Posts Tagged Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society
Sorting Out the Admin
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Lifestyle, Non-writing, Resources on June 21, 2024
Being a writer isn’t just about the writing. Being a writer is like a running a small business, which is why all the big name authors employ assistants to help them. Those of us without the financial resources to do that, have to do it all ourselves! I’m currently taking a break from getting the words down while I wait for an editorial decision from my publisher and I’m using that time to get some of that admin done.
Firstly I’ve checked that all editions of my books are registered with the UK’s Public Lending Right. This is done via the British Library and ensures that authors receive a small amount of money every time their book is borrowed from a library. I’d like to say that this money is payable every time a book is borrowed from ANY UK library but the payments only apply if the books are borrowed from a sample of libraries across the UK. This sample changes from year to year and you can see which libraries are included this year and next on the website and scrolling down to the bottom of the page. Unfortunately for me, Birmingham Libraries (where I know there are several copies of my books and they do get borrowed!) is not in any of the recent samples. But maybe a library elsewhere has copies too!
I’ve also made sure that all editions of my paperback books are registered with ALCS. One of the reasons for doing this is to ensure I receive a small royalty if any of my books are sold secondhand via the World of Books website. More details about how this works can be found on the Society of Authors website. In the future it’s hoped that more secondhand booksellers will join the scheme. Fingers crossed!
I’m also going to be running a free prize draw in the next edition of my newsletter to win a signed (or unsigned if you prefer!) copy of The Promise. At the moment brand new paperback copies of The Promise are only available exclusively from me (there are a couple of secondhand copies on World of Books!) and it is also available on Kindle with an updated cover. If you’d like to be in with a chance, please sign up for my newsletter ASAP and before 26/6/2024. My newsletter is published less frequently than this blog and contains more general content for readers rather than specifically for writers. I’d love to have you on board!
Copyright for Writers
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, Resources on January 29, 2015
More from the world of my PTLLS course …
My fellow learners and I each had to choose a piece of legislation affecting adult education tutors and give a short presentation to a small group. I decided to look at copyright law because of its direct impact on creative writing tutors, who may use extracts from other people’s work as examples in a class. This is a brief summary of what I came up with:
It is an infringement of copyright to do any of the following in relation to a substantial part of a work protected by copyright without the consent of the copyright owner:
- copy it
- issue copies of it to the public
- rent or lend it to the public
- perform or show it in public
- communicate it to the public
The important word here is substantial. It is subjective and the quality, importance or significance of the extract are as important as the quantity of words – using just four lines of a poem or even a four word extract have been found to be substantial.
Tutors working in colleges or similar places will probably be covered by the institution’s CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) licence. In brief, this allows tutors to copy up to 5% of a published item e.g. one chapter of a book, a single article from a magazine, a ‘reasonable’ amount of text from a website. The source should always be cited on the copy and copies can only be given to students and members of staff.
The money collected from the sale of these licences is distributed back to writers via ALCS (Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society), PLS (Publishers Licensing Society) and DACS (Design and Artists’ Copyright Society). If you’ve ever had an article or story published in a magazine make sure you register with ALCS to get your share of this money.
However, tutors who work independently in the private sector have to purchase their own CLA license or obtain the permission of the author or publisher each time they want to use an excerpt.
Alternatively it may be best to avoid using other people’s work and make up examples instead.
With all the cuts in local council spending, I guess more tutors may be forced to teach privately so the above is just something to be aware of.
Sally Jenkins 