Authors including AS Byatt, David Almond and Ali Smith have signed a petition calling on the government not to cut PLR, which gives authors 6p each time one of their books is borrowed from a public library.
by: Alison Flood
Nearly 3,000 authors are calling on the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, not to cut back on the money they receive when their books are loaned from a library, a "significant" part of income for many struggling writers.
Well-known literary names including AS Byatt, Hari Kunzru, Tom Holland, Carol Drinkwater, John Siddique, Marina Warner, David Almond, Victoria Glendinning, Malorie Blackman, Patrick Ness, Sadie Jones, Ali Smith, Geraldine McCaughrean and hundreds of others have put their names to a petition entreating the government not to make the public lending right (PLR) scheme – which gives authors 6p each time one of their books is borrowed from a public library – part of the widespread spending cuts this autumn.
"While accepting that DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] has been instructed to reduce its budget, we ask the secretary of state, Jeremy Hunt, to recognise that the £7.5m spent on PLR gives effect to a legal right and is not a subsidy. It provides working writers with a modest income when their books are read by library users free of charge. PLR is particularly important to authors whose books are sold mainly to libraries and to those whose books are no longer in print but are still being used," the authors say. "Most [authors] struggle to make ends meet. PLR provides a significant and much-valued part of authors' incomes ... Any reduction in PLR will have an immediate and detrimental effect on the 'front line' payments to authors."
With new signatures being added to the petition every day, it will be delivered to Hunt, and to culture minister Ed Vaizey, at the end of the summer.
Award-winning crime writer Penny Grubb, chair of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society – which is hosting the petition – hopes the initiative will "make a real difference".
"The spending review will be a dog fight," she said. "PLR funding mustn't be seen as an easy target. A well-supported petition to protect PLR funding will provide evidence to strengthen the hand of those who support it in the spending review; it will be a measure of the importance of this funding to writers."
Grubb points to the fact that it is not only bestselling books by the likes of Stephenie Meyer and Dan Brown that do well in libraries: less familiar names including saga writers Anna Jacobs, Katie Flynn, Rosie Harris and Lyn Andrews, and children's authors Ian Whybrow, Fiona Watt and Jeanne Willis, all featured in the top 50 most borrowed authors last year.
"For many writers PLR payments are a substantial part of their annual income and exceed their income from primary sales," said Grubb. "With average earnings for writers so low, and with such a short shelf life for books in shops these days, PLR income for many writers is a vital part of their take-home pay."
Bestselling romantic comedy author Trisha Ashley agreed. "When I think of some of the elderly novelists who rely on their PLR payments, it makes my blood boil," she said. "For many authors it is a large and hugely important part of their income and this especially applies to the many excellent authors who are hugely popular in libraries, but who do not get published in mass market paperback."
The mean average income for an author in the UK was £16,531 in 2007, according to a survey carried out that year by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, which also revealed that the bottom 50% of authors earn less than 10% of total income.
"Squeezing the authors, on whose backs the huge publishing industry rests, has to be an entirely daft idea," said Ashley. "My books may be out there in the supermarkets and bookshops, but I still want them to be available to those who can't afford to buy them, or want to read them in large print. And for that reason and to support the many friends I have whose main source of income is PLR, I signed the form and would be prepared to march with banners, lobby parliament, or do whatever else it takes to keep this vital payment at at least the same level."
The petition is also supported by the Society of Authors and the Royal Society of Literature.
From: Guardian
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