A few weeks ago I met a student of journalism who attended a talk I gave at the National Gallery in London. His name is Steve Peiris and we kept in touch as he has a particular interest in covering the arts.
After a subsequent conversation, in which I mentioned the demise of the Public Lending Right department, Steve and his colleagues attended a hearing at the House of Commons on this very topic.
For those unaware of the circumstances, Public Lending Right (or PLR) was set up in 1979 to provide authors and illustrators with some compensation for the free public lending of their work. While writers understand that this kind of exposure of their work is good, and that books should be available to all, they also felt that they may lose significant sales if people borrowed only and never bought.
The scheme has worked well for three decades but the new coalition government have, suddenly, in their wisdom, closed the PLR department in an attempt to reduce costs (although it only employed 9 people!) and PLR will now be absorbed into a larger government funded body, possibly the Arts Council. Meanwhile the amount given to authors – currently around just 6p per loan – is being gradually cut away over the next few years.
The most any author can earn with PLR, regardless of popularity, is £6,600. This capping means the funds are spread further and more authors benefit. Most authors earn substantially less than that (me included!). But nevertheless it really is valuable income. We authors and illustrators work in an industry with very little support. We have no union (the Society of Authors is many things but a union it is not), we have no pensions, we have no fixed regular income. I am happy to embrace all these things for the privilage to work in the distinguished field I have chosen. And I accept it IS my choice. However, a regular February payment of PLR was always very welcome, especially after a January tax bill. To have this threatened, to consider it’s demise, is worrying. In fact my PLR represented around 10% of my annual taxable income this year. It IS a significant sum to have under threat. PLR is every authors right. Music, film and TV are all protected. This is a matter of the borrowing of a person’s intellectual property, and so quite apart from financial considerations, there is an important and symbolic principle at stake here.
But perhaps even more importantly, it seems to come at a time when libraries themselves are beleagured and threatened with huge cuts and closures. One starts to question the place for literacy, informed thought, and broad, meaningful education in a society that closes libraries and threatens the livelihoods of those who create the books within them. Add to that the hike in University fees and I really do question the motives of the coalition. “The battle for Middle Earth has begun” – that’s how it feels (I’m reading The Lord of the Rings to my son at the moment… hence Gandalf’s words).
And so, with all this in mind, yesterday I was interviewed by Steve and two student colleagues from the City University,London. And I couldn’t have hoped for three more charming, sensitive and impeccebly mannered guests. They were superbly professional and yet entirely open and friendly. This was the good face of education.
In January they will interview Ed Vaizey, minister for culture & creative industries. Steve asked if I had a question for him, so I replied with this:
“Given the international profile and reputation of so many British writers and illustrators, should the government do more to support their work as ambassadors for British culture, especially during a time of rapid change in publishing, media and creative industries? With changes to book format (i.e. digital publishing), book-selling and PLR, is he aware of how vulnerable we are?
Furthermore, as a writer and illustrator of children’s books, I would like to know why school library provision is so poor and whether the educational importance of children’s literature should be more celebrated. People in this industry work extremely hard often for very low return, creating work of real value for children. With school libraries disappearing and a very narrow range of digital publishing being implemented in schools, my fear is that authors will lose sales and children will lose that vital intimate connection with a rich and varied diet of fine writing and art, an area this country has a world beating reputation for.”
If anyone else in the writing or illustrating community has anything to add, please comment and I’ll ask Steve to bear it in mind!
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