Updating English on an old book

LillisJoy · Post by **LillisJoy** » February 10th, 2020, 5:26 am

Hi there!

A friend was recently asking me about Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan, 1678) and whether or not there were free audio books of it in updated English. When I went to look I realised that all the updated versions are under copyright (for obvious reasons) and all the public domain versions are in old English. Since I haven't read the book in any version since I was a pre-teen, I decided to re-read the original and transcribe it into modern English myself. I have been working on the draft for about a month and am close to done. In the next week or so, I will go back through and smooth out the style and make sure I didn't make any egregious errors.

My question is this: can I read my version for LibriVox without any repercussions? I'm happy to put my edition in the public domain since I'm not looking to get it published. I mostly want to share it with friends and young family members. Does this violate any of LibriVox's rules?

Thanks!
Lillis

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » February 10th, 2020, 6:36 am

LillisJoy wrote: ↑February 10th, 2020, 5:26 am Hi there!

A friend was recently asking me about Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan, 1678) and whether or not there were free audio books of it in updated English. When I went to look I realised that all the updated versions are under copyright (for obvious reasons) and all the public domain versions are in old English. Since I haven't read the book in any version since I was a pre-teen, I decided to re-read the original and transcribe it into modern English myself. I have been working on the draft for about a month and am close to done. In the next week or so, I will go back through and smooth out the style and make sure I didn't make any egregious errors.

My question is this: can I read my version for LibriVox without any repercussions? I'm happy to put my edition in the public domain since I'm not looking to get it published. I mostly want to share it with friends and young family members. Does this violate any of LibriVox's rules?

Thanks!
Lillis

I'm afraid LibriVox does not accept such works. Your project sounds very interesting, though, and I personally hope you will consider placing it on another public platform such as YouTube.

Post by **TriciaG** » February 10th, 2020, 8:02 am

What Kevin said.

Our text policy is that the work needs to be (1) traditionally published, and (2) public domain in the USA. This proposed text isn't traditionally published.

You could upload it to Archive.org from which all the LV audios are also hosted also. (For YouTube you'd have to add some sort of visual, but it would get more exposure there.)

That said, have you or your friend tried the recordings of the original? Once you take away the visual confusion of the old spellings, it is easier to understand, IMO. Also, we've got one "updated" version which is in words of one syllable. Here's a link to our PP offerings: https://librivox.org/search?q=pilgrim%20progress&search_form=advanced

LillisJoy · Post by **LillisJoy** » February 11th, 2020, 3:11 am

Ahh! Thanks for the clarification and suggestions. That is very helpful!