Indian CS & IT Academic Reform blog book now on amazon.com and amazon.in as Kindle ebook at minimum price that I could set

My book titled, "Indian Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform (Past) Activism Blog Book" and sub-titled "eklavyasai.blogspot.com (main work years: 2011 to 2014)", is now available as a Kindle ebook on amazon.com and amazon.in at the minimum price that I could set which is Rs.49/- on amazon.in which has resulted in sale price in US Dollar currency as 63 (or 64) cents (0.63 US$).

Here's the amazon.com Kindle ebook link: amazon.com/dp/B086G3KNBL , and the amazon.in one: amazon.in/dp/B086G3KNBL .

While the form in Kindle Desktop Publishing (KDP) for setting the price of the ebook clearly said that Rs.49 is the minimum price for it (in amazon.in store), I checked with KDP support about some free ebooks that I saw on amazon.in and wondered whether I could "sell" my ebook free on amazon.in. I referred them to this free Kindle ebook: https://www.amazon.in/Stories-Tagore-Rabindranath-ebook/dp/B004TPO5JE/ .

In their response, they suggested that the above Kindle ebook might have been published outside of KDP and that they cannot comment on the list price of it.

The way I interpreted their response was that KDP does NOT allow the user to set the price to 0, and that some minimum price (Rs. 49) has to be specified.

As my objective is to do the reasonable thing about making this ebook easily accessible, I decided to publish it via KDP at minimum price of Rs. 49.

Now amazon has a mechanism by which any user (including the author) informs amazon of the same product selling at a lower price elsewhere. I plan to explore that mechanism in the near future where I will inform them of this (same) ebook being sold for free on Google Play, and then see whether that results in amazon lowering price of this ebook on its stores or even making it free (Rs.0).

Given below are some screenshots related to the book listing on amazon.com and amazon.in (and one screenshot related to Google Play).

[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.]

Above screenshots are of ebook listing on amazon.com

Above screenshots are of ebook listing on amazon.in

Search on amazon.com for:
ravi s iyer

Search on amazon.com for:
computer science academic reform

For comparison purposes, search on Google Play for:
computer science academic reform

Indian CS & IT Academic Reform blog book now on Google Play as well as Google Books in PDF and epub formats

Last updated on 24th March 2020

This post is a follow up on my previous post: Indian CS & IT Academic Reform blog book put up on Google Books with full preview and PDF download, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2020/03/indian-cs-it-academic-reform-blog-book.html, dated 11th March 2020 and updated on 12th March 2020.

The title details of the book are:
Title: Indian Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform (Past) Activism Blog Book
Sub-title: eklavyasai.blogspot.com (main work years: 2011 to 2014)

Initially, around 10 days back, I had put up only PDF format book on Google Books. When I tried to make that available on Google Play, I tripped up on some problem.

In the past few days I was able to revisit the Google Play problem and resolve it with some help from Google Books support. So the PDF got up on Google Play. Then I tried adding the epub file which would provide 'Flowing Text' facility to readers.

The epub file which had been created from original Word document using free software Calibre's conversion facility, tripped up on some validation of epub format on Google Play/Books! That was related to usage of start or value attribute in ordered list HTML tag to start (part of) a list with a number (which is used in Appendix D at the fag end of the book). Eventually I had to make a special version of the epub file for Google Play/Books which did not use start or value attribute and so re-initialized each ordered list-part to 1. That epub file got accepted by Google Play/Books.

Here's the Google Play link for the book : https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=bOXUDwAAQBAJ .

Here's the Google Books link for the book: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bOXUDwAAQBAJ .

Given below are some screenshots on both desktop and my low-cost smartphone of the book on Google Play and Google Books. I have shared them on this post as a kind-of record about the book being made available (free) on these platforms.

Screenshots on PC desktop

[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.]

Above 2 pics show the main Google Play page for the book.

Searching in Google Play - Books for term:
ravi iyer

Searching in Google Play - Books for term:
Indian computer science academic reform

After I added my book to my Google Play items list. Note that download EPUB and download PDF options are provided on right-click menu for book.

On clicking Read on this book in Google Play, one is shown 'Flowing text' by default where pages are typically not separated within a chapter and chapter text flows from one ebook display area to the next automatically adjusting based on ebook display area size. But one can change the default value to 'Original pages' when each page of the PDF file is shown separately.

Screenshots in ebook are shown quite decently. Table of Contents can be opened up from anywhere one is on the book, to jump to any 'chapter'/article.

