Public Lending Right loans - 2008/2009

I came back from a few days away yesterday to be greeted by a very pleasant surprise - my Public Lending Right statement for the year July 2008 to June 2009.

Once a year I, like other registered authors, receive a statement from the kind people at PLR (Public Lending Right) informing me how many people have borrowed my books from libraries over the past year. For each loan I earn a few pence which, at the end of the day, add up to a fair few pounds (now that I've established a bit of a back catalogue of publications).

The idea behind the PLR is to reimburse authors for what are effectively lost earnings, as a result of people borrowing books rather than buying them. There is a limit to how much an author can receive from the PLR (it's £6600 if you're interested) so that the likes of Terry Pratchett and J K Rowling don't wipe out the total fund.

Just like the year before, July 2008 - June 2009 saw an increase in the number of my books being borrowed, because I've continued to have more books published. However, one book more than any other made a huge difference to my loans and hence my earnings, bringing in more than my total PLR earnings for last year all by itself!

For those of you who may be interested, here are my top ten most borrowed books for July 2008 - June 2009 (with last year's placing in brackets):

1. (2) The Horror of Howling Hill (Mar 08)
2. (1) Howl of the Werewolf (Sep 07)
3. (6) Spellbreaker (Jun 07)
4. (9) Unnatural History (Feb 07)
5. (10) Leviathan Rising (Mar 08)
6. (5) Curse of the Mummy (Apr 07)
7. (3) Bloodbones (Sep 06)
8. (2) Human Nature (Jan 09)
9. (-) What is Myrrh Anyway? (Oct 08)
10. (7) Iron Hands (Aug 04)

10,576 loans last year alone!