The title has nothing to do with the subject whatsoever…but then again, you said it had to.
There are ways of getting ahead in Spain, you just have to be extra patient when it comes to finding what you want, since it rarely comes to you the first time around. I have a book presentation coming up in a couple of weeks, and the first thing I needed for this to happen was to have the books available I had always planned on it being in October, with the quirk being that I had2011 inmind. So some 365 days behind schedule, I was comforted by the fact that the new gym at my school was conceived in the early 90s, and is just now being opened, or that the library next door which was due to receive the local readership six months ago is built but still hollow, with not a single volume within, and nothing in sight. I feel the warmth of a soul blanket when I see that a new wing at the Niño Jesús Children’s Hospital has been left but a worthless shell for the last, God knows, ten years, and it would seem that completing the structure doesn’t fit the annual calendar for the next decade. Some might observe that a human with my sensitivity should not harbor such thoughts about a medical center for society’s littlest ones, but they are wrong. I relish its failures. They tack on another twenty minutes of sleep at night.
Yeap. I could proudly say that by sitting down to sign some books a solar year later I was actually proving to many that things could be done expeditiously when you put your mind to it.
One factor inhibiting progress was actually making my work available to the general public. A physical version of it. Not the digital dumpy formats that no one wants. I don’t blame them. Ever see a Kindle. It’ll drive you mad. Plus the Spanish just like to have that volume in their hand, even if they have no intention of reading your book.
So, I decided to get a whole bunch of books from theUnited Statesand market them here. Why the big shipping? Easy, it was more inexpensive to have them printed inSouth Carolina, and somewhere around there, and ship them over here than actually have them printed inSpain. By a long shot. Consider this:
If I want to buy my own book, without the royalties, obviously, Bubok inSpainoffers it to me for something horrendous like 10 euros. If I decided to do the same in the States, it comes to $3.40. Yes, that’s less than three euros when the conversion is carried out. Then I can dump another ton into two-day express service to my doorstep, and it still comes to a little over 4 euros per unit.
To be continued.
