The Library of Congress

Here's how public domain material becomes fascinating and opens up avenues for you to make money. First thing you need to do is visit The Library of Congress website. It'll open in a separate window so follow along.

You can scroll down and see many books and papers and what nots. See the Magic Window book? Click on it. If it's changed location since I put this up, you can find it here . . . The Magic Window.

Alright. First take a look at the book. It has arrows so you can read through it. Just glance through for now.

Look below the book to the information. It tells you the number of pages and describes the book and tells you who the publisher was. It also tells you the rights - in this case - it says
Possible copyright status The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright restrictions on this item.

That doesn't necessarily tell you it's public domain but there's a good chance it is. Many times it will state the material is in the public domain. But there's hope and you can do further research if you decide to use this book.

Should you verify this is in the public domain, there are downloads available on this page. Download it as you like. If you want to use the book but rewrite it, download the text file. You can also download it for the Kindle or other tablets but be aware you can't simply take that to Kindle and upload it as your own. You can't sell public domain books on Kindle and other book sites unless you modify the content.

You could, however, put it on a DVD and sell it on Ebay but, again,  be sure it is public domain.

Doc Strange

While checking to see if the new movie, Doctor Strange, might have come from a character in the public domain, I came across this Doc Strange comic. While he is a super hero, it doesn't appear this character spawned Doctor Strange.

Sheena, Queen of the Jungle

Pretty much everyone knows who Tarzan is. However, there is a female character who is much like Tarzan and, personally, if I was in the jungle and could be saved by either Tarzan or Sheena, I'm picking Sheena.

Like Tarzan, Sheena was also an orphan who grew up in the jungle and could communicate with animals. Her fighting skills included fighting with knives, spears, bows, and pretty much any weapons she could make.