Tuesday 24 January 2017

Library Love and PLR

Today was PLR statement day.

In case you’re not an author I’ll explain. PLR stands for Public Lending Rights. Authors receive a payment every time someone borrows their books from a public library. Currently this stands at 7.82 pence per loan and the number of loans is calculated from a representative sample of libraries.

This was my third PLR statement and there’s something lovely about seeing how many people have borrowed your books from their local library. My payments are modest but each year has shown a steady increase in the number of times my books have been loaned.

Libraries are a wonderful resource and often serve as a community hub. They do more than just lend books – they provide a quiet space for study, a venue for local groups to meet. Often they have a programme of talks and visits. So it always saddens me when I see reports in the news about libraries being closed.

So if you’re an author and you haven’t yet registered your books for PLR then I suggest you do so. You don’t want to miss out on the next round of payments!

And if you’re a reader then do support your local library. Borrowing a book will cost you nothing but each time you do you are helping to make an author a little bit happier.