May 29th, 2009
2009 Jun - Public Lending Right, How New Authors Can Miss Out on Earnings
New authors in
I found out the hard way as described in The Bookseller.
Use it or lose it
28.05.09
I NEVER thought lending libraries could get me so het up.
As a first-time author I believed the old publishing axiom “you always earn a few pennies every time your book is borrowed in a library”. But as with many axioms this one is only half true. Yes, you can earn a few pennies for every borrowing . . . but only if you have gone through the registration process.
I found this out in the most painful way when I was recently sent a Guardian cutting about last year’s national figures for library lending. I am a first-time author and was thrilled to learn my book Blood River: A Journey To Africa’s Broken Heart (Vintage) was the UK’s most-borrowed travel title of 2007–2008 and the fourth most borrowed non-fiction title.
That must translate into quite a few pennies, I thought.
But when I made inquiries it turned out the Public Lending Right (PLR), the official title of the mechanism by which authors are remunerated for borrowings, does not automatically apply to an author in the way copyright does. Instead, you must actively register for PLR.
No amount of pleading to the staff at PLR headquarters in Stockton-on-Tees could get round this. Dr Jim Parker, the overall boss, politely took my call but, just as politely, he told me the rules clearly stated to be paid for borrowings in the 2007–2008 year my book had to be registered by 30th June 2008.
Masochistically I asked what I had lost out on. A glance at his database and he came back with the information that Blood River was borrowed 29,238 times up to 30th June 2008 and would have earned me £1,748.
To sweeten the news he added that figures for the 2008–2009 year for Blood River were showing borrowings of 19,000 but only if I registered by 30th June 2009. After putting down the receiver I went to the website and made sure I didn’t miss out again.
I found registration straightforward and the PLR staff appeared keen to get authors signed up but a system which was set up supposedly to help authors did not seem very well thought-out.
Agents and editors are not obliged to tell authors about the need to register so there are going to be plenty of authors out there who, like me, have been missing out. Then I read that PLR was created by the last act passed by Labour in 1979 before the long, dark night of Tory rule. It was almost enough to turn me into a supporter of Margaret Thatcher.
And now, when would-be authors ask me for advice, I have a simple answer: make sure you have registered for PLR.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Dear Mr Butcher, Firstly can I say I am a committed libriary user and have been since I was introduced to my local branch when I was 5 [my email address gives you and indication of time etc]I was therefore dismayed to read that yes you can earn a few pennies everytime your book is ‘borrowed’ except that…….Surely there is an Inferior Person Responsible somewhere to inform authors of this piece of burearocatic nonesense? I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Blood River. Your commentary, interwoven with your trials and tribulations, really brought home just how dangerous your undertaking was. You [and your wife] have my admiration and thanks for taking the trouble to commence a journey that has cuminated in a book that was very difficult to put down until finished. Not only a “travel book”. My thanks to your courage and determination to see your project through to the end. Best wishes David Delderfield
December 1st, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Kalemie -
Do you know if Mrs Nagant in Kalemie (Lake Tanganyika) is still alive?
Thanks,
Nic
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:58 am
Enjoyed your book. You may be interested in a blog titled “Steve is Lost” which includes entries about a guy traveling around Congo in 2006-07, if you haven’t seen it yet.
Best regards.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Many many thanks for your book. It cost you blood, sweat and tears and I appreciated reading it. I spent a couple of weeks in DRC (Goma, Maniema, then up just north of Goma) doing some post war community development work in 2007. It was an eye opener, and I learnt more through your book about the background.
It also left me with a profound desire to ask how things might change - for surely they can and must, and how one might act towards this goal. It seems to be that the lack of law, and an international economic system which asks no questions about where materials come from (or how they arrived) play a significant role in hindering DRC moving forwards. Could a “fair trade” system for resources, that verified how workers were treated and insisted law and community development as part of the process start be part of it? Just dreaming about a world with DRC at full potential.
While I was in Goma I spent some time with Mr. Lusi, a surgeon (who gives his time and energy to running a hospital which does its best to repair those with the outcomes of multiple rape. an inveterate optimist, his view was that DRC was the next but one world super-power (presumably aftr the USA and China next) - just give it time!
As a side note, did you ever see the film Lumo?
Sorry, this is turning into a letter rather than a comment.
All the best,
Neil