In recent years, the ideas of repurposing old materials (think recycled barn wood or old clothing) and reinventing ourselves or rebranding have taken root. in fact, the terms “reuse” and “rebrand” are now firmly entrenched in the modern lexicon. After all, maximizing the use of an item or discovering a new career path is all about finding renewed purpose.
As an author, consider publishing in the public domain as a new avenue to explore, a kind of rebranding. Publishing public domain books offers the opportunity to recycle or reuse existing works, such as the classics, while adding a new dimension to your writing career.
You are reading: Can you sell public domain books
That’s right: an author can benefit financially from publishing books in the public domain or those books with expired copyrights. learn how to take advantage of publishing in the public domain by reusing works that are legally at stake.
how does the public domain work?
Once a book is copyrighted, its content or intellectual property is protected by law for up to 70 years after the author’s death. after this point in time, the book, in most cases, with a few exceptions, becomes fair game. this means that any part or all of the content of the book is legally available for publication by anyone who wants it. any book published before 1923 is available, as these works are automatically considered to be in the public domain. furthermore, about 90% of the books published between 1923 and 1964 are also in the public domain because the copyright owners did not extend their copyrights.
See Also: How to Memorize the Books of The Bible: 7 Easy Steps
There are several ways an author can reuse a work that is no longer prohibited. in fact, writers are limited only by their imaginations in terms of the possibilities of publishing public domain books. Some reuse ideas to consider include:
- create a new book cover
- add illustrations to a book that previously had none
- create an audiobook
- create an e-book
- publish direct quotes from the book
- write a script based on the book
- create worksheets or supplemental materials for the book
- translate the book into other languages
- simplify the writing of the book
- create a children’s book based on the plot and/or characters
- modernize the story and/or the characters
There are limitless ideas for novel ways to reprint public domain books.
where to find public domain books to reprint
As you embark on this new adventure of selling public domain books, you may be wondering how to determine which books have expired copyrights. After all, you probably don’t want to spend money to translate a book or hire an artist to create illustrations for a book only to find out it’s still copyrighted.
The first step in determining if a book is in the public domain is simply to read its copyright page. As noted above, all books published before 1923 are automatically in the public domain, and most books date from 1932-1964. If you want added security, the best way to find out if a book is in the public domain is through the USA. uu. copyright office. there you can perform a title database search to confirm its copyright status.
how to publish public domain books
By now, you may be wondering, “how do I reprint public domain books?” you want to know how to navigate the nuts and bolts of the process, right?
- let’s say you stumbled upon an old pre-1923 book in an antique shop and created an e-book version. You would first need to scan its content using optical character recognition technology and create a pdf file. Using a smartphone converter app, you can convert the pdf to an epub file. the epub file is what is uploaded to the publishing platform. Alternatively, some websites will already have the pdf of the classic book available, which can then be downloaded, converted, and formatted into the epub file.
- Create a copyright page for your version of the book. this identifies you as the creator of the single issue by including his name and the new publication date. if he redesigned the book cover or added illustrations, any artistic contribution must be acknowledged on the copyright page.
- comply with specific requirements related to the sale of public domain books. Amazon, for example, requires that one of the following criteria be present:
- provide 10 or more illustrations to the book
- create a unique translation of the book
- include annotations such as study guides, a detailed biography, historical context, or literary criticism
- authors must include one of these terms (illustrated, annotated, or translated) in the title field. they should include a summary, in the form of bullet points at the beginning of the product details, showing how the book differs from the original work.
- Once you have completed formatting your epub file, you will need to establish an account on the publisher platform. the formatting must be done correctly or the e-book will not load correctly. enter the book details, cover, any illustrations in jpeg or tiff format, other required information such as categories and keywords, upload the epub file, set a price and submit the book for publication.
See Also: The Best Books on Linguistics – Five Books Expert Recommendations
Please note that Amazon will not accept the title if a free public domain version of the book already exists on their Kindle platform.
can you benefit from the public domain?
The whole purpose of reusing previously copyrighted material is to earn additional revenue. By selling public domain books, you can create a steady stream of passive income, as long as you put in the effort to create a quality product that provides value to the customer. If you have decided to simply change the cover of the book, make sure your cover is attractive. Sure, a fresh new cover can bring renewed interest in an old classic that was once forgotten.
Please understand that earnings will not be calculated according to the same royalty scale as an originally written e-book or print-on-demand book. Each publishing platform has its own royalty schedule for publishing public domain books, which is usually less than the royalties paid for original content. in most cases, the royalties paid in this category range from 20% to 35%.
For example, the author of a public domain e-book could receive 35 cents for the sale of a $0.99 e-book. While this doesn’t sound like much of a reward for his efforts, there are ways to create a pretty lucrative side hustle with a little hard work and a little imagination. Brainstorm ways to improve an existing version of a classic, whether it’s changing the cover design, simplifying or modernizing the content, adding relevant illustrations, translating it into another language, or creating a companion audiobook. now scale this effort and increase revenue by adding several classic public domain books to your library.
learn more about republishing and what comes next
Public domain publishing offers an exciting new path for authors to explore. To make it work as well as possible, you’ll need the guidance of publishing professionals to help you format EPUB files, design stunning covers, or create illustrations for your public domain version of the book. place the gatekeeper press in your corner to maximize your wins. contact us today!
See Also: 28 Children&039s Books About Money – That Kids Will Love