A Success Story
In 1988, the year of the launching of writer Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”, Monica Antunes, his friend and literary agent, was also an integrant of a Rio de Janeiro’s amateur theater company called “Agape’s Alchemists”. The company’s director, Raul de Orofino, who had read Coelho’s books and was amazed by them, recommended the reading of the books to his troupe. By then, Coelho’s works that had been published were “The Diary of a Magus”and “The Alchemist”.
Following Orofino’s recommendation, Monica read “The Diary of a Magus”. She was nineteen by then and declared it was the most touching book she had ever read in her life and that it had caused a great deal of impact. The lines of the book had led her to a deep contemplation on how to face life in a decisive moment, which was choosing the career she would engage in for life.
So intense was her fascination on the author’s works she recommended the books to whomever she met; she read some passages for her colleagues at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), where she engaged in the Chemical Engineering course.
One day – exactly when Monica had just finished reading “The Diary of a Magus”, she had the immense pleasure to meet the book’s author: the book that completely had changed her life. Coelho and some of his friends had gone to the theater to see a play that was being staged by “Agape’s Alchemists”. The writer had been attracted by the company’s name, which had everything to do with the contents of his books. He was very curious about the players´ work and the backstage of such a special company.
A member of the company saw the writer in the audience and told Monica: “You talked so much about that book and now go check who’s in the audience”. There he was: the author of her favorite book in flesh. She felt so intimidated to approach him, on the account that he was with friends. But she kept on watching him from a distance, gazing at him with both perplexity and curiosity, wondering how he could be: the man who’d written such fascinating words.
Coelho, as a good observer, noticed that Monica couldn’t take her eyes off of him. When the play was over he walked towards her and simply asked: “You were observing me, weren’t you?” to which she also simply replied, “Yes, I was”.
An enthusiastic Monica told him she had just read “The Diary of a Magus” and that she was “in love” with the book and how she always kept it in her purse, recommending everyone to read it too. The writer was glad and even moved to hear such joyful words of a then teenager who would someday in the future play an important role in his professional life.
From that day on a good friendship flourished for the couple. At that time Paulo Coelho’s contract with the publishing company Eco had expired and there was no contract renovation on the account of a “low performance” for “The Alchemist”, according to the publishers.
Monica had an appointment with Coelho in the city’s downtown that afternoon for him to autograph her copies of his work. That was when he invited her to accompany him to the new publishers that would re-edit “The Alchemist”. She went with him to witness his closure with Eco and also escorted him to his new publishers, Rocco. The company’s C.E.O, Paulo Rocco, embraced the idea of giving “The Alchemist” a second chance, granting the book with the celebrated brand that is Rocco, one of Brazil’s most important publishing companies.
Coelho began to organize a series of lectures in Rio and Sao Paulo and Monica helped him with the press releases and public relations.
In 1989, Monica and her boyfriend Carlos Eduardo Rangel, decided to take a trip to Europe with no final destiny. An adventure to find new horizons. Both were unhappy with their professional choices: she was studying Chemical Engineering, but couldn’t picture herself working at an oil platform; he had just gotten a degree in Pharmaceuticals and was working for a multinational company, but was far from feeling glad about his job.
The couple placed a bet amongst them: if she got good results at the test she would soon be taking at her college they would travel together. Well, she did succeed, so they had to travel.
He quit his job when he was just about to get a promotion. He decided to go even farther and confessed to his employers that he was so unhappy he had to take a break. He was so candid, and he had been such a good employee, that the company decided to grant him a probation in Barcelona, Spain. That’s when the couple’s desire for adventure and traveling took the form of reality.
Monica called Coelho to tell him about her decision. The writer loved the idea and was one of the biggest motivators of the move to Spain. He told them where to buy tickets and even gave the couple some contacts in Madrid in case they needed a little help in Spain. He also made them a proposition: how about Monica trying to sell his works that she liked so much to the Spaniards? Since many of his stories had the country scenario in so many cases, they’d probably love his books.
She took the challenge and her first destination was Madrid. She arrived at the Spanish capital in May 1989. She had a few days to herself, so she decided to visit Madrid’s International Book Fair before reaching her final destiny, which was Barcelona.
At the fair Monica and Carlos Eduardo went through all the stands, getting all the publisher’s catalogs, and at the hotel they stayed, selected the publishing companies that would best represent Coelho in Spain.
Through a friend of the writer’s, the publishing company called Obelisco, decided to publish “The Alchemist” in 1990, launching Coelho’s very first book published in Spain.
Monica then began her journey to success, keenly working on the book’s broadcast in magazines, newspapers, television e bookstores throughout Spain, knocking from door-to-door, book in hands, full of previously studied sentences for she did not speak the best Spanish by then. She would promote the book with the author’s financial aid – a total of mere US$400.00 to begin with.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Paulo Coelho was launching “Brida” in 1990. That’s when the media started to really notice Paulo Coelho and the sales incredibly jumped.
Paulo Coelho dreamt about Saint George, the Catholic saint. As from then, everything he’d do he would offer to the saint and do it in the saint’s name.
In 1991 Monica and Carlos Eduardo decided to have their own publishing company – Paulo Coelho suggested the name “SantJordi”, which translation is obviously “Saint George”, but they still didn’t have enough funds for such a big enterprise.
In 1993 the translator Allan Clark introduced Coelho’s works to Harper-Collins, a famous American publishing company, and they decided to publish 50.000 copies of “The Alchemist”. The book was a surprise: a sales hit, the largest printing ever for a Brazilian author in the United Sates. That was when Paulo and Monica viewed the possibility of offering his books at a worldwide scale. Monica sent letters to numerous publishing companies offering “The Alchemist” and obtained excellent receptiveness from France, Italy, Norway and Japan. At the end of 1993 Monica had sold the rights of “The Alchemist” to sixteen countries with wide acceptation in the international market. From then on, each year presented Monica to more challenges, new countries and new publishers.
In 1994 Monica received her first significant amount for the printing rights of Coelho’s works and, together with Carlos Eduardo Rangel, they opened their so much aspired publishing company: the SantJordi Asociados, in Barcelona.
Since not everything is a fairy-tale, the couple split up, but kept on as very good friends. Each followed their own bliss towards what they consider happiness.
She kept the publishing company and is a respectable publisher in the market nowadays. She had the opportunity to know not only Spain, but also the four corners of the world, accompanying the writer at the launchings of his books. She re-married and has a gorgeous child named Gabriel.
Thanks to perseverance, enthusiasm, her love for Paulo Coelho’s work and, most of all, to her belief that his work was good enough to become worldwide known, she has helped him become the world’s Best Seller. Today Coelho’s books have turned into an editorial phenomenon and are published in 56 languages and in 150 countries with enormous success. Monica and Paulo Coelho are still great friends and they share a fidelity pact of exclusivity over his work.
