having some printed books? We’re here, we’re printing, we’re designing every single letter with beautiful calligraphy. This is art. This is sacred and the printing process that Gutenberg invented is nothing.’ I think we are in the same situation now. People can show and express what they feel through images, text and movies. Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.
Q: You didn’t set out to become a digital pioneer though.
A: At the very beginning it was to get information to write books and then you feel owe something, you’re getting but you’re not giving. And then you start giving, and then you realize how important it is to give away. If you go to my blog you’ll see a lot of free things. And does this keep me selling less or more books? Nobody knows. I’m going to The Frankfurt Book Fair to talk exactly about that. I don’t know if it sells books, but I know that I’m sharing my soul. This is the goal of any artist.
Q: Excited about multimedia as an alternative to books?
A: As a writer, I’m excited about experiencing everything.
I have just made a movie with my readers. For one year, I took one of my books “The Witch of Portobello” and I said “you have to choose one character and make a movie out of it. And we had over 6,000 people participate in this contest. And I had to select 15, and I selected 15 and we have a fantastic movie.
Q: Why are you so interested in social networking sites?
A: It’s not like I’m tired of writing books. But I am excited to write for new platforms because this challenges you to use new languages. You have to be direct. I am very direct in my books, but still the internet has a different structure of writing. And I’m learning. This is what excites me. It’s like I’m in a new realm now. Without leaving my book writing behind, I am expanding my universe.
Q: Tell me about the idea behind Privacy Zero.
A: The idea behind Privacy Zero is that privacy zero is a reality. You don’t have a private life anymore. So I started putting videos of things that happen to me (on YouTube). Of course the first reaction from the so-called marketing people in publishing houses is “this is wrong - you have to keep an aura of mystery. You should be in an ivory tower, nobody should know what you’re doing’ and I said okay but then I’m not going to have fun.
Q: Do you worry about your security or unbalanced fans?
A: John Lennon was killed before the internet. If you think about these things you don’t do anything. So, yes, you have to take risks.
Q: What is the significance of HarperCollins’s decision to make free electronic versions of some of its books?
A: I had this great CEO at HarperCollins Jane Friedman. I got a call from her and I said I cannot take it back (mentioning at a conference that he was making his books available for free through his website). I said let’s solve the problem, let’s not go back to the past. HarperCollins developed this browsing site where you can read the book but you cannot download the book. So I say, “phew.”
It would be interesting to see if this new concept becomes a trend in coming days…:-)
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Interactivity with an Author is a unique idea and although Paulo Coelho invented it, he’s not slapping a copyright on the idea, rather he’s inviting everyone to share and benefit from this wonderful chance to open up our hearts to the world, the universe, to God. By opening up, Paulo calls it Privacy Zero, we are making the first important step to make this world a better place in which to live…
Thank you Paulo, a thousand times over, Love Paul
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Yes, first of all the digital media is fun, and second it is educational too. Frankfurt. May I share a memory? The only thing I remember from transiting through this city, in addition to complicated traffic and a huge map unfolded all over the car roof to figure the route across the city, is…I insisted my friends take me through the Frankfurt’s Red Light district, to see with my own eyes how it looks there. Raised in a puritan little part of the world, I was shocked to see how women presented themselves in big exhibition windows, like any goods for sale. They were dressed as I had imagined, but to this day I will never understand how anybody would pay to take advantage of their services. And why the women are lured into this business is another question. In a way Maria in ‘Eleven Minutes’ works in a more “attractive” set up, and gives a much more in-depth understanding of prostitution, than my quick walk up the Frankfurt’s Red Light district.
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I am already used to answer on your blog,even if sometimes my writings are clumsy,awkward,or I lack inspiration.But I feel good,I learn something new every day.And I think I am lucky,considering that in a way I can be connected to my favourite writer.Reading your blog is an adventure,I have fun ,really enjoy it.Thankssssssssss
Love
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Just wanted to say how much I admire the way that you are using digital media, as a writer. This interests me not just from the viewpoint of a “fan,” but even moreso from the perspective of an aspiring writer myself. I’m not sure yet what digital media means to me or may mean to me in terms of my future and career, but I do know already that it feels to me very important.
When I was in the university, studying creative writing, both as an undergrad and in an MFA program, the word “internet” was almost taboo. All of my teachers were published writers, some quite well known, but they were almost all quite resistant to the idea that the internet might have any role to play in the future of writing and publishing, particularly in the field of prose. The internet, in their eyes, was viewed, if anything, more as this great monster of which they were all deeply terrified, lest it steal their livelihood away.
I had a difficult time, in some ways, in this elitist, academic world where the field of writing is so clearly delineated by numerous boundaries. I was taught: “A REAL writer is this, and not that. A REAL book should look like this, not that. To be published is to appear in this format, and not that.” One of the things I struggled with the most is that it is so very difficult for me, as a writer, to divorce words from images. To me, there is nothing more interesting than the interplay between the two - the unforeseen “third meaning” frequently created in the skillful juxtaposition of word and image.
I was lucky in that my advisor, the department chair, allowed me to produce a creative thesis that included images. In other words, I created a book-length work that included both written word and visual image. For me, that was a thrill! An unimaginable triumph. Even if it never ever got published, even if it was, as I was warned by many, “totally un-publishable,” it gave me such joy to produce it. It was the work I wanted to create, I did it, and it made me happy.
In many ways, this is what draws me toward the internet even now: the potential of the impact hidden in the seam between word and image (and even sound). There is nothing like it!
At any rate, I just wanted to say that I admire you so much for taking on the critics and challenging those who wanted to stop you from putting yourself out there on the internet, as a writer. I am interested in your writing - that is, I enjoy it, as a reader - but being a writer myself, the thing that interests me the most is the way that you are conducting yourself as a writer: putting yourself out there in public view, offering your words for free, engaging in a constant dialogue with your readers. This is something new, what you are doing. It is something worth paying attention to. I return to this site, again and again, because I am learning something here, on more levels than one.
Several times, I’ve posted here responses that included poems or autobiographical accounts I wrote or have written about in the past. Those poems and accounts have never been published, and a year ago I never would have even considered posting them on the internet. So strong in my mind was that warning voice of my university professors: NEVER POST YOUR WORK ON THE INTERNET: IT WILL BE STOLEN. First of all, to think that anyone would want to “steal” my work, is rather arrogant, I think. Secondly, what does that mean - “to steal.” Does that mean that they are going to copy it and share it with others? If so, what a compliment! If I write something and post it on the internet, and someone else reads it - if, via the internet, I am communicating with other human beings - isn’t that what writing and the urge to be a writer is all about?
Thanks, Paulo Coelho, for making yourself a model for all writers, if not for the writers of the present (because they are as yet too fearful of the internet or blind to its potential), then certainly for the writers of the future.
Sincerely,
Savita Vega
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What a beautiful soul!
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I liked the comment-question for ..unbalanced fans!! I remembered the film MISERY!! Just because she didn’t like the end of the book.. What about changing the final … chapter of the Alchemist???
Enjoy the Book Fair and .. take care.
LOVE,
THELMA
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