Public Domain Day 2026: Enter Nancy Drew

The original text versions of the first four Nancy Drew books enter the public domain today. 

1.  The Secret of the Old Clock, 1930
2.  The Hidden Staircase, 1930
3.  The Bungalow Mystery, 1930
4.  The Mystery at Lilac Inn, 1930

The first four Nancy Drew books in first printing copies from 1930

The entry of the first four Nancy Drew books into the public domain means that anyone can reprint the original versions of those books.  No one needs permission, and they won't have to pay licensing fees—so long as only the first four Nancy Drew books in the original text version are used.  Derivative works based solely upon the first four Nancy Drew books can also be created.

Certainly, some rogue publishers will reprint Nancy Drew books not already in the public domain or will create new stories that use components of Nancy Drew that remain under copyright.  There is no way of preventing this from happening.  All we can hope is that Simon & Schuster remains vigilant.  I am certain that they are interested in protecting their trademark of Nancy Drew.  I don't know how aggressive they are about searching for infringing content, but I believe they do issue takedown orders when they are made aware of infringing items.

Last year, I saw these AI-produced "Nancy Drew" books on Amazon.

The books were very short, barely enough to be considered books.  I could tell from the Kindle previews that the books had been created by AI.  The listings have since been removed, but I took a screen capture of the first page of one of the books.  Here it is.  (Click on the image in order to see it better.)

It reads well enough, but it is generic AI content that is not worthy of purchase.  Even though these books have been removed, others will show up in the future.  It will never end.  

This is why Nancy Drew books entering the public domain is not of great concern, in my opinion.  With AI, people have already been infringing.  The only change is that many people will now reprint the first four books, but buyers must decide whether the books are worth purchasing.  

In my case, I will not purchase any modern reprints of the first four books, unless they are very special.  I understand that leather-bound editions are to be released later this year.  I will almost certainly purchase those, but I will ignore nearly all other reprints.  

Low-effort reprints of series books have been available for many years.  The Mystery of the Fire Dragon has been in the public domain for years due to a failure to renew the copyright.  That's why this low-effort reprint exists:

Whenever it pops up on eBay, I ignore it, just like I ignore all the flashlight editions.  I plan to ignore all the new reprints as well.

Another twist is that slasher or adult movies based on Nancy Drew could be made.  

From Public Domain Day 2026 Is Coming: Here's What to Know:

[I]t's an especially strong year for female detectives—both young and old.  The earliest Nancy Drew mysteries from 1930 hit the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2026, as does the first outing of the genteel Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage.  Maybe they can team up to solve the mystery of why Hollywood is only interested in using public domain characters to make schlocky horror films.

Indeed.  In 2023, the horror film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was released.  Something similar could happen to Nancy Drew, although there are restrictions since the derivative works must be based solely upon the first four original text Nancy Drew books.  

Also from Public Domain Day 2026 Is Coming: Here's What to Know:

In a case involving the now-public domain Sherlock Holmes, the court in Klinger v. Conan Doyle Estate, Ltd. clarified that a copyrighted character begins to fall into the public domain when the first published story featuring that character enters the public domain.  Once that happens, "story elements—including characters covered by the expired copyright—become fair game for follow-on authors."  But copyrightable aspects of a character's evolution that appear in later, still-protected works may remain off-limits until those later works themselves expire.

Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave remain fully protected under copyright—for now.  But 16-year-old Nancy Drew, Helen Corning, Carson Drew, Hannah Gruen, and other characters from the first four original texts can now appear in derivative works.

It's fitting that Helen Corning is the first of Nancy's friends to be tossed into the public domain.  Now, don't misunderstand.  I have always liked Helen Corning and have always wished she were in more books.  But...

Helen Corning was abruptly cast aside and forgotten after Edward Stratemeyer passed away.  The Nancy Drew series changed its trajectory beginning with The Secret at Shadow Ranch when Bess and George replaced Helen.  Since Helen was cast aside in 1931, it is somehow fitting that she is the first of Nancy's friends to be flung into the public domain.  Perhaps some new derivative stories will give Helen the attention that she deserves. 

Just hopefully they won't be horror stories with Helen turned into an axe murderer.

In closing, I must state that I am strongly in favor of past works entering the public domain.  We want the works to be available to future generations.  Many of the old series books are so scarce that they are about impossible to find.  Those books need to be in the public domain so that they can be made available in digital format.  

We are now exactly five years out from the entry of the book Beverly Gray at the World's Fair into the public domain.  That will occur on January 1, 2031.  That day can't come soon enough, because fans of World's Fair are rapidly aging out.  It's a shame that the book is so hard to find and pricey, since it's an important book in the Beverly Gray series.

