Heartening personal experience of Indian business & industry getting back to producing and delivering non-essential goods in these horrible COVID pandemic times

Last updated on 5th Sept. 2020

For me, one important marker of the impact of COVID pandemic on Indian business & industry, was the late March 2020 freeze on my work on printed version of my 2020 self-published book on Indian CS/IT academic reform. I had submitted a modified version of the book to Notion Press (self-publishing platform company) on 16th March 2020 which completed the review in late March 2020.

But I could not place an order to check out the printed book copy as India had got into a big lockdown and printed books (or at least books like those authored by me) were non-essential items whose production and sale were frozen! Note that ebook version sales were not a problem, if I recall correctly, as there are no COVID pandemic issues for ebook sales.

Over the next weeks & months, slowly India started unlock with e-commerce sites being allowed to sell essential goods. I bought some such essential goods on amazon.in in mid May 2020. If I recall correctly, amazon.in had introduced no-contact delivery even at that time, and so precautions for COVID pandemic were being taken even then.

But printed version of my books including this 2020 book (printed as Print-On-Demand) were not available for sale on amazon.in. They were listed but marked as unavailable or something like that.

So I was directly experiencing how self-publishing industry in India, for Print-On-Demand printed books, was under lockdown.

I think it was in June that self-publishing industry Print-On-Demand printed books started becoming available for sale in India. Note that book copies that had already been printed in the past, may have been made available for sale towards end May 2020 itself as non-essential items ecommerce seems to have been permitted from then onwards. But Print-On-Demand books involve actual printing work to fulfill an order. And so I think these Print-On-Demand books became available for sale a litte later, perhaps in June 2020.

But this particular book of mine - Indian CS/IT Academic Reform - may have got listed as available on amazon.in sometime later - perhaps in July 2020 or so. It had become available on the self-publishing companies' websites (Notion Press and Pothi.com are the two that I use) but not on amazon.in (my Notion Press self-published 2020 book is on amazon.in). I also ordered a hardcover copy on Pothi.com website in June and a paperback copy in July, facing some issues with courier delivery due to COVID pandemic (as I wanted no-contact delivery). It is amazon.in that does a super job of no-contact delivery along with other features like 10 days replacement facility.

I think it is in July 2020 that this printed book of mine finally got listed as available on amazon.in. 

But as Anantapur district (in Andhra Pradesh) including Puttaparthi (where I live) started coming under a lot of COVID pandemic issues, including strict lockdowns, in July & August period, I could not focus on my book on amazon.in.

Finally, a few days back on 30th Aug, I placed an order for my book (paperback version) on amazon.in to check whether the modifications I had made on it in March 2020, come out properly in printed copy. Here's the amazon.in page for my book where I placed my order: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/1648501397 .

I had anticipated that it may take around two weeks for the book to get printed and then shipped to me due to COVID pandemic issues, with shipment period varying depending on where the book was printed.

But I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the book got printed and shipped on 2nd Sept. itself by Repro Books-On-Demand amazon.in seller, in Haryana (a northern state of India). That's just 3 to 4 days after I placed the order! 

Now the book is in transit. I have attached a few screenshots of the order and its tracking info.

[To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.]

I am due to get the book on Wednesday, 9th Sept.

So a paperback book authored by me which I wanted to order in end March 2020 itself to check out whether the changes are getting done properly in printed book, was eventually ordered by me in end August 2020, 5 months later!

In other words, for my own self-published books work, I have experienced a kind-of freeze for amazon.in sale, of around 5 months, due to COVID pandemic issues both at amazon.in & self-publishing company end, and at my own end.

The great thing is that now that freeze is over. Yes, the COVID pandemic continues to rage in India - no question about that. India now has third highest number of COVID cases in the world. But, for my paperback book self-publishing work at least, now the people/companies in the chain of order - production - delivery have figured out how to work in COVID pandemic with suitable precautions, and with permission from government authorities, are able to produce and deliver the book. [I have yet to get delivery of the book but given that it is an amazon.in delivery, I am quite sure it will be just a matter of a few days before I get it (as a no-contact delivery).]

I find this to be a very heartening example, based on my personal experience, of Indian business and industry getting back to producing and delivering non-essential goods (besides producing and delivering essential goods), with suitable precautions, in these horrible COVID pandemic times. So I wanted to share this with readers.

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In a private conversation with a person on above contents, the topic of counting the numbers for this book, came up. The content given below are based on my responses to that.

About counting the numbers: My paperback book sales for purchases by others not me, of all my books, are virtually zero. My first two books self-published in 2018 and 2019 have had perhaps one or two or three purchases each!

However, the free ebook downloads for my 2018 & 2019 books have been perhaps in hundreds across various sites that I have uploaded it. This 2020 book has a very niche audience and so its downloads are lesser but I am seeing some full-read stats on ResearchGate for it.

I will see if I can get a proper report of these ResearchGate stats to share with you.

But still I am making a lot of effort towards paperback publication! Why? Well, as of now, I find it very convenient to offer paperback copies to those of my friends & family who are interested in the topic.

Further, in future, if some persons want to have paperback copy of these books (instead of free ebook download), they can very conveniently order it on amazon.in at minimum price (Not-for-Profit for me as author).

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Above pic: Research Gate stats for my 2020 book (free ebook version) - 41 reads including 15 full-text reads - don't know what exactly that means, and don't know if these reads include reads done by me while checking that the upload has been done properly.

Above pic: Blogger stats for free ebook download page of this 2020 book which includes my own views - total 131 views.

I have uploaded free ebook version of this book on many other sites (archive.org, self.gutenberg.org etc.) - I think there would be some downloads/reads there too.

So I think we can say that downloads of free ebook version of this 2020 book of mine (Indian CS/IT Academic Reform ...) is in hundreds.

Academic Reform is a super-sensitive topic - very few want to publicly criticize teachers (privately they may say a lot but publicly they will prefer to keep quiet). So I don't think this book of mine will move "fast".

However, these views of mine are now very easily accessible on the Internet and printed copies are also available. So future activists like me-in-the-past (now I am no longer into that CS/IT academic reform activism) can easily find my stuff when they search for such matters. That has been the main objective of my putting in the work to convert the blog into a book - handing the work down in a convenient format to future activists in this area.