Pick Your Battles Wisely

13.6K followers

Updated 2 days ago

(Cover photo: David vs Goliath)

Hi everyone,

One sore spot with working with Public Domain content for books/ebooks is occasionally I'll have to butt heads with Am a zon.

After 2 failed appeals, they continue to block one of my titles.

What I did was I combined to public domain titles and added a new summary and this is copyrightable.

However, even showing Am a zon, the copyright law, they blocked my title.

https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ33.pdf
Copyright protection may be available for the selection, coordination,
or arrangement of the specific content that is selected and arranged in a
sufficiently creative manner

U.S. Copyright Office - Circular 14 (Copyright in Derivative Works and
Compilations)
https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf
To be copyrightable, a derivative work must incorporate some or all of a
preexisting “work” and add new original copyrightable authorship to that
work. The derivative work right is often referred to as the adaptation
right.

They also wrote: "As a reminder, violations of our Content Guidelines may negatively impact
your account status and you may also lose access to optional KDP services."

Nice threat/promise. :-(

What's interesting is the ebook of the same title quickly was approved and became my 9th #1 Am a zon bestselling title.

I published a regular edition, a large print edition and a hardcover edition of the same title.

Grudgingly, I have changed 2 of those to Public Domain Content.

I can and will re-submit the blocked title and just list it as a public domain title.

The blocked book remains part of my account.

Its obvious I can't jeopardize 1500+ titles over one title even if I am 100% right.

Goliath can have his victory today and I am happy to stay in business.