Lockdown Safety: Home Delivery in a COVID-19 World

**UN Illustration for Covid-19 Lockdown Protocols**

The fourth iteration of the coronavirus lockdown is in full swing in India. Lockdown 4.0 has already relaxed many of the restrictions we have been facing over the last two months. But it is clear that social distancing needs to continue for as long as this pandemic does.

Needless to say, staying away from crowded stores and ordering online is an excellent way of maintaining social distancing. And now that e-commerce for non-essential goods is allowed, you can buy a wider range of products without undue stress.

Among the little pleasures that had to be sacrificed during the COVID-19 lockdown was the feeling of holding a newly arrived print book in your hands. The lifting of the ban on e-commerce for non-essential goods is thus welcomed by avid readers all over India. But the question remains: How can you safely handle the packages you receive from your favorite online service?

Here are a few simple steps you can follow to keep yourself and your family safe:

Pre-Pay Online: Avoid cash on delivery and credit/ debit cards wherever possible.
No-Contact Delivery: Arrange for your packages to be delivered at a designated location outside your home. This way, you can keep both yourself and the delivery executive safe.
Dispose of the packaging safely: Dispose of the outer packaging immediately, preferably in a separate designated location.
‘Quarantine’ your Purchases: Establish a separate space for your orders. Leave them there for 24 hours in case of non-perishable items.
Wash your hands: After handling the package, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly. Avoid touching any surfaces inside your home aside from the established ‘quarantine’ zones until you’ve done this. (You can check out the WHO guidelines on correct hand washing protocol here.)
Sanitize: Wipe down the product with disinfectant (such as sanitizers containing at least 70% alcohol) before use.
Enjoy your product!

Safety First! Pothi.com’s COVID-19 Lockdown Protocol

While you do your part, we are sure to do ours! As we resume delivery of print books from our Online Store, here are a few rules we follow to ensure your safety:

Protective Equipment: Face masks and gloves are used at all times during the handling of packages.
Sanitized Work Environment: The work surface used for the packing of books is sanitized regularly.
Quarantining Packages: All books received from our printers are quarantined for 24 hours before being packed..
Essential Staff Only: We are operating at the minimum required staff strength on our premises to maintain social distancing. The majority of our team continues to work from home.

So fear not! We have your back. Now you can put away any niggling fears you may have and look forward to getting back on track with your favourite quarantine activities: reading, publishing, and selling your books on Pothi.com.

New Feature 📢 on Pothi.com : Free eBooks with a Single Click

Getting a free eBook at Pothi.com used to be quite cumbersome and a multi-step process. You needed to add the eBook to your cart and go through the checkout process even though the eBook was free. This was a hindrance for potential readers and many times they did not follow through and ended up dropping out.

Keeping this in mind, the Pothi.com team has now created a hassle-free single-step process so that you can get your free eBooks at the click of a button.

When visiting a free eBook page, if you are already logged into your Pothi.com account, if you are a logged in user, you can then add any free eBook to your library by clicking the Add to Library button. If you are not logged in, you will be prompted to login or register.

Now you can click on the Go To Library button or your eBook library link in the success message and download the free PDF from there.

So go to the Free eBooks collection from the Shop section in the top navigation menu or click here to get access to an array of eBooks. Happy reading!

Brand New Service 📢: eBook Conversion @ Pothi.com

The more accessible a book is, the better its chances of selling well. That is why making your eBook available on platforms like Amazon Kindle and Apple is a must for every serious eBook publisher.

Is that as easy as it sounds? Well, it can be! Selling your eBook on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform or Apple Books requires that you have a version of the book available in EPUB format. EPUB is an eBook format optimized for reading on a screen, its most distinguishing feature being its reflowable layout. This means that rather than staying static on a screen, the text of the book adjusts itself to fit the screen size or the font that a reader selects. No need to scroll or zoom in and out – whatever the size of your screen, the EPUB is the right fit for you.

Converting your manuscript from MS Word to EPUB can be tricky without the right tools, and professional EPUB conversion needs to factor in compatibility with the specifications of different eBook selling platforms to optimize your eBook.

We at Pothi.com are happy to announce that we are now offering a cost-effective eBook conversion service which delivers to you files that are ready to be uploaded on Amazon KDP and Apple iBooks store. Our ebook creation service comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, manual Quality Checks and the longest term post-project support that can be found anywhere.

Learn More. Talk to Us Today!

Brand New Feature 📢: Linking Print Book and eBook!

The pandemic may have taken a toll on print publishing, but that’s no reason to let it affect the sales of your book. And what better way to maintain your sales than to ensure that the eBook version of your book is available for sale?

