Posts Tagged ‘publishing’
A Different Idea for Books from the Public Domain
February 6th, 2009
Perhaps you’ve been told of public domain publishing as a pathway to making money online. I would like to tell you about a twist on that idea that can have you bringing in extra revenue almost right away.
First, though, the basics. As you may know, many books and other works have gone into the public domain (fallen out of copyright) and may be republished, in any format, by any person who makes the effort to do so. In the United States most works published through the year 1923 are now considered to be public domain (”PD”).
If you uncover a PD book that you think others would purchase if it were republished, you could reprint it as a physical book and sell copies through eBay, Amazon or your own web site. Some enterprising individuals have done exactly this with old correspondence courses and other non-fiction, how-to type materials from years ago.
On the other hand, you could package your PD discovery as an e-book and make it available for downloading, for a price. This is probably the more common way that people are making money at this time from the public domain.Again, how-to, self-improvement and other non-fiction works will usually prove to be the most profitable.
Now about that little twist I mentioned. It involves making PD books freely available on the web, but with advertising on their pages. So, strictly speaking you are not selling books, but ad space.
A few years a guy named Steve Smith heard about a curious book from 1892 that combined a time-travel tale with a story about golf. Its title was Golf In the Year 2000.
Afer a bit of looking, he was able to find a copy of the book for just $10. He scanned the pages, converted them with opitcal character reading software, and posted the entire book on a site he had registered just for this purpose.
Then he took it the next step. On his web pages, he surrounded the book’s text with Google AdSense and affiliate merchant ads. He then made money when visitors clicked on the AdSense ads or purchased goods through the affiliate links. By the way, if you’re curious you can view his site at www.golf-in-the-year-2000.com.
Steve’s online edition of Golf In the Year 2000 attracts a steady flow of golf enthusiasts, science fiction fans, Victorian literature lovers and the simply curious, he says. And the ads on his pages bring him money!
It’s a simple idea, and one that others could duplicate. Public-domain sources are abundant nowadays. You might be able to find an appropriate book in one of the many web-based collections, preferably one that not many other people have discovered yet.
One good thing with this idea is that the book you showcase (and use to earn ad revenue) need not be confined to non-fiction or how-to.As with Mr. Smith’s strange little science fictional golf gem, it can simply be something that will bring visitors to your site, for the novelty if nothing else.
You could also look in used-book stores to try to find something rare enough not to have made it to the Internet at all. In that case you will probably need to buy a scanner and some OCR software to get the text into your computer.
Public domain publishing is truly a potentially lucrative area. And, how you “repurpose” your PD finds is entirely up to you. That’s what makes it so much fun, as well as profitable.
This method of publishing public domain material is also described in this article, along with recommendations for further reading.
If you are interested in selling actual used books online, as on Amazon or eBay, there’s a downloadable report available that shows a new and mega-profitable way to do it. Check it out here or read a solid review of it at Can You Still Make Money Selling Used Books on Amazon?
Tags: affiliate, book selling, books, ebay, home business, how-to, nonfiction, online business, public domain, publishing, sell books
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