53) Some good news, some not so good.
First, the good news. Somewhat later than anticipated there now exists a first draft of what may eventually become a sequel to Call of the Camino, taking up the story where that book left off. The ten chapters which I initially envisaged have somehow managed to expand into sixteen, but subsequent drafts will most likely slim it down.
The manuscript now needs to be left to rest. Undoubtedly the writer would benefit from a rest as well, but I’ll settle for the change which, proverbially, is supposed to be as good as a rest. I’ll soon be back in Spain, this time helping to open Gaucelmo, the pilgrim refuge in Rabanal del Camino, on the Camino Francés. The refuge sits near to the highest point on the route, and the preparations may well include shovelling some snow.
And the not so good news? Last week I received the following communication from Findhorn Press:
- Our US distributor, IPG, informed us a couple of days ago that when their electronic book agreement with Amazon came up for renewal, Amazon used it as an opportunity to renegotiate their terms for both print and e-books to be substantially more favorable to them. These new terms, if accepted, would have greatly decreased the amount of income our distributor, ourselves and our authors would have received for the sale of all of our books from now on, including print editions. IPG refused to accept Amazon’s demands as they were to the detriment of Findhorn Press and our authors; as a result, Amazon is choosing not to purchase our e-books at terms that are in line with the rest of the industry.
The New York Times on their website, in an article dated 22 February 2012, described the situation as follows:
- Amazon.com removed more than 4,000 e-books from its site this week after it tried and failed to get them more cheaply, a muscle-flexing move that is likely to have significant repercussions for the digital book market. Amazon is under pressure from Wall Street to improve its anemic margins. At the same time, it is committed to selling e-books as cheaply as possible as a way to preserve the dominance of its Kindle devices. When the Kindle contract for one of the country’s largest book distributors, the Independent Publishers Group, came up for renewal, Amazon saw a chance to gain some ground at IPG’s expense…
As of this writing, Call of the Camino is available from Amazon only in the print editions. The electronic edition is available from local bookshops, www.BarnesandNoble.com, www.indiebound.org, www.ebookstore.sony.com, www.ipgbook.com, iTunes, Kobo, and elsewhere.
I find Amazon’s stance disappointing, but not surprising. It has for some time now been apparent to me that capitalism in its present day incarnations – conglomerates, multinationals, banks too big to fail, oil companies, pharmaceutical giants, supermarket chains – is no longer, if it ever was, any friend of free enterprise.
I expect when in Spain to be paying another visit to rural Galicia, where I can anticipate on which side of the issue my fellow pensionistas, with whom I’ll be trading rounds in the Bar Miraz, are likely to come down on. Never mind that the only “Amazon” which they will ever have heard of is the river.
Galicia subió casi siempre al carro de los vencidos; el
gallego lucha siempre a favor de las causas perdidas.
Galicia almost always jumps upon the bandwagon of the defeated; the Galician always fights on the side of lost causes.
“¡Salud, compañeros!”
[To be continued.]






















