1. The 5th Self-Publishing Conference
#selfpubconf
The 5th Self-Publishing Conference
Saturday 22 April 2017 • University of Leicester

2. Public Lending Right (PLR) an introduction
March 2017

3. PLR - what do we do?
“PLR is the right that authors and other rights holders have to receive payment from government for the free use of their books and other works in libraries.”
UK PLR introduced following a 30 year campaign.
The PLR Act was passed in 1979.
Scheme commenced in 1982 with first payments made in 1984.
Changed from being an independent Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) and moved to the BL in 2013.

4. PLR - why do we do it?
Support for the creative industries - PLR income can be vital for authors - author’s earnings from book sales are falling – the average annual income for an author is £11,000.
PLR protects an author’s back list – the titles shops don’t have on display and rarely sell.
Support for the public libraries – the PLR figures give an accurate picture of the value of public libraries to local communities – especially in areas of greatest social need.

5. PLR - how does it work? Registration
Rights holders register their details and book titles (which must have an ISBN).
Authors, illustrators, editors, translators, narrators, producers can apply for a share assuming they are resident in EEA.
Author/illustrator must be named on title page to qualify for a share (printed book) or named on the cover, within the book recording or have a contract with their publisher (audio-book).
c51,000 authors are registered for UK PLR and 14,500 for Irish PLR.
Average of 1,700 new authors register each year and 23,000 books per year.
Over 80% apply to register online registration service.

6. PLR - how does it work? Loans data collection
Loans data is obtained from a sample of UK public libraries.
Only public library authorities (32 currently), not ‘community’ libraries and must demonstrate regional representation.
Must have one Welsh speaking authority and must have either Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Data is delivered bi-monthly to PLR. It is a statutory requirement to provide the data. Libraries can re-claim the costs associated with data provision.
The system calculates the estimated national loans figure for the books that are registered for the Scheme by extrapolating the sample data against national loans figures. This is called the Annual Grossing Up (AGU) process.

7. PLR - how does it work? Payment
The Government (DCMS) provide the funding in 2 x parts – the Author Fund (c£6m) and the Administration Budget (c£0.6m).
UK PLR year for calculation runs from 1 July to 30 June.
The right to receive PLR continues for 70 years after death for both the UK & Irish schemes. PLR can also be assigned as a gift.

8. PLR - how does it work? Payment
The Rate Per Loan (RPL) is a calculation based on the available funding and the demand identified by the AGU. The RPL is agreed with DCMS before seeking approval from Parliament in December/January.
Payments are made in February (for earnings relating to loans collected during previous June – July).
Minimum threshold £1 and maximum £6,600 per author.
Payments are made electronically. Statements provided both online and printed.
KEY FACTS
2017
Rate Per Loan 7.82p
£6m distributed to 22,202 authors
205 authors earned the maximum
payment of £6,600

9. PLR - how does it work? Communications
Annual media release - the most borrowed authors and books from UK public libraries. Released in February to coincide with annual payments to authors. Supplemented by 6 monthly e-newsletter to all registered authors.

10. PLR - challenges?
Expectation that remote eBook loans will soon be eligible
(currently going through Parliament).
Audio-books now eligible for PLR. Challenge is obtaining accurate ISBN information given they do not qualify for Legal Deposit and therefore not catalogued by the BL as part of the National Bibliography.
Moving from a “sampling” processes to capturing all library data
Making author registration simpler.
Providing a modern user interface compatible with hand held devices.
Public library closures and declining loan figures for print books

11. Please visit our website www.bl.uk/plr for further information
or telephone +44 (0)
for further information
“Every author is thrilled to know their books are selling but I know I share with many authors an almost greater thrill when your books are borrowed from libraries...” (Jacqueline Wilson)

12. Check out our new video on
how easy it is to register for PLR and how important it is to authors