Where to find public domain essays? LV has numerous books containing essays by various authors (search "essays" from the home page), any of which could be a great source of specific titles that appeal to you.Here are 20 essays by various authors, covering all kinds of subjects. Some are famous, others are gems ferreted out from chapters or passages in books where they have lain hidden for decades. Britannica defines an essay as "an analytic, interpretive, or critical literary composition usually much shorter and less systematic and formal than a dissertation or thesis and usually dealing with its subjects from a limited and often personal point of view." In short, an essay is neither fiction nor a short story, but a composition designed to educate/persuade more than entertain or inform, though essays sometimes do both, or neither. (Summary by Michele Fry, BC/DPL)
- There is no need to preclaim. Just record and submit an essay under 70 minutes in length, with the requested information (see green text below).
- New to recording? Please read our Newbie Guide to Recording!
- Once your essay is submitted, please be on the lookout for your Proof Listeners notes, which if changes are required must be attended to for your story to be included in the catalog.
If this is your first recording, please let the BC (msfry) know under which name or pseudonym you'd like to appear in the LibriVox catalogue. We can also link to a personal website/blog.
Level of prooflistening: special (I will follow along with the text and notate significant discrepancies.)
Please read the Listeners Wanted FAQ for the various levels used!
Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process unless you are the BC or PL. Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!
Magic Window:
BC Admin
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Genres for the project: *Non-fiction/Essays & Short Works
Keywords that describe the book: leave visible for filling in later
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LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs
Intro to recording:
Leave 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning.
Say:
OUTRO (end of recording)Title by Author, published YYYY, read/recorded for Essays Collection Volume 2 (by your name, location, date, etc. if desired), followed by "This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
"Title, then read the essay"
Say:
Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.End of Title, by Author
[Optional, and if not stated in the intro: "Read by your name, city, date."]
Filename: essays2_title_authorslastname_readersinitials_128kb and save as an mp3
(e.g. essays2_excisetax_paine_mtf_128kb.mp3)
PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS FILE NAME, AS IT MUST ENTER THE CATALOG EXACTLY IN THE FORM SHOWN. This will save our team a lot of work fixing misnamed files.
Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader
(If you have trouble reading the image above, please contact an admin)
MC to select: Rapunzelina
Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into a new post in this thread along with the file duration (mm:ss). (e.g. essays2_excisetax_paine_mtf_128kb.mp3 12:42
Plus:
Title
Link to the text you read from
Author's name
Posting to a thread “subscribes” you to the project until you “unsubscribe”. Watch this thread for prooflistening notes, either via email notification or see “notifications” in upper right corner of the page.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Just post in this thread.
The team:
BC/DPL: Michele Fry (msfry)
MC: Rapunzelina