We at Pothi.com have come up with a few measures to make setting up and selling your eBook easier than ever.

Linking of Print and eBook Versions Now Enabled!

In the most recent feature update to the Pothi.com Online Store, the link to the eBook version of a title can now be seen on the print book listing, and vice versa. If you already have an eBook version set up for your print book, and the two aren’t linked yet, please write to us at info@pothi.com with the SKU numbers of the books, and we will have the listings linked for you.

Take the book Ice Creams and Time Machines: A Young Author Program Anthology– we have linked the print and eBook versions on the same page!

You can also write to us if you haven’t published your eBook yet and you have a print book with us. Just send us an email with the SKU of your print book, and we will help you set up the eBook.

So what are you waiting for? Write to us now to set up your eBook on Pothi.com… for free!

Interview: Deeksha Divya Padhmanabhan

We spoke to Deeksha Divya Padhmanabhan, author of the book Personification on Planets and Sun. She collaborated with her sister Praganya while creating the book.

Why did you choose to write about the solar system during this pandemic?

I am 9 years old and as schools are closed during the lockdown period, I was getting bored. I like reading and writing so I was writing something. I wrote a page on Sun using Personification and my mother liked it very much and suggested me to write more on other planets. So, I decided to write on all planets.

How long did it take you to write it?

It took me 10-12 days to write and my sister took another few days in doing illustrations.

Describe how you and your sister collaborated on this story.

My sister Praganya who is 7 years old, lives in Bangalore. I live in Goa. So, when I started writing this personification, I thought of making it as a book. All kids’ books are incomplete without illustrations. I asked my sister if she would be interested in doing illustrations as she is very good at drawing. She happily agreed. So, I use to send her my completed part and she use to draw based on my writing.

What was your experience using the Pothi.com platform like?

My mummy and my Mausi took charge once both of us completed our book. They heard about Pothi.com and based on their experience, I can say that it is super easy and effective.

Of the nine planets, which is your favorite, besides Earth?

Besides Earth, Mars is my favorite because scientists are exploring life on Mars. After seeing “Mission Mangal’ I got more interested in this planet. I have also read that Mars might have aliens.

Tell us about your next project.

I don’t know but I think if I write again a book, I would write one on Dinosaurs.

Thank you for telling us about your book adventure Deeksha. Wish you and Praganya luck in your future writing ventures!

That’s the Word For It: Hierophant

Hierophants were priests of the ancient Greek city of Eleusis who performed sacred rites. Now a hierophant is an advocate or spokesperson.

Here are some instances of the word used in books:

“The Hierophant becomes a touchstone for many, either representing an artificial belief system (like religion or a work ethic) that we follow or through core beliefs we have created for ourselves.”
― Rob Parnell, The Writer & The Hero’s Journey

“The Hierophant. Special skills: warrior angel, commander and killer of demons. Alignment: Lawful Good…as long as by good you meant God.”
― Jenn Stark, Wilde Fire

Haiku Extravaganza with Pothi.com

There is a pandemic that is raging around us and a lot of things that we have taken for granted have now been postponed indefinitely. So a haiku challenge at Pothi.com felt like the perfect way to alleviate the mood.

A haiku is a seventeen syllable poem usually about nature. The Japanese poet Basho was a famed exponent of this form of poetry. This is a translated haiku by him:

In Kyoto,
hearing the cuckoo,
I long for Kyoto.

When you write a haiku in English, you follow the #fivesevenfive structure which means five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third line. A syllable is a unit of sound, e.g., the word haiku has two syllables.

What the Pothidotcomers did was frame a haiku each after a small session with me. We then decided to extend the haiku challenge to twitterverse. What started as a one day enterprise turned into a three day haikuthon!

We received over forty submissions and decided to frame each haiku in digitally beautiful picture frames. We got poems about the corona virus, the beauty of nature, summer holidays, folktales and the daily routine of living in pre-Covid times. People from all walks of life emailed us- first time writers, established writers, students, bloggers, teachers, friends….we were simply overwhelmed!

Here are some gems.

For more of these you can check out our twitter moment. Have you ever tried writing haiku and has it lifted your spirits?

Free Resources for Your Lockdown Leisure

COVID-19 has taken the world by storm. Never before has an invisible enemy created such a global catastrophe in recent history. Countries are going into lockdown and the daily rut of pre-coronavirus days seems like privilege. But on the flip side, whether we are social distancing, in self-isolation or under quarantine, those of us who stay in a safe environment have an opportunity to introspect and work on creating healthier routines.

