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 petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/plr-funding/
To sign a petition to retain the current funding level for Public Lending Right - the money authors receive when their books are borrowed from libraries - go to the above-mentioned site.
To sign a petition to retain the current funding level for Public Lending Right - the money authors receive when their books are borrowed from libraries - go to the above-mentioned site.
Comments
So do go and sign if you can.
Will confirm it as soon as I get home...get signing people
PLRs funding settlement for the three year period 2008/09 2010/11 has been announced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The figures are as follows:
2007/08 (current funding) = £7,682,000
2008/09 = £7,432,000
2009/10 = £7,582,000
2010/11 = £7,682,000
As authors we are meant to get a small sum (fraction of pence) for every time one of our books is borrowed from a library up to a maximum threshold of several thousand pounds per annum so that the most borrowed authors don't take all the cash from the authors who are less regularly borrowed. So theoretically if the numbers of books that get borrowed over all go down then more will be paid per book-borrowing (which is presumably the theory behind this cut as there's a decline in library use). The amount you get paid per book-borrow isn't a set amount, it's done with statistics. I find statistics interesting so bear with me on this. I disagree with it being cut, I've signed the petition, but I'm just wondering if this has happened - has the amount per book-borrow gone up? Has PLR been around for long enough for anyone to notice? Do any talkbackers get PLR statements and if so can they shed light on what the statement looks like? Does it tell you how many times each title was borrowed, other useful information such as in which libraries or boroughs are your books the most popular? Or does it just give you the money, however small?
Jay gets PLR statements, so he should tell you what they look like.
The current sample libraries list goes up to the end of June, then the new list comes in at the beginning of July. You can view the lists on their website.
One of my friends at the club will not get PLR after July, because his local history books aren't relevent elsewhere, and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire come off the list in July.
Amongst other things, it lists the number of loans per book and the amount paid in respect of each. The Dandelion Clock was borrowed 568 times, and I received £33.97 for it. (Is it 6p per loan? I can't be bothered to work out the maths.)
I've probably got a page giving general details, but that's upstairs somewhere (but I can find it, I hope).
To view the Government's response, go to:
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page18782
Basically: we've increased it in the past and that should be good enough, so go away and stop whinging.
Perhaps it's just my age...;)