Translating public-domain books and selling them on Kindle
An idea I keep coming back to: use modern translation tools + human editing to bring forgotten public-domain books to English readers.
How it works
There are thousands of interesting non-English books whose copyright has expired. A small back-catalog of tastefully translated editions could earn a slow trickle indefinitely.
Step by step
- 1Pick a niche (e.g. early 20th-century French crime).
- 2Translate one book as a proof-of-concept.
- 3Sell on Kindle Direct with a consistent cover series.
- 4Reinvest revenue in the next translation.
Discussion
This is the kind of quiet business I like. Cover design would matter more than translation quality, I think.
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