For more information from Jennifer Fisher and James Keeline, please read these posts.  Both posts contain information about some exciting 2026 new releases.  

Nancy Drew & The Case of the Missing Copyrights

Happy Public Domain Day, 2026

Many Books Listed on eBay and Etsy

In the last 10 days, I have listed around 200 books total on eBay and Etsy, about half of them on each site.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Reminder: I do not duplicate my listings across the two sites.  For instance, I have a copy of Nancy Drew #44 Crossword Cipher currently listed on each site.  Click on each image in order to see it at a higher resolution.

eBay:

Etsy:

It should be readily apparent that the listings offer two different books.  One book has a price sticker on the cover, and it looks to be in slightly worse condition.  The cover art is tinted differently on the two books.  Since I have a lot of extra Nancy Drew picture cover books, I like to list different extra copies on each site.

Aside from that situation, some series will always be listed on one site and never the other.  For instance, the Hardy Boys series will always go on eBay.  I also list more obscure one-off books and items on eBay in order to capture the wider audience.

I do quite well with most Nancy Drew books on Etsy, so the majority of my Nancy Drew books go there.  Likewise, I also list most Dana Girls, Judy Bolton, and Trixie Belden books on Etsy.

Earlier this year, I was a bit miffed when someone in one of the Facebook groups mentioned my eBay and Etsy stores and said that I have the same books listed on both sites.  I refrained from commenting, since I realized that it didn't matter what they thought.  Anyone who thinks that the listings are just duplicated has never really looked at my stores.  They won't ever purchase from me, so what they think is of no importance.

I am at about the end of what I will be listing for now.  The next time I list books will likely be during spring break.  January and February are usually really rough months.

Shannon Messenger December 1st Virtual Appearance

Dhonielle Clayton hosted a virtual Shannon Messenger appearance on December 1st that was sponsored by Barnes & Noble.  I have transcribed a portion of the interview.

The first takeaway is how to pronounce Elysian.  Shannon says "eh-LEE-see-an."  An example of her saying the name can be found at about 1:25 in a podcast on YouTube.

Shannon spoke about the movie still being in progress.  They are working on a script, and the project will move forward eventually if the script is greenlit for production.  

Shannon also spoke about the excitement of seeing her book come to life in the second graphic novel and about how the graphic novel allows the Keeper series to reach a new audience.

I was most interested in the part where Shannon spoke about Book 10.

Many fans complain about how long it's taking for Shannon to get the next book done.  She spoke about this.

Later books in the series... they are so hard... so, so so hard...  I am writing as fast as I can, but... I've got to stick the landing, otherwise, what did we do here... I'm trying to stick the landing and it's a tedious painstaking...  It's not something that I can just sit down and power through... I want to give them a book that is worth the wait, and that takes time... I really thought that it would get easier with each book in the series.  I really thought—the plot exists, the characters exist, the world exists—so by the time we're late in the series, it's basically like Mad Libs.  You know, it's like you've got the sentence already there, you just plop in the character's name, and go!  So, I could do that in my sleep!  Oh, no, no... [shaking head]  

Some fans have been a bit nasty about the delays between books.  They act like Shannon is negligent in some fashion.  Writing a complicated story like Keeper is an incredible amount of work.

I think about the effort I put into my blog posts.  People have no idea.  I have another post written about Forgotten Secret #4, the one with Fintan in it.  I started working on it during the summer.  It has been finished for some time, but I haven't published it.  I feel that it will be too confusing in its original form.  I have decided to reformat it, and I am now working on that.  It's a lot of work, more than my readers can possibly understand.  I think about how many hours (and I really don't know how many) I have spent in writing that one post about just a small portion of Shannon's body of work.  Shannon's entire body of work has taken up an incalculable amount of time.

Shannon talks about what she learned in her film school classes.

"They taught us to leave breadcrumbs... like little things that you leave in there, that maybe you go back and you turn it into something significant, maybe not, but you have it there.  You have yourself this option, you know, to play with and it's like... but now I have around... probably close to 10,000 pages at this point that I've woven all these little tiny breadcrumbs through, and I don't remember where they all are.  I don't remember what they all were... trying to tie everything up when there's so many different threads... I've got to find a way to braid all of this into this... It's not something that I can just sit down and power through... I want to give them a book that is worth the wait and that takes time. 

I thought about what the breadcrumbs are, since these are things mentioned that might or might not get followed up later.  Some of the breadcrumbs are clues, but others are things that might never mean anything if Shannon never ties them to something.  A big one is in Book 5, and it could just as easily have never meant anything.

