HarperCollins took on the project, and Coelho would later credit the 1993 release of the English version with catapulting the novel to new heights. The English translation of The Alchemist provided the huge break it needed.Ĭoelho writes that eight months after the rerelease of The Alchemist, an American tourist found the book and wanted to help him find an American publisher for an English translation. The second publishing run fared better than the first, and eventually thousands of copies were being sold. A second Brazilian publisher gave Paulo Coelho and The Alchemist another shot.Īs Coelho would later write, the fate of the book proved the book’s recurring theme of “when you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you.” Another local publishing house agreed to back the book. Why? Because it was me in there, all of me, heart and soul. But I never lost faith in the book or ever wavered in my vision. In a new foreword written in 2014, Coelho explained his situation after his publisher dropped The Alchemist: “I was 41 and desperate. Paulo Coelho kept faith that The Alchemist would be successful. Coelho later wrote that his publisher told him, “This title will never sell more than 900 copies.” After that tiny first run, the book went out of print, and Coelho got to keep the rights to the novel. When a small Brazilian publisher took a chance on The Alchemist in 1988, it hedged its bets by only printing 900 copies.

The book’s journey to becoming a commercial juggernaut almost reads like its own Coelho story. The writing may have been fast, but success came very slowly. The Alchemist was not an instant success. In 2009 the author explained to The Guardian’s Hannah Pool that he was able to write The Alchemist so quickly because, as he put it, “The book was already written in my soul.” 2. Paulo Coelho only needed to weeks to write The Alchemist. Here are a few things you may not know about the literary blockbuster. Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s allegorical novel of a Spanish shepherd has inspired millions of readers to set out searching for their own personal treasures.

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