The silver lining of this crisis is the large number of institutions and individuals who have gone on a knowledge-sharing spree. We are especially grateful to everyone who has gone out of their way to make this dystopian present more meaningful.

Here’s a list of some free resources to keep you occupied and to help you get through these hard times.

Wordnomics: Books and Writing

Writing during lockdown: If you have tried writing 50,000 words for the NaNoWriMo, you may want to use this lockdown to pen down a chapter, a short story or the outline of a novel. Try to achieve a daily word count with #StayathomeWrimo. It isn’t easy and you don’t have to beat yourself up if you don’t get the required word count but even a paragraph can stand you in good stead.
Read at Home Initiatives: Although books are now considered non-essential commodities, there is a huge supply of books and stories online:
- Fatima Bhutto and Sanam Meher are presenting short reads by writers in different genres.
- Roli Books has also organized live conversations with well-known authors.
- For children, the #ThodaReadingCorona project driven by Bijal Vachharajani encourages children to listen to stories. You can catch authors reading their stories on the facebook group Reading Raccoons.
Many publishers are sharing great reads.
- Juggernaut – This publishing house is offering books on their mobile app platform for free. You can spend your lockdown leisure diving into historical fiction like Rebel Sultans by Manu S. Pillai and romantic comedy like Combat Skirts by Sahana Ahmed at the tap of a finger. Read quick!
- Audible – The audiobook store is also sharing plenty of free book content And if self-isolation isn’t perfect time to listen to classics and children’s fiction, what is?
- Digital subscription to Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle – If you are a fan of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle or you want your children to read what you loved as a child growing up in India, this is the option for you. Subscription lasts for a month from signing up and you can read the comics on your mobile!

Virtual Wisdom and Documentaries

Many libraries and presses are providing free content access during these trying times.

JSTOR –This digital library features the best of peer-reviewed scholarly journals and research reports, and has announced that all their open access content is now available without having to login. Catch up on your academic reading while in lockdown.
Oxford University Press – The biggest university press is providing free access to its educational resources to students and teachers, to aid efforts at creating a home learning environment for kids while schools are closed.
Scholastic – One of the world’s largest publishers and distributors of children’s books has also launched a website towards this end.
The Internet Archive- This library has even courted controversy by suspending waitlists for 1.4 million+ titles to create a National Emergency Library for the benefit of displaced readers and of those in quarantine.
Library of Congress: The largest library in the world has select works on offer.
Project Muse– Publishers who wish to make their works available at this time are able to do so here.
The KKV Repository – You can also browse through Supreme Court lawyer K. K. Venugopal’s personal library archive.

The Google Arts and Culture site is mind boggling. There are scores of museums, artworks and street scenes that are on view. If you feel too cooped up in the house, hop into the Uffizi Gallery and browse through Renaissance paintings or visit the Museum of Modern Art and examine the passionate brushstrokes of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

Miscellaneous

Chat apps are a great way of being with friends or colleagues even in this time of isolation.

Bunch: A group video chat app for live mobile games.
House Party– A video chat app that enables you talk to up to eight friends in real time.
Zoom– An app that is now being used all over the world to conduct office meetings for those working from home, as well classes and workshops on various subjects.
Netflix Party – This simple Chrome extension allows you to watch Netflix episodes and movies at the same time as your friends, and the chat function lets you comment and react to what you’re watching in real time. Who said isolation had to be so… isolated?

The Metropolitan Opera is running its Live in HD series of free streamed performances every night this week. You can check this week’s schedule here.

For those of you who are tired of seeing only your pets, you may want to explore some nature documentaries of peaceful places here in India. Check out these youtube channels for more:

Let us know how you are getting through quarantine. Stay home and stay safe!

That’s the Word for It: Xenobot

Xenobots are microbots that are created from the stem cells of the African clawed frog. These have been designed and programmed by an evolutionary algorithm. It’s 0.039 inches and intended for medical purposes. wide, small enough to travel inside human bodies.

The word hasn’t entered the literary domain yet, has it?

That’s the Word for It: Panglossian

Panglossian comes from Pangloss, the name of a character from Voltaire’s novel Candide, first published in 1759. In the novel, Pangloss is an unpragmatic optimist with an attitude reminiscent of the character Don Quixote. The word originates from the Greek Pan which means all and glossa which means tongue.- this translates into a kind of smug facility with language, otherwise known as glibness.

Let’s have a look at how the word has been used in fiction:

“He wants to believe that Shakespeare wrote all those books, that Lincoln fought the Civil War to free the slaves and the United States fought World War II to rescue the Jews and keep the world safe for democracy, that Jesus and the double feature are coming back. But I’m no Panglossian American.”
― Paul Beatty, The Sellout