Editing Paulo Coelho (section)

===Writing===
In 1982, Coelho published his first book, ''Hell Archives'', which failed to make a substantial impact.<ref name=officialbio/> In 1986 he contributed to the ''Practical Manual of Vampirism'', although he later tried to take it off the shelves since he considered it "of bad quality."<ref name=officialbio/> After making the pilgrimage to [[Way of St. James|Santiago de Compostela]] in 1986, Coelho wrote ''[[The Pilgrimage]]'', published in 1987.

While trying to overcome his procrastination about launching his writing career, Coelho decided, "If I see a white feather today, that is a sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new book." Seeing one in the window of a shop, he began writing that day.<ref name=beliefnet/> The following year, Coelho wrote ''[[The Alchemist (novel)|The Alchemist]]'' and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house that made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint it.<ref name=saintjordi>[http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/titles/brief.htm?6#alchemist A Brief History of the Book] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080802224539/http://www.santjordi-asociados.com/titles/brief.htm?6 |date=2 August 2008 }} ''Saint Jordi Asociados''</ref> He subsequently found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book ''[[Brida (novel)|Brida]]'', ''The Alchemist'' took off. [[HarperCollins]]  decided to publish the book in 1994. Later it became an international bestseller.<ref name=saintjordi/> In a 2009 interview with the Syrian ''Forward Magazine'', Coelho stated that the [[Sufism|Sufi]] tradition had been an influence on him, particularly when writing ''The Alchemist'' and later ''The Zahir''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Forward Magazine|url=https://fwmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/paolo-coelho-tells-syrians-my-writings-are-influenced-by-your-sufi-tradition/|access-date=23 August 2020|website=Fwmagazine|date=12 April 2009 }}</ref>

Since the publication of ''The Alchemist'', Coelho has generally written at least one novel every two years. Four of them – ''The Pilgrimage'', ''Hippie'', ''[[The Valkyries (novel)|The Valkyries]]'' and'' [[Aleph (novel)|Aleph]]'' – are autobiographical, while the majority of the rest are broadly fictional.<ref name=lifepositive/> Other books, like ''Maktub'', ''The Manual of the Warrior of Light'' and ''[[Like the Flowing River]]'', are collections of essays, newspaper columns, or selected teachings. His work has been published in more than 170 countries and translated into eighty-three languages. Together, his books have sold 320 million copies.<ref>Karen Heller, ''Meet the writers who still sell millions of books. Actually, hundreds of millions'', [https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/meet-the-elite-group-of-authors-who-sell-100-million-books-or-350-million/2016/12/20/db3c6a66-bb0f-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?noredirect=on The Washington Post]</ref>
On 22 December 2016, Coelho was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 200 most influential contemporary authors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-200-authors|title=Authors Top 200: From J.K. Rowling to T. Harv Eker, These Are the Most Influential Authors in the World|work=Richtopia|access-date=21 January 2017}}</ref>