I've
just had notification of my payment for Public Lending Right (PLR). For
American readers (and UK readers that are not that interested in this sort of
thing), PLR is a payment that is made every time one of your books is borrowed
from a public library. It's a very small sum per loan but most of my books are
sold on Kindle and, after Amazon and my publisher have taken their share, I get
only a very small sum per copy sold. (What do you expect when you can buy them
for £2.99 or less?) So it turns out that my PLR payment is worth having. It
represents about 0.01% of the minimum wage for the time spent writing, but it
is an acknowledgement that people have been reading my books and, hopefully,
enjoying them. It means a lot to me. So, if you are one of those people who
have borrowed any of my books from a UK public library, thank you.
Many
libraries now lend e-books. If you live in London you should be able to get The White Rajah free online. You'll need
to join your local library, if you aren't already a member, but that will be
free and does bring other benefits, like being able to borrow all the rest of
the books. The London Libraries Consortium may be lending out other books of
mine – have a look and see. (Some boroughs – including mine – are on different
systems.)
Of
course, people can only borrow my books if they are available in their
libraries. Most libraries have a simple system for requesting new purchases.
How it works will vary from library to library, but it doesn't usually take
long. Why not ask them to buy one of my books? If you are asked for details,
like the ISBN number, the quickest way to find these is to look for the details
on Amazon. If you click any of the book covers on the right of this page, it
will take you to the Amazon page for that book.
Getting
my books – or any books from less well-known authors – into public libraries is
a very good way of getting them seen by far more people. And, it turns out,
it's a good way of enabling a starving author to buy a crust of bread (or, in a
good month, a whole loaf). On the whole it's a good thing that costs you
nothing and takes remarkably little effort. Could you do this for me and,
perhaps, for one other lesser-known writer you've enjoyed lately?
The unashamed sales pitch
I post
on this blog about once a week. Occasionally, as today, I write something that
might directly get people to buy (or, in this case, borrow) my books. More
often I am writing stuff about history or reviewing other historical novels.
Lots of people read the blog every week, but rather fewer buy the books. As I've
just mentioned, all of my books are available on Kindle for £2.99 or less. If
you enjoy the blog, you might even enjoy the books. I would be very grateful
if you would click on the links and buy one.
Interesting post. Thanks!
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