Andreas Tzortzis writes in the Newsweek Web Exclusive:"The Brazilian author has sold more than 100 million books, which include 14 short story collections and the novel The Alchemist. He has been a fan of the Internet since the early 1990s. He spends at least three hours a day online, writing e-mails back and forth with his readers ... Coelho's online activities also include a somewhat nefarious one: he likes to promote pirated copies of his own books."
He has "since 2005 ... been directing his readers to an online site where they can download his books, in languages from German to Japanese, for free."
The author is quoted: "I always thought that when, at the beginning of your career, you strive to be read, you can't change your mind later and become greedy about it."
He also says, "Publishers have a tendency to try to protect the content. It's a lost battle."
One school says, piracy promotes the sale of actual books. So he could simply be as extremely shrewd marketer. Or, he could be trying to start a new religion.
His publisher claims to know "nothing about Coelho's online activities."
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