Writing an eBook

Hello,

Over the years I've published a lot of articles online, across various properties, about a particular topic.

Is it ok to combine them into an eBook and put on Amazon?

Would I be obligated to remove the content from online?

Otherwise, people would be paying content they can just get for free.

Any help appreciated. Thank you,

Mike

I can't answer this, but I look forward to reading what the knowledgeable folks here have to say about this topic.

I'd say it's okay. People don't mind paying for a collection of information, all in one place.

Be careful I hear amazon/kindle has a rule against this and will close your account if your caught. If I were you I'd take the works and combine them but change them up a bit.

Does anyone have an article about how to get started on Kindle? i.e. how to build an ebook, formatting, etc... or do you just upload it and they convert it... I have absolutely no clue any help would be appreciated...

Good point Jerrico. Just looking though the conditions now - and found this:

Public Domain and Other Non-Exclusive Content
Some types of content, such as public domain content, may be free to use by anyone, or may be licensed for use by more than one party. We will not accept content that is freely available on the web unless you are the copyright owner of that content. For example, if you received your book content from a source that allows you and others to re-distribute it, and the content is freely available on the web, we will not accept it for sale on the Kindle store. We do accept public domain content, however we may choose to not sell a public domain book if its content is undifferentiated or barely differentiated from one or more other books.

... so I think as long as we wrote the content we are ok right?

I'd make sure it was different, but that's just me. Why have to deal with problems later over it after you put in all the work of formatting it...  if your worried about it (and I would be) why not send them an email about it with specifics that you want to do so they can tell you for sure. Also ask other kindlers they tend to know the rules, especially long termers- you'll likely need some way to entice them to help a competitor though :) maybe a free copy of your book for their help?

I'm starting to really see the potential in writing kindle books- 1 in 5 that I've searched for are kindle books- and those were the ones I wanted in hard cover- but weren't available that way, so that tells me there is some money in this.

I just need to get going... I can't take a step unless I know sufficinet information about something, it's a querk, but one that's stopped me from making bad choices... perhaps a kinde book on how to do this is available... let me know if you stumble upon one...

Perhaps amazon is exaggerating. There are vast amounts of public domain, free stuff out there but once someone puts it together in a unique and organized fashion, the collection becomes copyrightable.

So I would suggest that if you take your own material and set aside a small piece that you offer for free and then a larger piece you charge for that would be the way to go. I am also sure that once you begin putting your stuff together you will find that you are rewriting sections of it as your thoughts and writing skills now are more advanced than when you first wrote the material. That's what I found when I wrote my first book based on lectures I had given for years and now that I'm writing my second based on a different set of lectures and writings.

Lis has some great input on this very subject. She is also a writer on this site as well.

http://lissowerbutts.com/formatting-for-self-published-paper-books-with-amazon-not-so-hard/

LIZ! my buddy from HP! Liz is amazing, she is a machine- an internet marketing extraordinaire in her own right! She has sites from sea to shining sea, a traveler like our very own Jo... I've used a lot of Liz's HP pages (and her site) to learn a great deal when I was a bit new to IMing years ago... I'll check out that site, thanks Kangarooooooooo

Jerrico

http://lissowerbutts.com/formatting-for-self-published-paper-books-with-amazon-not-so-hard/

Your content is not 'public domain', it is your copyright material. 'Public domain' content is not something that you should worry about here.

The content you own can be used in whatever way you wish. Bringing it together in an eBook on whatever platform (Kindle, iBookstore, Nook etc) is perfectly acceptable. My instinct would be to link each of the articles you have already written to the eBook, stating that each article is a free chapter from the book, as an example of the total work.

It would be sensible to 'fill in the gaps' and expand a little without adding waffle, but not necessary.

Be aware that it is not as easy as it may at first look to create an eBook. Read whatever you can on the subject before trying to publish. iBookstore has a notorious number of stumbling blocks, and Kindle is becoming a little saturated (a lot of competition).

In the end it is down to whether your content has an audience on a particular platform. For instance iBookstore has a much greater proportion of male customers than other eBookstores. If your subject is geared towards that marketplace, then it is worth committing the effort there, but be aware you may have to submit the eBook several times before it passes the stringent formatting rules.

Have you thought of self-publishing and adding the eBook to upload sites? You can keep all of the sales price to yourself then.