I’m on a tear about Kindle products over these last few days… since the Amazon Kindle rules have changed a bit.
… And I had a reader who left a comment that needs to be answered.
Brenda is having problems coming up with ideas for Kindle products.
Let me back up a step…
I HAVE been sharing my progress regarding selling Public Domain content on eBay and then I started speaking about the recent problems with Kindle Public Domain products. This will confuse some of you… so I want to clear up some of the confusion.
Hey… some of you might be reading this and hoping that I’m not going to share your “niche” ideas that you have shared with me in private communications. I promise… I’m striving to avoid sharing anything that may jeopardize your business (or mine).
Also… I am not going to tell you that you need to be “rewriting” public domain content to make it unique. What I am speaking about is how to publish public domain content that you will be proud to publish and your customers will love.
One more thing to remember if you don’t live in the U.S. – you will need to jump through some hoops… Tax Information for Non-US Publishers
Remember that I said “Amazon and eBay” are different. The beauty is that we CAN sell on both – we just need to think about products differently.
->>This does not mean that you will not have to “re-work” the content. <<- Big difference between re-writing and re-working.
Re-Writing – means that you have changed the content so much it’s almost unrecognizable with regard to the original public domain content. This means you now have copyright protected content because it’s all original and you are the “author”.
You would never have a problem with publishing Re-Written content on Amazon.
Re-Worked – Clean that baby up until it shines! Make sure that your product is formatted to “read well” on a Kindle. You should add in “annotations” (I’ll cover that in another article)
Public Domain Content That You CAN Sell On The Kindle Platform
* You can sell “derivative” works – make enough changes so that you can call it your own.
* Publish content that is NOT already freely available on the internet.
I can hear it now – “But Debra – this is soooo much work!“ Pish-Posh… if this is to much work for you – you are in the wrong place!
Derivative work examples would be something like my books:
These are a lot of work… but “doable”.
Let’s talk about ideas for Kindle products that are changed enough to pass Amazon Kindle muster.
These would be much easier to create (still requires work – but not nearly as much as a complete overhaul – rewrite).
First… let’s look at what people want to buy (to read on a Kindle).
Look at how many books are available:
Now let’s look at all the categories:
I’m narrowing down to history here:
Narrow Even More to U.S. History:
Again – Narrowed down to Colonial History:
Sorted by Popularity (click on image to see larger)
Click here to see the Amazon Results For Today
The first book I see is about George Washington’s Mount Vernon:
Sales Rank Is Important To Notice:
This is actually a very good sales rank for a Kindle Book…
Now… Look and think about this book listing on Amazon - (It’s NOT public domain). What is this book about and why do the customers like it (read the reviews)?
American Architecture!
History!
Iconic Political Figure!
Sooooo….. What Could You Do With This Information?
We know that people are interested in this book because it’s about Early American Architecture.
1. I would spend some time on AbeBooks.com and/or eBay looking for a public domain book related to this subject that IS NOT already available for free on the internet AND is not already published in Kindle format. Buy the book, scan it and format it correctly and publish it on Kindle.
2. Take a freely available book and add in enough to change it (for the better) at least 30%. You might annotate throughout the book and update all the images to something current. If the book is about American architecture.. and has old images – why not use wikipedia to search for current images?
I am currently recommending that you add in “annotations” to ALL Kindle books… it will protect you because your work is now copyright protected… AND Amazon will pay you higher royalties.
I hope I have helped Brenda (and all of you) with a few helpful tips to find public domain products that you can sell as a Kindle Product.
p.s. Make sure you read up about how to Use the Golden 40 to find your niche topic books. This is something very few public domain publishers are using.
Click on this link… If you are looking for more information about publishing on > Amazon Kindle -<
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Deb, may I add something from my experience to your sentence:
I am currently recommending that you add in “annotations” to ALL Kindle books… it will protect you because your work is now copyright protected… AND Amazon will pay you higher royalties.
Yes, assuming the annotation are not in the PD, you can now copyright your work. However, Amazon will not pay you higher royalties. I know this is against all global regulations because legally your work will be recognized as your own – yet Amazon is regarding the ‘platform’ as PD, whatever you will do with it. Example: I wanted to outsource a German translation of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – a book that is neither available in the German kindle store at all (German version of course) and that has not German translation in the PD at all. Because of the cost incurred I asked Amazon if that would qualify as a 70% version (non-PD). The answer was NO (as stated above). So I left it for the time being. I know this is crazy and not according to rules at all, yet it is true. Maybe Mr. Bezos or some legal consultant would see it differently but you will not get around the support staff and they forwarded me that silly answer. All the best, you were very productive on the weekend;-)
Thanks so much for listing it out for me! I’ll need to a little more research before I try to get my brain wrapped around this again:)
Brenda´s last [type] ..The Sassy Frass
George… thank you for your added ‘experience’.
Now – I am confused (again) and will need to get this cleared up eventually. I believe that a translation does not give copyright protection to public domain works. I’m going to
dig into the “laws” and see if this is true.
Could it be something related to you international status?
8)
Brenda… I am happy if I helped. I was worried that I was confusing the situation for you (and others).
Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions… I want you to move forward to getting products for sale!
8)
It does in countries that signed the Berne Convention, like Germany. A new translation lifts a work out of PD status and is copyrighted by the translator until 70 years after his death. This is also why I need to check not only the author’s death date, but also the death dates of every other contributor (translator, illustrator etc.) before I can publish a work that was nor originally written in English. The US is much easier to handle because it is just a matter of publication date … YOU taught me the rules;-)
George… yup, you international public domain people are a challenge for me. I can’t keep up with ALL the differences.
We also need to deal with Amazon NOT knowing all the laws… what a pain in the neck.
Thanks for all your help – you are a great source…
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Hi, Debra, I am currently working on another Kindle book. I hope to have it done and up in the very near future. This time, it is not a cookbook.
Marilyn aka G-Ma´s last [type] ..Thinking of Mom
GMA – I’m excited to see what you have come up with for your next Kindle book… You are one of my STAR students.
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You are making me blush, Debra. Thank you.
Marilyn aka G-Ma´s last [type] ..Thinking of Mom