Why Authors Love Free Books
This is going to be a year of me promoting libraries and each month I’m going to be looking at a different angle. I’m going to start with how great libraries are for authors and at the end of this blog I have a gift for you.
Did you know your public library pays authors? (UK & Ireland)and it’s not just for books. Most libraries these days lend digital copies as well, so you can listen to audiobooks and borrow digital books as well. FOR FREE. Because that’s how awesome libraries are.
Under the UK PLR scheme there is a minimum payment threshold of £1 and a maximum of £6,600. The rate per loan for 2020/21 loans was 11.26p.
For Irish payments the minimum threshold is 2 Euros and the maximum is 1000 Euros. The rate per loan for 2020/21 for Irish payments was 11.29 cents.
And every time a book, in whatever format, is borrowed the author gets 11p. You might think that’s quite low but I promise you, if someone buys a book, the amount that the author receives can be the same depending on their contract. And they only get that once. With a library, they get it with each borrow.
My Payments
2022: £21.06
2023: £166.69
Not bad really, given I’ve just started. You might look at that and think it’s chicken feed, and I suppose it could be seen that way. But not by me. I see it as evidence that people are borrowing my books from libraries and reading for free. But of course, if you want to help me improve that figure get on down to your local library and borrow or request my books!
So, go join your local library. It’s free. And then start borrowing. Also free! You can also order books in. Sometimes there’s a small charge for that, approx. 50p.
And if you want to keep the books? Well, I have a solution for that
Now, I mentioned a gift. Each month I am going to send a signed copy of my book to a reader that sends me a photo of any of my books in their library. Extra kudos if you got the library to buy a copy for their stock. Send me a photo. I’ll make a draw and then you can request which book I send you! I’ll be using the image to share on social media so happy for you to cover your face with the book if you prefer.