Above 3 screenshots show how changing display area size results in chapter/article text being reflowed to fit the current size of the display. Note that the page number shown (19/191) refers to PDF page number.

Above 2 screenshots are of Google Books page for this book. The first pic shows that the ebook now is "good" for Web, Tablet / iPad, eReader and Smartphone. It states that "Features" include "Flowing text" (EPUB) and "Scanned pages" (PDF). The second pic shows that Download EPUB option has got added - earlier it showed only Download PDF option.

Screenshots on low-cost Android smartphone

Above screenshot shows Google Play (book) results for search term:
ravi iyer
Note that the "Purchased" status against my book in screenshot above is due to me having purchased (for free) the book from Google Play on my Android smartphone.

The book cover page as shown in Google Play viewer

Google Play viewer showing a page (reflowed text) of the book, taking up full screen on the smartphone.

Now showing the immediately next page but in slightly compressed form and showing parts of pages before and after.

The Table of Contents being shown in Google Play on Android smartphone.

More top Google search result rankings of Indian CS & IT Academic Reform blog book for related search terms

This post is a kind of follow up on my 3rd March 2020 post: Indian CS & IT Acad. Reform blog book listed in top results in Google Search and on Amazon.in for related search terms, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2020/03/indian-cs-it-acad-reform-blog-book.html. At that time, the book was not on Google Books.

Yesterday, 20th March 2020 late night and today, 21st March early morning, I checked out some search terms all without the word book, to see result ranking in Google Search, of Google Books entry for my book titled "Indian Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform (Past) Activism Blog Book", https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bOXUDwAAQBAJ .

Given below are the Google search result rank and search term:

1st rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software development Indian Computer Science academia

2nd rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software development Indian Computer Science higher education

1st rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software engineering Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software engineering Indian Computer Science higher education

1st rank (1st page) - poor software development skills Indian Computer Science academia

5th rank (1st page) - poor software development skills Indian Computer Science graduates

9th rank (1st page) - improve software engineering skills Indian Computer Science graduates

2nd rank (1st page) - improve software development skills in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software engineering skills in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software development in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve teaching of software development in Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st page) - improve teaching of software development in Indian Computer Science higher education

1st rank (1st page) - improve teaching of software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st page) - improve software engineering education in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software development education in Indian Computer Science academia

6th rank (1st page) - improve software development education of Indian Computer Science graduates


The associated screenshots are given below (readers may skip reading the rest of the post if they do not want to see the many screenshots):

[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.]

1st rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software development Indian Computer Science academia

2nd rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software development Indian Computer Science higher education

1st rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software engineering Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st page) - poor teaching of software engineering Indian Computer Science higher education

1st rank (1st page) - poor software development skills Indian Computer Science academia

5th rank (1st page) - poor software development skills Indian Computer Science graduates

9th rank (1st page) - improve software engineering skills Indian Computer Science graduates

2nd rank (1st page) - improve software development skills in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software engineering skills in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software development in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve teaching of software development in Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st page) - improve teaching of software development in Indian Computer Science higher education

1st rank (1st page) - improve teaching of software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st page) - improve software engineering education in Indian Computer Science academia

1st rank (1st page) - improve software development education in Indian Computer Science academia

6th rank (1st page) - improve software development education of Indian Computer Science graduates

Marked improvement in result ranks for many related search terms in Google Scholar for Indian CS & IT academic reform book; Google Scholar now shows link to Google Books page of book

Firstly, I was happy to see that Google Scholar search on related search terms gives result link to Google Books page of the recently released book, "Indian Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform (Past) Activism Blog Book", (Google Books Preview (Full preview and PDF download) link: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bOXUDwAAQBAJ ), of which I am the main author. Clicking on the result link takes the user to pages having part or whole of the search terms.

Note that earlier, just 3 days back on 15th March, Google Scholar search showed [CITATION] entry for above book but NOT the Google Books page for it. For more see my previous post: Google Scholar search: Indian CS & IT academic reform book appears in top twenty results for related search terms including book; Other related search result ranks, https://eklavyasai.blogspot.com/2020/03/google-scholar-search-indian-cs-it.html.

After the above happy observation, I was simply stunned to see that for many related search terms (used in previous post mentioned above), the result ranks have improved significantly! How did that happen - I wonder! Perhaps it took some time for Google Scholar to get all the indexing info. and result ranking stuff up to date with the full text of the book put up on Google Books.

Note that there still are NO (zero) citations for the book.

