From the Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:

“When The Alchemist was first published twenty-five years ago in my native Brazil, no one noticed. A bookseller in the northeast corner of the country told me that only one person purchased a copy the first week of its release. It took another six months for the bookseller to unload a second copy—and that was to the same person who bought the first. And who knows how long it took to sell the third.

“By the end of the year, it was clear to everyone that The Alchemist wasn’t working. My original publisher decided to cut me loose and cancelled our contract. ..They wiped their hands of the project and let me take the book with me. I was forty-one and desperate.

“But I never lost faith in the book or ever wavered in my vision. What? Because it was me in there, all me, heart and soul. I was living my own metaphor….I was following my Personal Legend, and my treasure was my capacity to write. And I wanted to share this treasure with the world.

“As I wrote in The Alchemist, when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you. I started knocking on the doors of other publishers. One opened, and the publisher on the other side believed in me and my book and agreed to give The Alchemist another chance. Slowly, through word of mouth, it finally started to sell—three thousand, then six thousand, ten thousand—book by book, gradually throughout the year.

“Eight months later, an American visiting Brazil picked up a copy of The Alchemist in a local bookstore. He wanted to translate the book and help me find a publisher in the United States. HarperCollins agreed to bring it to an American audience, publishing it with great fanfare: ads in the New York Times and influential news magazines, radio and television interviews. But it still took time to sell, slowly finding its audience in the United States by word of mouth, just as it did in Brazil….

“The Alchemist became a spontaneous—and organized—phenomenon. The book hit the New York Times bestseller list, an important milestone for any author, and stayed there for more than three hundred weeks. It has since been translated into more than eithr different languages, the most translated book by any living author, and is widely considered one of the ten best books of the twentieth century.

“I re-read The Alchemist regularly and every time I do I experience the same sensations I felt when I wrote it. And here is what I feel. I feel happiness, because it is all of me and all of you simultaneously. I feel happiness, too, because I know I can never be alone.”

What a marvelous success story! And how encouraging to think that one author staying true to his vision can have such an impact on the world. Bravo, Paulo! And now, emboldened, let’s all write on!

Please help KWD grow by sharing: https://karinwritesdangerously.com/