Republishing public-domain books: what you can and can't do
By Daniel Rahl Jackson · Updated 20 October 2026
A public-domain book can be republished by anyone without permission or payment. But "public domain" depends on the country, the edition and sometimes the translation, and stores have their own rules. This guide covers the essentials; it isn't legal advice.
The US rule in one line
In the United States, works published more than 95 years ago are in the public domain. On 1 January each year a new year's worth of works joins them: works first published in 1930 entered the public domain on 1 January 2026, and works from 1931 follow on 1 January 2027. Some later works are also free because their copyright was never renewed, but checking renewals takes real research.
Other countries are different
In the UK, the EU and many other countries, copyright usually lasts for the author's life plus 70 years, regardless of when the book was published. A book from 1931 by an author who died in 1970 is public domain in the US from 2027 but protected in Europe until the end of 2040. If you sell worldwide, restrict sales to territories where the book is free, which KDP and other stores let you do.
Translations, illustrations and introductions
The original text may be free while a particular edition is not. A modern translation, a new introduction, notes or illustrations each have their own copyright. To republish a classic in English that was written in another language, you need an old translation that is itself in the public domain, or your own new translation.
Store rules
- Amazon KDP pays only the 35% royalty on public-domain ebooks and may refuse public-domain books that are freely available unless your edition is clearly different, for example a new translation, annotations or illustrations, and you say so in the title or description.
- Kobo pays 20% on public-domain ebooks.
- Free copies on Project Gutenberg and the stores' own free classics compete with you directly, so a plain reprint rarely sells.
Finding a gap worth filling
A good candidate has many readers and few good editions. The public-domain finder ranks the most downloaded books on Project Gutenberg against the number of editions catalogued on Open Library, and shows which are on Apple's free charts. Then look at the existing editions in the stores: if the top results have weak covers, no notes and old typography, a well-made edition with a clear angle (a modern translation, an annotated study edition, a large-print or illustrated version) can stand out.