It's PLR week!
What it means and why it's important to me
You might have seen social media posts mentioning PLR this week, as statements started to land on Monday. But what is it and why does it matter?
In the UK, authors can register their books with the British Library PLR Office. PLR is an acronym for Public lending Right, and each year, the British Library samples UK libraries for borrows and pay authors on an average of that sample - if you book has been borrowed.
How do you register?
You can register paperbacks, ebooks and audiobooks with their ISBN. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a unique numeric identifier assigned to books and similar publications to distinguish them from other titles and editions. The ISBN helps publishers, booksellers, libraries, and distributors catalog and manage books efficiently.
The PLR website is easy to use. You can register any book with an ISBN and, providing it is borrowed from a sample library, you will receive a payment. Statements are issued annually, and payments made in February each year.
This all sounds very positive, doesn’t it? And fair. But the problem is, not all books get into libraries.
How can I get a book into a library?
The short answer is, YOU cant. Not easily, anyway. Librarians and library buyers make the decision about which books they buy for their library. This will usually be based on a list of published books they receive from publishers.
But I have also heard of books getting into libraries by being donated by the author and by people requesting the book. As will most things in publishing, the more visible the book the more likely it will be stocked by bookshops and bought by libraries.
What about ebooks?
Ebooks are also eligible for PLR. The library system works a little differently for ebooks, as they are obviously digital borrows. Libraries have their own ebook library - my library is in BorrowBox - and it is worth emailing your library with a list of your ebooks and asking them to stock then in their digital library. A similar system works for audiobooks.
Again, there are no guarantees, it is the decision of the individual libraries.
Why is PLR is so important to writers?
I can only speak for myself, but PLR is incredibly important to me. I consider writing as a job, albeit a job full of uncertainty and a real rollercoaster. Two of my books earn PLR. Both were published over five years again, and I still get a payment. This makes me incredibly grateful for two reasons:
Financially. PLR it contributes to my income. I count every penny I earn from writing as income, and I pay tax on it. There are so many ways writers lose income - pirate book sites, second selling on books, passing on books, low prices books - but PLR is one area where I get paid for someone reading my work. And my books in libraries might encourage someone to buy or borrow my other books, including the ones that aren’t in libraries.
Creativity. Apart from Amazon reviews, I rarely get insight into whether people have actually read my work. Yet when the PLR statement arrives, I get an idea of how many people have borrowed my books over that year. It never ceases to amaze me that my storytelling has reached other people and, hopefully entertained them. I’m so grateful for this opportunity.
Is it worth registering my books in PLR?
Even if you don’t think your books are in libraries, or you absolutely know they are not, it is worth registering your books for PLR.
It may seem pointless, but if you book has been published and has an ISBN - if you are self publishing you can buy ISBN’s and Amazon have a space for you to enter it - it is worth registering for PLR. You might not be registering with the intention of getting a payment, but there are other reasons.
If you have read this far, you are probably someone who is a storyteller and has written a book. You had an idea and you communicated that idea via the written word. That is art. You created a piece of art that, no matter what agents and publishers say, sits alongside worth pieces of art.
All that art is catalogued with ISBNs. Registering your books and ebooks and audiobooks on PLR is a way of putting it out there that you might not be in libraries, now, but one day you might.
Persistence is a huge part of art. In creative writing, it isn’t easy to get your art mainstream published. I see my PLR listing as a testament to my persistence. Some of those books are in libraries. Some aren’t. Some sold a lot. Others sold barely any copies. But they are all my work and I am proud of them.
Persist
So if you are a storyteller, persist. Collect your precious work and register it. Have it catalogued. Register your books and ebooks and audiobooks for PLR. Register them for ALCS, too. If you have written a script or had writing published in magazines, register them for ALCS - this is the Author’s Licencing and Collection Agency and they pay bi-annually for work that has been photocopied in colleges and universities and in business, and reprographic rights.
Keep going. Make a record of your precious work. Persist.