Quite possibly, you have been told of public domain publishing as a method of earning money online. I want to tell you about a twist on that idea that can have you bringing in extra income almost right away.
First, though, let’s review the fundamentals. As you perhaps know, many books and other works have entered the public domain (fallen out of copyright) and may be republished, in any format, by any person who undertakes to do so. In the U.S. most works published through 1923 are now considered to be public domain (“PD”).
If you find a PD book that you think someone would purchase if it were republished, you could reprint it as a physical book and sell copies via eBay, Amazon or your own web site. Some enterprising folks have done exactly this with old correspondence courses and other non-fiction, how-to type materials from years past.
On the other hand, you could package your PD discovery as an e-book and make it available for people to download, for a price. This is probably the more common way that people are earning money these days from the public domain. Once again, non-fiction, how-to and self-improvement are the most saleable subject areas.
Now here’s the twist I mentioned. It involves making PD books freely available on the web, but with advertising on their pages. Strictly speaking, then, you’re selling ad space, not the book itself.
A few years a guy named Steve Smith heard about a strange book from 1892 that combined a time-travel-type 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 OCR software, and posted the entire book on a website he registered just for that purpose.
He went further than that, though. On his web pages, he surrounded the text of the book with Google AdSense and affiliate merchant ads. He then made money when visitors clicked on the AdSense ads or purchased stuff through the affiliate links. By the way, if you’re wondering, 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!
I am sure this is an idea that many others could use. Public-domain sources are abundant nowadays. You might be able to find an appropriate book in one of the many web-based PD repositories, preferably something 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 restricted 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 described at some length 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 an excellent review of it at Can You Still Make Money Selling Used Books on Amazon?