Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
PLR - how should it be calculated?
PLR how should it be calculated?
At present, authors receive approximately 6p per book borrowed. This is based on the funding available which is subject to change - and the number of borrowings. Payments range from £1 to £6,000 (maximum) per author per year. Borrowings are calculated using a representative sample of library authorities. (I think thats how it works, anyway.) So, for 50,000 borrowings, youd receive about £3,000.
E-books are not taken into account, even though some libraries lend them.
What do you think of this system? Does it seem fair to you? Have you any suggestions for improvement? When you borrowed a book from the library, what sum did you think the author received? Would you be prepared to pay more than 6p (Im assuming that the general public pay in one form or another)? Should books be valued on a similar basis as when equipment is hired?
Rather than sell a book on e-Bay, the author would almost certainly prefer you to donate it to a library where, if they kept it, the author might continue to earn some money from it.
(The above refers to UK PLR.)
At present, authors receive approximately 6p per book borrowed. This is based on the funding available which is subject to change - and the number of borrowings. Payments range from £1 to £6,000 (maximum) per author per year. Borrowings are calculated using a representative sample of library authorities. (I think thats how it works, anyway.) So, for 50,000 borrowings, youd receive about £3,000.
E-books are not taken into account, even though some libraries lend them.
What do you think of this system? Does it seem fair to you? Have you any suggestions for improvement? When you borrowed a book from the library, what sum did you think the author received? Would you be prepared to pay more than 6p (Im assuming that the general public pay in one form or another)? Should books be valued on a similar basis as when equipment is hired?
Rather than sell a book on e-Bay, the author would almost certainly prefer you to donate it to a library where, if they kept it, the author might continue to earn some money from it.
(The above refers to UK PLR.)
Comments
I don't think it is fair, because those who have books that are regional or local interest won't benefit unless their area is on the sample list.
I think it should be done by all libraries- paying for it by capping the maximum at £2,000. After all most libraries are now computerised, books have ISBN's- apart from a few.
It would help those writers who most need the PLR, get it.
The tax payer pays from taxes, which the Government then allocates I believe.
[quote=Jay Mandal]Rather than sell a book on e-Bay, the author would almost certainly prefer you to donate it to a library where, if they kept it, the author might continue to earn some money from it.[/quote]
Unfortunately the time they might keep it may not be very long, or they may not even put it into the system. And if that library isn't on the sample list...
Like Carol, I had never given this a moment's thought until fairly recently. The sum paid to the author does seem very low. I have used libraries all my life (in the UK) and have always simply considered them to be somewhere I can borrow a book instead of having to buy it, and have used the library system to sample books I wouldn't normally consider buying. But I would certainly be happy to pay a small sum to borrow a book instead.
I have written to PLR to say that all bank details should be behind another securtiy gateway where the user needs to enter the password used to log onto the site AND answer a security question.
The problem is, a lot of people use computer accessible by more than one person, or even public terminals. If they accidently leave the PLR page "logged on" then it could be possible for some one to get the bank details and of course that would be a bad thing...
So far I haven't heard anything back from PLR but I have changed my payment method to cheque so that my bank details are no longer stored on the system.