Happy PLR Day! Where the blogs and twitter feeds of writers all across the nation celebrate the the Public Lending Right, the gift of free money, and most importantly, that libraries are awesome.
For those unfamiliar with the PLR, here’s my annual public service announcement on the subject:
If you are a writer/editor/illustrator/etc, a resident of the UK or Ireland and you ever need a reason for donating your books to the library – on top of all the obvious ones like promoting reading and supporting this valuable and increasingly undermined public service – this is it.
The PLR is a system where authors who’ve written books that are in public libraries get a little revenue each time somebody borrows their works. It’s a way to repay writers who won’t be earning a royalty from a sale in a bookstore. The hardworking folks at the PLR office pay a nominal fee based on how borrowed you were – and in the interests of fairness, you can’t earn more than around £6000, so the big names don’t get to hog all the money.
In the current political climate, both the PLR and the libraries it springs from are under threat, so if you are a writer or a reader, please do your bit to help support both as best you can.
Here’s my Top Ten Library Loans of my novels for 2014 (with 2013’s position in brackets)
1 (1) Peacemaker
2 (2) Fear To Tread
3 (4) Nemesis
4 (7) Cast No Shadow
5 (4) Hammer & Anvil
6 (-) The Poisoned Chalice
7 (10) Synthesis
8 (6) Red Fury
9 (9) The Blood Angels Omnibus
10 (5) The Flight of the Eisenstein
As always, my Doctor Who Western adventure Peacemaker remains welded to the top slot in the chart, and my most recent Horus Heresy novel Fear To Tread remains in second place for a second year; I was also pleased to see my Star Trek: The Fall novel The Poisoned Chalice make an appearance.
My thanks to everyone who supported their local libraries and borrowed my books!
