PLR Time for UK Authors

If you're a UK author with at least one published book and you're registered for PLR, you should have received your annual statement by now, with payment due in the first week of February. If you have an account at the UK PLR website, you can also view your statement there in electronic form.

For those who don't know, PLR stands for Public Lending Right. It is a payment made to UK authors out of government funding to compensate them every time one of their books is borrowed from a public library. Authors are paid about 6p (approximately 10c) per library loan, and the most any author is allowed to receive is 6,600 pounds (about $12,000 US). Most authors, naturally, get far less than this.

Even so, if you're a UK author with at least one full-length book to your name (even if it's self published or you were paid a fixed fee), you should definitely register with the PLR office to claim what's due to you. Nowadays you can apply online if you wish.

While you're about it, too, don't forget to register with ALCS (the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society). ALCS pays money to UK authors for a range of things, most notably when their books are photocopied. They also distribute fees paid by other countries in respect of library lending, photocopying and so on in the countries concerned.

I always find it fascinating to study my PLR statement. A number of my books are out of print these days, but that doesn't stop people borrowing them from libraries. One of my 'star performers' is Start Your Own Home-based Business, which was published back in 2001 and is definitely a bit out of date now. However, my PLR statement shows that last year it was borrowed from libraries 1678 times, earning me a fraction over 100 pounds. Since it was published, I have earned almost a thousand pounds in PLR fees for this book alone.

This example is an interesting one, since with this book (and several others I have written) I was paid a fixed fee by the publishers. In effect, then, my PLR payments are simply an added bonus for me. In fact, because I get paid for library loans but don't receive any royalties on sales, it is more beneficial to me when people borrow my book from a library rather than buying it outright! For this reason, I've also been known to turn down opportunities to talk on TV or radio about this and other books where I was paid a fixed fee, as the main benefit of any publicity would go to my publishers rather than myself. This is possibly an example of the Law of Unintended Consequences...

Incidentally, non-UK nationals cannot claim PLR payments (or payments from ALCS), but many other countries - though not the USA as far as I know - have similar schemes in place to compensate writers for library lending, photocopying, and so on.