Have you ever considered creating digital works from the public domain?
On January 1, 2019, works from 1923 entered the US public domain, where they are free for all to use and build upon, without permission or fee. Why is this exciting? Well it was the first time in a really long time that new works are entering the public domain. There was a 20 year hiatus between the release of works from 1922 to the release of works from 1923. You can learn more about why here.
This year on January 1, 2020, works from 1924 were released into the public domain. These works included George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, silent films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and books such as Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, and A. A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young.
These works were supposed to go into the public domain in 2000, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress extended their copyright term to 95 years.
The wait is finally over! What does this mean for readers, historians, and art lovers? The Internet Archive will add books, movies, music, and more to its online library. HathiTrust will make tens of thousands of titles from 1924 available in its digital library.
Google Books will offer the full text of books from that year, instead of showing only snippet views or authorized previews. Community theaters can screen the films. Youth orchestras can afford to publicly perform the music. Educators and historians can share the full cultural record. Creators can legally build on the past—re-imagining the books, making them into films, adapting the songs.
It also means that you can sell these works in online marketplaces like Amazon.com.
In the same way that an author can self-publish a brand new work using Kindle Direct Publishing. An individual can also self-publish public domain works using the same platform.
Here are the steps involved in the process:
Find a public domain work or works for which you can access the full text.
Check Amazon to see if it is already available. If it is you may want to check the quality of the copy. If it is not yet available you can be the first to publish it digitally. If it is, see if you can improve upon it or make it a part of a collection of public domain works on the same theme or by the same author.
Once you have decided if you can improve upon the existing listings available for your work., you will need to edit your text, add any editorial commentary, and format it for kindle publishing. If there are existing works, you will need to make enough changes to make it significantly different from existing copies. This can be adding images, adding an introduction, or other significant changes.
Next, you will need to create a cover for your digital book. Make sure that any artwork you use is either paid for or you have the rights to use the image. KDP provides guidance for creating covers for digital books.
Finally, you can list it on Amazon using the Kindle Direct Publishing Platform.
Bonus, you can also use KDP to publish a paperback copy of your book as well. This is an excellent way to create passive income if you are willing to do the upfront work.
What do you think about this method of creating income online? Would you like more details? Let me know in the comments.
Cheers,
Emily
