E-book Writing Question

[neverbackdown]

Hello,
I am interested in all things natural for body products and have been collecting recipes, ideas, anything and everything regarding homemade, natural products for the body. I have also purchased ebooks with recipes that were horrible and not at all what they promised, so obviously I would ask to be refunded. I have found good ebooks to but they did not have many recipes, yet the ones they did have were fantastic. Basically my question is if I were to write an ebook full of recipes, ingredients, suppliers and so on for the make your own bath products industry, can I use the recipes in these books? Most of them can be found all over the web. My book would be great because I have over 500 recipes, over 100 suppliers, where these book usually don't have more than 20. My question is what kind of information found online can I use? If a recipe is posted on over 20 websites, it is fine for me to use? I don't want to have any issues where someone would say I still info from their book or website. So when putting together a book of recipes or information that you can find anywhere on the web, how do you go about copyright issues and such? My book will stand out because this is the only book you will literally need because I have spent years collecting this information for myself, and now want to share with others.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[domular]

I'm not a lawyer but I do play one on TV. Just kidding but my understanding is you can't copyright recipes and this link confirms it U.S. Copyright Office - Recipes.

OK a piece of advice - just do it. Don't make it perfect, don't make it huge just make it good enough and start selling it. It's a fricken e-book and you can constantly update and improve it. Do a search for the gut that wrote about knock-off recipes to chain restaurants like PF Changs. The guy walked away from a major brokerage firma and has made a small fortune with that book.

 

[Carson Yim]

Just do it, you are providing your audience a great alternative to having to hunt down extra recipes themselves. It's a great time saver, also it would be great if you can categorize them neatly for your beginner audience. 300 pages will sound overwhelming for someone who is starting out.

It's all about the results results results for your audience at the end of the day, if you can figure out a way to always help them get results. They will be back for more.

 

[neverbackdown]

Thank you both for great info! I cannot wait to get started on this ebook!!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[neverbackdown]

Well now I have another question...some of these sites and ebooks say the content cannot be used or reproduced anywhere. It looks like most of them make up their own names for the recipes yet ingredients are all the same. So when they mention copyright I assume they mean titles and the names they came up with for their recipes, right?

 

[domular]

That's exactly right, the recipes may not be copyrighted but everything else they wrote is, names descriptions instructions explaining what to do, etc is. It also brings up a good point to this type of book, people aren't just buying a list of ingredients and measurements, they are buying the packaging. The most popular cookbooks are ones associated with a personality or picture cookbooks with amazing pictures of Italy, etc.