Your books cannot earn revenue if your books are not in print.

Over the years, museums, historical societies and cultural sites have published town histories, event books, documents, journals, meeting records and cookbooks.

While these printed books and documents serve to preserve history and to offer insight into past lives and events, they also represent an opportunity to create needed revenue for these institutions.

Now, however, many of these publications are either out-of-print or exist in very low quantities. And, if these books are not in print, they are not available for sale.

Today’s printing technology allows for these “old” and treasured books to be reprinted quickly and easily while permitting the printing of books for the very first time.

Digital printing provides the ability to scan pages of previously printed works and put them into digital image formats. A case in point was the reprinting of a book that was out-of-print for over fifteen years and has now resulted in sales of $1500 a year for one historical society.

Real-life nostalgia articles on "how it was back then" can be reformatted as books. Fragile and fading original documents can be preserved and protected, and their reprints utilized for museum and store displays or sold on-site at the gift shop or at special events. Books and documents can be printed as needed, in small quantities, ordered online with excess inventories stored and fulfilled by an outside vendor.  

Museums, historical societies and cultural sites can take the first step to uncovering overlooked and potentially valuable documents by conducting a thorough inventory of their books and documents to identify those that will be in demand and capable of generating additional revenue.

Summer and the tourist season are upon us. Now is the time to start preparing to generate revenue from books and documents that can easily and quickly be reprinted.

NetPublications Historical Publication Services

Helping Historical Societies Earn Income with Reprints

Most, if not all historical societies have a backlog of information that can yield much needed revenue in these tough economic times. Over the years, societies have published town histories, event books, documents, journals, meeting records, and cookbooks.  Many of these publications are either out-of-print or exist in very low quantities.  There is a definite market for these cultural treasures, which can be reproduced and sold to the tourist trade,  used for research purposes, or even for pleasure reading.

With the new digital printing processes, and the ability to scan pages of previously printed works and put them into digital image formats, publications can easily be reprinted for profit.  For example, a book that was out-of-print fifteen years ago about "who was buried in the county before 1850"  has resulted in sales up to $1500 a year for one historical society. Real-life nostalgia articles on "how it was back then" can be reformatted as books and sold by the dates of the articles.  Fragile and fading original documents can be preserved and protected, and their reprints can be utilized for museum and store displays, or sold on-site at the gift shop, local drug store, or at special events. Documents can be printed as needed, in small quantities, ordered online,  and even fulfilled by an outside vendor.  

Historical societies can take the first step to uncovering overlooked and potentially valuable documents by conducting a thorough inventory of their books and documents.  The most important thing to remember when working with historic documents is to obtain clear copyright clearance before producing new materials.