Who doesn’t love public domain content? It’s free to use and can be repurposed in dozens, if not hundreds, of different fashions.
The trick, of course, is finding ways to take what you find in the public domain and make it unique and memorable. That way, you can be sure your products, whether you’re creating books with PD content or making printables, will stand out from whatever your competitors are selling.
Since it’s not always easy to brainstorm new ideas, here’s our list of 7 ways to take whatever public domain content you’re working with and transform it.
#1: Mix and Match Public Domain Characters and Worlds
One of our favorite ways to have fun with AI and public domain content is to mix and match public domain characters. Here are a few examples of prompts to give you an idea of what we mean.
- Write a story where Sherlock Holmes goes to Wonderland to find the missing March Hare.
- Create an image of Dracula being dropped into Munchkinland.
- Write a poem about Robin Hood stealing money from Ebenezer Scrooge.
- Create a world where Frankenstein’s monster and Hercules coexist and fight for dominance.
You get the idea. Any work that’s in the public domain can be used in this way. The most important thing is to make sure you understand any limitations on the use of a character. For example, Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, but only the version from the oldest Disney cartoons, Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy.
#2: Reimagine the Plot of a Public Domain Work
On a related note, you may want to try taking a well-known story in the public domain and reimagining the plot for a new story. Here are a few examples of books and films that have used this technique (without AI help) to create new works.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies reimagined the five sisters in the classic Jane Austen novel as zombie hunters.
- The Muppet Christmas Carol took Charles Dickens’ novel and cast (mostly) Muppets in the story, including Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy as Bob Cratchit and his wife.
- Clueless updated Jane Austen’s Emma and made it about a high school student in Southern California.
- Wicked made the Wicked Witch of the West the central character of a retelling of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz.
These are just a few examples. You might have a brand new idea about how to update The Wizard of Oz or Sherlock Holmes and put a modern twist on them – and you can use AI tools to help you do it.
#3: Apply Art Style Filters to Public Domain Works
Generative AI makes it easy for anybody to create compelling and interesting artwork to sell online. One of the best ways to give public domain content a new look is to take a piece of public domain artwork and apply an AI-produced filter to give it new life.
For example, one option might be to take a painting in the public domain and reimagine it as a hyper-realistic photo. The Mona Lisa could turn into a modern headshot for an actress or model. One of Monet’s waterlilies paintings could become a beautiful photo taken at golden hour, showing the sun reflecting off a lily pond. The possibilities are infinite.
#4: Transform Public Domain Images into Coloring Pages
Coloring books for both kids and adults remain popular, and we love that they’re low-content books that can be created quickly. You can get a boost from AI by taking public domain images and turning them into unique coloring pages.
One example might be a famous artwork coloring book for kids, where you take The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, The Dance Examination by Edgar Degas, and Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh, among others, and combine the coloring pages into a unique book that helps kids learn about art history.
#5: Create Study Guides for Public Domain Works
People who read classic novels may sometimes need help understanding arcane language and references. One way to harness AI to make public domain content your own is to ask your favorite AI tool to create a study guide for the work of your choosing.
For example, say you wanted to create your own version of Frankenstein to sell on Amazon. You could ask Chat GPT to draft a new introduction, draft a study guide to be included at the end of the book, and even create a cover illustration and copy for the back cover.
#6: Adapt a Public Domain Poem into a Children’s Book
There are so many poets whose entire works are in the public domain. One way to make use of them is to choose a poem that might be appropriate for children and get help from AI to transform the poem into a children’s book.
A longer poem could be the inspiration for a chapter book, while a shorter one might be included in its entirety in a picture book. The key is to make sure you add something unique. That’s important because PD content can’t be copyrighted unless there’s significant human effort expended in the creation of a new product.
#7: Use AI to Retell Important Moments in History
Historical events and retellings of them may be in the public domain, and that means you can ask AI to help you transform an important event, whether it’s the Battle of Gettysburg or VE Day, into a book for kids or adults.
For example, you might give Chat GPT the facts about the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States and ask it to create an outline for a chapter book. Then you could have AI create the first draft and apply filters to public domain photographs and images.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many ways to use AI tools to make whatever public domain content you choose feel fresh and new. Whether you’re updating images or mixing and matching characters, have fun with it – and have fun collecting the income you’ll earn as a result!
Do you need some assistance with PD publishing? Check out AI PD Publishing Bonanza to get all the pointers and step-by-step instructions you need!
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