Some of the ranks have improved so significantly (and in just 3 days!) that I felt compelled to put up this new post having the new result ranks and associated screenshots. I am taking the pain of capturing and then including these screenshots in this post as it is clear evidence for the ranking I mention. If a future activist visits this post, say a year later, the rankings may have changed significantly (perhaps for the worse as my book may be getting some higher ranking now due to it being a recent book and that ranking may fall significantly in a year's time or even a few months' time). Then she may not believe the rankings that I have mentioned unless she sees the screenshots backing up what I have said.

All these screenshots make the post long but I consider it to be appropriate as it may be necessary to convince serious activists as well as other serious readers about the rankings I have mentioned. That may be vital in helping them to decide whether to use parts (or even whole, if they so want) of my work, for their activism or other efforts to improve teaching and practice of software development in Indian (and perhaps some other countries') computer science and information technology academia (higher education).

Given below are the result ranks for Google Books page of Indian CS & IT academic reform book and associated search terms in Google Scholar search, https://scholar.google.com, done on 18th March 2020.

Search terms with book in it

1st rank (1st result page) - book indian computer science academic reform
2nd rank (1st result page) - book indian software engineering academic reform
4th rank (1st result page) - book indian software development academic reform
18th rank (2nd result page) - book indian computer science higher education reform

Above search terms without book in it

4th rank (1st result page) - indian computer science academic reform
15th rank (2nd result page) - indian software engineering academic reform
13th rank (2nd result page) - indian software development academic reform
70th rank (7th result page) - indian computer science higher education reform

More search terms with book in it

3rd rank (1st result page) - book improve software development in Indian Computer Science academia
3rd rank (1st result page) - book software development education Indian Computer Science academia
35th rank (4th result page) - book indian software development higher education reform

6th rank (1st result page) - book improve software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia
13th rank (2nd result page) - book software engineering education Indian Computer Science academia
23rd rank (3rd result page) - book indian software engineering higher education reform


More search terms but without book in it

17th rank (2nd result page) - improve practice of software development in Indian Computer Science academia
29th rank (3rd result page) - improve teaching of software development in Indian Computer Science academia
17th rank (2nd result page) - improve software development in Indian Computer Science academia

38th rank (4th result page) - improve software engineering practice in Indian Computer Science academia
43rd rank (5th result page) - improve teaching of software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia
42nd rank (5th result page) - improve software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

Search terms with book in it but without India or Indian

5th rank (1st result page) - book computer science academic reform
15th rank (2nd result page) - book software engineering academic reform
6th rank (1st result page) - book software development academic reform

After seeing vast improvement in search rankings in most cases above, I developed the gall to try out the following search terms and check whether my book appeared in first ten pages of results (100 result links):

Above search terms without book in it (and without India or Indian)

74th rank (8th result page) - computer science academic reform
Not listed in first 100 results (first 10 result pages) - software engineering academic reform
30th rank (3rd result page) - software development academic reform

==========

Given below are the associated screenshots.

[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.]

1st rank (1st result page) - book indian computer science academic reform

2nd rank (1st result page) - book indian software engineering academic reform

4th rank (1st result page) - book indian software development academic reform

18th rank (2nd result page) - book indian computer science higher education reform

4th rank (1st result page) - indian computer science academic reform

15th rank (2nd result page) - indian software engineering academic reform

13th rank (2nd result page) - indian software development academic reform

70th rank (7th result page) - indian computer science higher education reform

3rd rank (1st result page) - book improve software development in Indian Computer Science academia

3rd rank (1st result page) - book software development education Indian Computer Science academia

35th rank (4th result page) - book indian software development higher education reform

6th rank (1st result page) - book improve software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

13th rank (2nd result page) - book software engineering education Indian Computer Science academia

23rd rank (3rd result page) - book indian software engineering higher education reform

17th rank (2nd result page) - improve practice of software development in Indian Computer Science academia

29th rank (3rd result page) - improve teaching of software development in Indian Computer Science academia

17th rank (2nd result page) - improve software development in Indian Computer Science academia

38th rank (4th result page) - improve software engineering practice in Indian Computer Science academia

43rd rank (5th result page) - improve teaching of software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

42nd rank (5th result page) - improve software engineering in Indian Computer Science academia

5th rank (1st result page) - book computer science academic reform

15th rank (2nd result page) - book software engineering academic reform

6th rank (1st result page) - book software development academic reform

74th rank (8th result page) - computer science academic reform

---No screenshot as not listed in first 100 results ---

Not listed in first 100 results (first 10 result pages) - software engineering academic reform

30th rank (3rd result page) - software development academic reform