Interesting article on the "bro" that's re-publishing public domain works! I've been noticing this for the last few years, mostly because I was trying to find physical copies of particular books for my research (specifically books on commercial rose production in the late 1800s / early 1900s). I don't do well with reading PDFs on my computer or iPad, so a physical book is a must when it comes to research! For a brief second, I thought about re-publishing public domain works as well, but it looks like many people are not quite successful and I'd rather spend the time and energy on my own books. I also wonder how many people are flooding the market with "the classics" when other specific nonfiction works may be more profitable. Who knows. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but at some point why "share all your secrets" and flood the market further? AMAZON IS SO FLOODED WITH CRAP. Interesting article, though!
Ugh yes Amazon has lots of really insanely low quality books, it's a bummer! That's the tradeoff we get for eliminating gatekeepers, which in turn has allowed some of my favorite authors to build their platforms and get published, but I hear you. I feel like anything that's too "easy" to do (like republishing public domain work) is going to be high competition, and things get lower competition the more difficult a project is. I thought it was a super interesting article even if I don't believe that side hustle is going to work for most people -- so definitely agree with you!
I'm reinvigorating my writing career after some time off. I have lots of print samples of writing from newspapers and magazines and have struggled to get them to look clean in a pdf. For example: some are in a wide format magazine and the text shares the page with ads. When I scan them you see the page crease shadow. Any ideas?
Interesting article on the "bro" that's re-publishing public domain works! I've been noticing this for the last few years, mostly because I was trying to find physical copies of particular books for my research (specifically books on commercial rose production in the late 1800s / early 1900s). I don't do well with reading PDFs on my computer or iPad, so a physical book is a must when it comes to research! For a brief second, I thought about re-publishing public domain works as well, but it looks like many people are not quite successful and I'd rather spend the time and energy on my own books. I also wonder how many people are flooding the market with "the classics" when other specific nonfiction works may be more profitable. Who knows. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but at some point why "share all your secrets" and flood the market further? AMAZON IS SO FLOODED WITH CRAP. Interesting article, though!
Ugh yes Amazon has lots of really insanely low quality books, it's a bummer! That's the tradeoff we get for eliminating gatekeepers, which in turn has allowed some of my favorite authors to build their platforms and get published, but I hear you. I feel like anything that's too "easy" to do (like republishing public domain work) is going to be high competition, and things get lower competition the more difficult a project is. I thought it was a super interesting article even if I don't believe that side hustle is going to work for most people -- so definitely agree with you!
I'm reinvigorating my writing career after some time off. I have lots of print samples of writing from newspapers and magazines and have struggled to get them to look clean in a pdf. For example: some are in a wide format magazine and the text shares the page with ads. When I scan them you see the page crease shadow. Any ideas?
Yep! I'd recommend re-typing in the samples or hiring a graphic designer to help you. Here's what my portfolio looks like for reference! https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/45nd8tq3ffbwu1uodei1a/Book_Ghostwriter_Amy_Suto_Portfolio.pdf?rlkey=y5wo0ju7g6ce09zp3xwhzkghg&dl=0