And no, it’s not low-content.
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The Secret Lies in the Public Domain
When I first heard that someone close to me was publishing and earning money from public domain books, my gut reaction was horror. How could anyone make money from other people’s creative work?
But the more I thought about it, the more it dawned on me how this could be the perfect fit for me.
Ever since I took a book publishing class in college, I have loved formatting books, and wished I could make living publishing books. Writing is a passion and I love it, as well, but traditional publishing still makes more sense for the books I write.
Public domain books are available for anyone to republish with their own format and covers, or even with a twist on the original work.
Big publishers constantly revitalize their collections of the classics. And the thing is, they don’t pay for the right to publish them.
It dawned on me that I could use the same model of selling public domain classics and it could become a backbone imprint for any other publishing I may want to do in the future.
Amazon KDP Provides a Good Entry Platform
Here is what Amazon KDP says about publishing public domain books:
“Our program allows the selling of content that is in the public domain; however, we may ask you to provide proof that the content you submitted is in the public domain. We may refuse public domain content that’s already available through our program or other retail sites. If a free version of a public domain title is available in our store, we will only publish a differentiated version.”
There’s more detail given on the page, but it basically boils down to KDP allows publishing public domain books, but prefers for them to be differentiated, which in my opinion is fair. Technically, print versions do not have to be annotated, but ebooks do, and currently it is rather hard to publish public domain ebooks through Amazon KDP without a great deal of differentiation because there are free versions available on their site.
The royalty rate and highly-searched storefront on Amazon KDP makes it an extremely attractive choice for publishing. With the right keyword strategy, you can make your books visible to your ideal customer.
Marketing is not necessary to turn a profit.
Simple, If Not Instant, Passive Income
Setting up a successful public domain publishing business is straightforward, but does take time to grow. I stumbled along on my own for several months with inconsistent results until I enrolled in Period Time Publishing Academe.
PTP teaches a strategy that relies on building a large inventory quickly. This is the easiest and best way to start getting consistent sales. Then, armed with data, it is easier to find the niche that suits you.
The initial work of learning the ropes and then building a good inventory takes several months, but after that, books continue to sell whether you continue to add more books or not, and without advertising. At that point, it becomes truly passive income.
Not Always Easy
I’m not sure there is a business model that comes hassle-free, and this publishing model comes with its own set of frustrations.
The community on PTP has helped me through some of the hardest obstacles, whether with book creation, or Amazon policy changes.
But after resolving an issue, I always feel emboldened and ready to go again.
One particular setback with Amazon kept me from publishing for a couple months. During that time, I was genuinely disappointed because I enjoy the process so much. I continued to prepare more books, though, trusting that eventually I would get through the block.
(Amazon has lots of rules that are important to follow to the letter because when there’s a problem, they don’t always tell you exactly what it is. I was going too fast and missed a setting in the upload process. I’m a lot more methodical now. Another good reason to join Period Time Publishing Academe before starting.)
Formatting a full book is as satisfying to me as executing a delicious recipe. I initially used Adobe InDesign, but it was costly even with a great discount, and I took a very long time because the tools allow me to tinker endlessly.
Now I use Microsoft Word and take advantage of the templates PTP supplies. It goes much faster, though I have spent a substantial amount of time learning tricks to do things on Word that I could previous do quickly with InDesign.
I look forward to any time I can snatch in my day to work on this business. So for me, the pains are absolutely worth the reward.
If you are interested in getting started, I really can’t recommend Period Time Publishing Academe enough. They have been a game-changer for me.
And if you’d like to follow along with my personal journey and/or learn tips and tricks for formatting a book, subscribe to my Substack.
Or if you’re interested in more of my writing, check out some of my other posts on Medium:
The Truth About Alcott Shattered My Perspective of Little Women
Though I still hold it’s not a romance…baos.pub
The Man in the Rusted Old Chevy
And the company he kept…medium.com
About me — D. Higbee
Bibliophile, storyteller, athlete…medium.com
D. Higbee 
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