Personal Reissues of Books in the Public Domain

An Ethical Guide and How-To

If you follow book news, you may have heard that on January 1, 2019, a slew of new works will be released into the public domain in the U.S. for the first time in twenty years, among them Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and e.e. cummings’s Tulips and Chimneys. Why this is happening may only be interesting to intellectual property nerds — believe me, they live among us— but what the implications are should interest many more.

Because it means you could publish your own edition of Mrs. Dalloway. Maybe put it on the shelf next to your own edition of Pride and Prejudice, which just happens to feature a portrait on the cover of a woman who looks just like the Elizabeth Bennett you’ve always imagined. See? Potential fun.

The point is, traditional publishing houses have long released editions of classic works, updating the design and publishing them in snazzy series. Among my favorites are the Vintage Classics. The mid-century Scribner paperbacks also make me happy. (Photo and links coming once I pull my shambolic collection off the shelf and arrange for decent lighting.)

How do you go about a personal reissue of a work in the public domain? Here are six steps:

1) Verify the work is in the public domain in every territory you wish to publish in.

Laws regarding whether a work is considered public domain or not vary from country to country, and you need to be sure you have the right to publish all of the content you are about to publish (not only the original text but also the cover, if you plan to reuse one [which you shouldn’t, but more on that later], and also translations, etc.) everywhere you intend to publish it.

Here’s a list of countries’ copyright lengths . A quick glance will help you rule out obvious non-candidates.

You can be almost sure that a book published in 1996 isn’t in the public domain anywhere. However, the reverse reasoning doesn’t necessarily hold. A book written by an author who died in 1943 isn’t necessarily in the public domain in Italy even though his death was more than 70 years ago. A special extension may have been filed for this author, or for this specific title.

A few more websites and tools that can help you:

• US information on copyright in the United States
• UK copyright law
• http://outofcopyright.eu/ with calculators for some countries in the European Union
• Society of Authors guide on copyrights and permissions (7-page PDF)
• The Google search technique: just type the title of the book + “public domain” in your search window and you may get the answer to your question. However make sure you get the information from an official source, not just someone replying in a forum or social media thread.

2) Remember that a book and its translation are each entitled to copyright independently.

In other words, a translation has its own copyrighted period and the copyright owner is the translator. They are the one to contact for permission, as needed.

3) Check with retailers for their rules regarding selling works in the public domain.

Amazon has very specific rules regarding public domain books:

• The book version you publish has to be differentiated from an original version, in at least one of these ways:

Translated — A unique translation

Annotated— Contains annotations (unique, hand-crafted additional content, including but not limited to study guides, literary critiques, detailed biographies, or detailed historical context)

Illustrated— Includes 10 or more unique illustrations relevant to the book

The book that meets these criteria must include (Translated), (Annotated), or (Illustrated) in the title field

Google Play does not like personal reissues of public domain books.

“Multiple versions of the same Book confuse our users and provide little distinguishing value. Due to its widespread duplication, Books containing public domain material are no longer accepted, except from select partners.”

Fair enough.

When publishing a personal reissue of a book in the public domain through StreetLib, if you check the box “Public domain book,” it will not be pushed to Google Play. Same goes for OverDrive.

Lastly some general ethical guidelines that ….

4) Create your own book files!

Find the original text and then format the eBook or paper book yourself. There are great online tools for the job, such as StreetLib Write, which is completely free to use. What’s important is that you don’t just download a free ePub somewhere and then upload it as your own. Why?

• There’s a chance the ePub you downloaded is no good. Reselling a no-good version is foolish when you can get a beautiful book file with a little bit more effort.
• You need to be sure you have the rights to all of the content, including images on the inside that, again, have copyright terms independent of the literary work that contains them and may not yet be in the public domain.
• Finally, think about how creative you can get if you format it yourself — or hire someone else to. You could also add a nice dedication to your mom, for example.

5) Design your own cover image.

Yes, you are legally free to use the same copyright-free stock images or nonproprietary pictures that are available to everyone else doing the exact same thing. But that’s not the best option.

• First of all, you may want to distinguish yourself and build a base of repeat buyers who like your aesthetic. In a market that’s this crowded, it doesn’t make sense to try to please everybody.
• Second, in the words of AC de Fombelle, “it’s just not right. If you are committing to create a book collection, actually create. You may not be the creator of the content of the books but there is a huge place for your creativity: enjoy it and really choose a picture or image you think depicts the book you are publishing.” She also recommends Chip Kidd’s TED Talk on cover design.

6) Design your own cover layout.

Again, previously published cover layouts (including the fonts chosen, colors applied, the composition of the elements, etc.) can very well be protected by their own copyright. Once again, consider your creativity and enjoy the opportunity to make something new.

Photo by Karim Ghantous on Unsplash