Book 5, page 301  "I went to that stall," Biana said.  "My dad took me when I was little—I still have the combs he bought." 

We finally learn the significance of the visit to Cyrah's stall near the end of Book 9.  This same scene from Book 5 also has a breadcrumb about Marella's mom, saying that Caprise Redek was present when Cyrah died.  That breadcrumb hasn't paid off yet, but I expect it will.

Shannon also spoke about writing the ending of the series.

You're shooting for an ending that is somehow, somehow... both expected but also surprising.  If it's completely expected, like if you just follow all of the clues that you've planted...  Those [readers], who have read it 50 times and know it better than you do, have caught all your clues and know exactly what you're gaming.  They'll like it, but they won't love it because it will be exactly what they predicted.  But, if you go too far out in left field and introduce a bunch of new stuff that wasn't there before, everyone will be like, well she just threw that in there.  It's not an earned surprise; it's just a cheap surprise.  Somehow, I have to stay truly consistent to every breadcrumb that I've planted.  Everything that I've led up to and yet surprise you and have it not feel like I cheated.  So yeah, it's a big task.

There are two takeaways from this part of the interview.  First, Shannon says that those readers most familiar with the books will know exactly what she's planning.  Indeed.  That's why we analyze the books and figure things out.

Second, Shannon is definitely working on the conclusion of the series.  We just don't know for sure if it will be only one book or two books.  Reading between the lines, Shannon is technically writing the last book.  I do know from comments she's made before that it's possible that this could end up being more than one book.  If the book ends up way too long, it could very well become two books. 

Nothing was said about when the tenth book will be released.  However, publication will most likely be near the end of next year.  I expect that we'll know by spring when the release date is and whether the tenth book will be the final book.

All of my past Keeper posts are linked from this page:

Keeper of the Lost Cities Summaries, Reviews, and Theories

Etsy Shop Now Open + Local Book Finds

I reactivated my Etsy listings on Thursday.

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

I reactivated my eBay listings in late October.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

You've likely noticed that I have posted very little online.  The current school year has been incredibly difficult, and my eyes are still giving me a lot of trouble.  This has caused me not to post much online, and I also haven't been reading very much.

I have been so busy that I haven't felt like photographing my occasional local book finds.  I have kept the books in small stacks so that I could do it eventually.  Here they are.

Click/tap on each image in order to see it at a higher resolution.

Books purchased on August 9:

October 11:

November 8:

November 22:

Trial Run on eBay

I have reactivated my eBay listings.  If all goes well, then I will keep my eBay store open.  It all depends on my schedule, how I feel, and whether customer service is too demanding.  I will hopefully be okay on the first two, but I can't predict what will happen with buyers.  If I end up with difficult situations that take too much out of me, then I could shut down.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

My Etsy store will remain closed at this time.

The 2025 Friends of the Library Summer Book Sale

I was set to go back to work on August 7.  The Friends of the Library scheduled a summer book sale for August 8.  It wasn't the best timing, to say the least.  I knew that I could miss the last couple back-to-school meetings that day and get to the sale before it opened.  The problem was that the forecast high temperature was to be 100 degrees.

I cannot be in the heat or the sun for more than a few minutes.  My skin stings in the sun.  It feels like the sun is cooking my skin, and I break out in hives. 

I have perpetually low electrolytes despite my constant efforts to raise them, so I cannot tolerate the summer heat without quickly developing heat exhaustion.

The sale was to be at the fairgrounds with no indoor place to wait in line.  Anyone who planned to show up early would have to wait in the blazing hot sun.  There was no way I could wait in line before the sale.

I finally decided the day before that I would not go to the sale at all.  I didn't think the sale would be worth attending.  It was to be a much-reduced selection of the general section of the winter book sale.  This meant that the sale would almost certainly have no old series books.

The only possibility was that the sale could have the vintage teen paperback books that I love so much.  That did concern me, but I decided not to worry about it.  The potential health risk was not worth the low chance of finding any good books.

I was in my last meeting at around 3 PM the day of the sale when I suddenly decided that it wouldn't hurt to check on the sale just in case.  If I didn't show up until shortly after the start of the sale, then I wouldn't have to wait in line in the hot sun. 

It would be a shame to completely ignore a chance at finding vintage teen books.  Some of the vintage teen books of the 1980s are incredibly scarce, because most of them have been thrown away over the years.  There was always a possibility that a highly scarce book could be at the sale mixed in with the common stuff.  

