Is it legal to sell summaries of books?

A summary is a derivative work. In the US, that’s considered to be a subsidiary right under the original copyright. Therefore, yes, you do need to get permission to publish (or create) such a work, and if you’re going to sell it, you need that permission even more.

Can you summarize a book?

Writing a summary of a book is a great way for you to absorb what you’re reading. It also gives you a quick reference you can use to remember the main points of the book anytime you need it. To write a good summary, read the book carefully while taking notes on important ideas, plot twists, and main characters.

How is Blinkist legal?

The startup isn’t breaking any copyright laws, though without permission, they can’t use original covers or quote extensively. They want to do both, and now pay a 10\% royalty fee for those rights. Blinkist drives sales by helping readers discover what they’re looking for, or not, in a book.

Should you just read book summaries?

Reading an entire book and not just the summary requires you to concentrate. So now you know why you might often get sleepy or drowsy after reading just a few pages. Your brain needs time to adjust to focusing on a single thing for a longer period of time because we are increasingly becoming easily distracted.

How long should a book summary be?

While it should be long enough to include the most important information, a rule of thumb for a summary is that it should be one- fourth to one-third as long as the original text if that text is 1–3 pages. It will vary greatly, for example, if it is a summary of a novel, book, or other long piece.

Who writes summaries for Blinkist?

We use real writers to craft our Blinks—and neither people nor Blinks are infallible. If you think something from the original book is missing from our selection of key insights, please, let us know!

Do you need permission to publish a summary of a book?

A summary is a derivative work. In the US, that’s considered to be a subsidiary right under the original copyright. Therefore, yes, you do need to get permission to publish (or create) such a work, and if you’re going to sell it, you need that permission even more.

Can I write my own summary of a book?

If you write your own summary, you are creating a new work and you own the rights to that work. Your new work cannot be written so as to replace or substitute for the original work. When your summary draws on the original source, that is considered Fair Use for critique, as long as you don’t replace the original.

How can I Sell my book summaries?

To sell them, you will have to obtain (and pay for) a licence from the publisher — because your summaries would then be considered adaptations of the originals. If you’ve done 100 summaries of 100 books, you’ll have to obtain 100 licences from perhaps (oh, I don’t know) 100 publishers?

Do you need permission to quote from a published book?

Here are the essential self-publishing guidelines for getting permissions that every author needs to know: Generally you need to get permission if you quote, in total, more than 100 words from a published book. Less than 100 words is usually considered fair use for which you don’t have to have permission.