A few days ago I was looking at the Facebook page of my book THE LITTLE BUDDHA. Flicking through the people who have become fans I noticed that Paulo Coelho was one of them. 'That's strange', I thought. How on earth did he find me? Is he surfing the web all day looking for new books? But then I remembered that my business partner who published the little Buddha's ebook met Paulo Coelho once and so maybe he contacted him somehow. It was late at night and without thinking about it any further I posted it on my own Facebook profile: “Paulo Coelho has become fan of THE LITTLE BUDDHA FB page. About time he reads a good book...;-)“.
Yesterday I checked my profile again and I saw that many people had pressed the LIKE button. So far, so good – not that the sales had gone up, but at least the book had received some attention. Nevertheless, I couldn't help feeling that something was not right and so I went back to the fan page to have a second look. And then I suddenly burst out laughing... I realized that I had accidentally misread that Paulo Coelho is following the Facebook page when in fact THE LITTLE BUDDHA is following him. Ooops... I apologize for that.
Conclusions:
I shouldn't post stuff late at night.
Don't believe everything that you read.
We are obsessed with celebrities!
Interestingly, the post just before the one about the famous author was a link about genetically modified crops taking over Spain. It's a nightmare situation which is jeopardizing the future of our whole food system. The post didn't get a single hit. None! So while we are liking and forwarding stuff about celebrities, the really important things that effect everybody's daily life don't get any attention at all. Could that be part of the reason why our world is in such a bad state? We care about football, smart phones and the royal wedding, yet the real problems are almost entirely ignored.
Of course I'd love to sit down with Paulo Coelho one day and talk about books and writing, and I'd be delighted if he became a fan of THE LITTLE BUDDHA. But ultimately it doesn't matter. First, the book is doing well, with or without the support of Mr Alchemist. And second, what IS important is the food that we eat, whether it's organic and sustainable or some artificially produced crap!
So I'd like to invite you to give more attention to all the things that really matter. It's our responsibility to spread the word and make change happen!