In my post, The 2020 Friends of the Library Book Sale, I wrote:

My favorite part of the sale is the table in the general section where the vintage teen paperback books are located.  I don't get to these books until around 45 minutes into the sale, since I have to complete checkout in the other section with my initial purchases and then get those books loaded into the car.  I doubt that I miss out on too many of the vintage teen books, since those are not nearly as high in demand as the vintage Nancy Drew books are.

I knew that I could show up at the sale after 4 PM and still have a good chance at any vintage teen books.  Like at the big winter sale, nobody else would be going after the vintage teen books initially.  It was worth checking, even though I'd have to walk in the hot sun from my car to the building.

I had done nothing to prepare for the sale, since I had previously decided not to go.  I had no wheeled luggage.  I had one tote bag in my classroom, which I had used on the previous day and had forgotten to take home.  That was fortunate.  I dug around in my closet and in the math department storage closet.  I found a couple of textbook publisher tote bags that I could use.  At least I had something.

I had some water left to drink in one of my reusable water bottles plus I took a Diet Pepsi with me.  I headed to the fairgrounds.  I got caught in a traffic jam, but even so, I ended up at the fairgrounds at around 4:15 PM.

I had to walk around 1 1/2 blocks to get to the building.  Whew.  I made it into the sale and looked around for the paperback books.  I found the paperbacks, and they had vintage teen books.

I had my three tote bags, and I quickly filled up all three of them.  I took this picture when I felt like I had most of the books I wanted.

I was almost the only person looking at the vintage paperbacks.  The empty spots on the table were solely created by me.  You can see my three tote bags on the floor under the table.

After I checked out, I had to carry the three tote bags 1 1/2 blocks to my car in the blazing 100 degree sun.  That was grueling.  I was hot and out of breath by the time I made it to the car.  I dumped the books in the trunk.  Yes, I literally dumped the books in the trunk.  I was planning to go back inside just to see if I missed any books.

Normally, I would have had the first purchases stowed away in luggage, and then I would have taken an empty piece of luggage back into the sale.  This time, I had no choice but to reuse the same tote bags.

I then got inside the car to cool off.  I can be in the summer heat for short periods of time so long as I take frequent breaks in a cool place and drink plenty of fluid.  I drank my water and some of my Diet Pepsi.  (Yes, I'm aware that a caffeinated beverage wasn't the best choice, but it was better than nothing.  I wasn't well prepared for this outing, and I had to make do.  Besides, I always add sodium and potassium to my water, so that helped a lot.)

After around 10 minutes, I went back inside.  I only found a few books that I had missed the first time.

I also looked over the "Old Books" section.  Some library editions were tempting, but since they weren't series books, I left them.  You can see them in these pictures.  A couple of them had patterned bindings, but the rest had plain bindings.

Library editions always stand out.  While I was looking at the old books, two other people walked up.  One person commented about the books with the bright spines.  They said something like, "Those colorful books are the type that the Etsy sellers sell at high prices as decorative items."  That gave me pause, and for just a moment I thought, perhaps... but I resisted.  I wasn't interested in paying $2.00 each for books that I didn't want at all.

These are the books that I purchased.  Click on images in order to see them better.

I don't think I got any particularly scarce books, but it's still a nice selection.  The Sweet Valley High books are high-numbered titles that are more scarce than the earlier books in the set.

This sale was a pleasant surprise, and my lack of planning turned out for the best.  If I had decided that I needed to go to the sale and arrive early, I would have been stressed about having to take off work and having to try to wait in the heat.  By deciding that I wasn't going at all, my work day was completely normal without that additional stress.  I made a sudden decision to attend, and I had no competition for the books I wanted.

It was a great experience.

The 2025 Friends of the Library Winter Book Sale

I didn't feel like writing a post about February's book sale this year, but here it is, six months late.

The quality and quantity of books donated to the sale has declined over the years.  What I want at the sale is totally dependent upon donations, and books of the type that I want are showing up less and less.  That is to be expected.  

These are the books that I purchased at the sale back in February.

One of the highlights was the first printing copy of the Hardy Boys book, The Missing Chums.

It was a decent selection of books, but it was a bit of a letdown, which is why I never posted about it.  I used to do much better at these sales.  Check out some of my finds from years ago.

2010 Book Sale Report Part 2

2010 Book Sale Report Part 3

2011 Book Sale Part 2: What I Found

My next post will cover this month's sale.

Store Hiatus Begins Tuesday Evening (August 5)

I finished organizing my unlisted extra books.  Click on images to see them better.

I also moved books to my new shelves in the garage.  Since the shelves are new, I placed notes on the shelves so that I would remember which books have been listed and which haven't.

Since I won't be selling again until around October, my memory won't be great about the books in the garage.  The notes will save me.

I will be deactivating all of my listings late in the day on August 5.  

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay