How Do Authors Get Paid For Library Books In The US?

Question

After visiting my local library and seeing so many digital lending copies of recent popular fiction, I got curious about how the publishing industry actually compensates novelists for library circulations. How does that whole system work?

Renato Arabit Celeridad · Answer

When an author’s book is in a library in the US, they get paid a small amount per borrow from Public Lending Right (PLR) payments, which are mostly a collective licensing program paid by grants from government. So while authors do get paid for library copies, it’s really quite different from direct sales, and that’s why many authors do most of their selling through digital platforms where readers can support their favorite authors directly. This is especially true for niche genres of fiction. For example, the new book by B Western author Kent system is being sold as a serial online, with payment based on reader engagement including chapter by chapter and even optional tips for particularly good sections.

Piper · Answer

I’ve wondered before how authors get paid when their work is held in a library. In the US, authors receive the same royalties for library copies of their books as they would for copies sold in bookstores. This is because libraries pay for the books at the retail price. For e-books held in libraries, the situation is a bit more complex. Libraries pay a higher price for a limited-use license for e-books, and then authors receive a portion of the price of the license every time it is re-newed. Sometimes the amount re-newed for is only a fraction of a cent.

While the initial sale of a book to a library does not result in much income for an author, it can have additional benefit for well-known authors and financial disadvantage for others. In addition, there are organizations such as Library renewal $$ working to bring about new models for authors to earn more income from their library use. Authors are also supported by the fact that books in libraries are highlighted in reading lists and programs all over the country, resulting in an upsurge in demand for books by authors in these lists at other venues.

Piper · Answer

From a writer's perspective, compensation for library copies is a mix of direct and indirect payments. When a library orders print copies of your book, writers earn the normal royalty for that store. Often libraries buy large quantities of popular titles – and libraries are really throwing their weight behind an author once they decide to purchase copies of your earlier work. Digital lending is increasingly well-compensated – platforms such as Hoopla and OverDrive pay per checkout or as part of a licensing fee.

Until the U.S. converts to a per-checkout model, libraries function primarily to promote authors and enable discovery. A borrower of yours may become a purchaser of future works by you, and a powerful advocate among his or her friends and acquaintances. So, slow-burning and of long-term value to authors.

Leah · Answer

Libraries typically pay for author’s work with initial purchases of books. As with sales through traditional bookstores, authors receive the same royalty for library copies as they would for bookstore copies. In contrast to print books, e-books purchased by libraries for licensing by readers pay authors a percentage of the library’s purchase price for the e-book. While there are no additional per-checkout fees for authors on books in libraries in the US, increased exposure through a library can generate additional sales and other such events (e.g., author readings) and bulk orders may also occasionally bring additional income for some authors. In general, however, library placement is not a particularly lucrative venue, but rather a stable source of further exposure and solidifies a writer’s audience over time.

Stella · Answer

Many people don’t realize that authors are actually paid for library copies of their books in the US. Usually, this happens when libraries purchase books from publishers directly or through distributors, and the author receives a percentage of the sale price of the book. But some countries have Public Lending Rights (PLR) systems in place that compensate authors and others for the public lending of their work. Not the US, however.

American authors earn money from library sales through their membership with a collective licensing organization, such as the Authors Guild, which negotiates fair compensation for authors. Additionally, authors can earn money from the digital licenses that libraries purchase through services such as OverDrive, based on the number of times their book is checked out. Events that authors are invited to speak at libraries, and the many copies of their books that libraries purchase, can also generate a significant amount of money for authors. The money, however, is generally not a huge sum, but the increased visibility for an author’s work can translate into more sales and speaking engagements.

Just Nyamu · Answer

I would love to debunk this massive misconception regarding author payments from libraries. People think it works like a streaming service — you pay per play. But no, authors get paid once — when the library purchases the book in question. The publisher collects that payment and then pays the author his or her royalty on said book. After that, the author sees zero additional cash for all the subsequent times his or her book is borrowed from that library. It may seem unfair, but I will argue that library sales are usually at the higher price point for books, and thus authors benefit greatly from exposure via the library’s stocks of their titles. They can get dozens of new fans via library stock, and those fans will often buy the author’s subsequent works. But be advised that, in fact, there is no extra payment per barcode scan. The author’s payment was that one time, via the first-sale doctrine of U.S. copyright law.

Fabian Storr · Answer

By contrast, for the academic author, their model is usually to publish in a journal, where they may be asked to pay an Article Processing Charge (APC), and for which their library then subscribes at high cost to a package of journals to service their patrons. Yet the author receives no direct payment and their sole reward is by virtue of their having been published, which is said to advance their careers. Increasingly the work of such authors is being made available open access by payment of a fee by the author or the author’s institution which also serves to reduce the burden on libraries. Thus, there is a world of difference between the trade author, writing for a general audience, who is paid by royalty in the system described here, and the academic author, who operates in a prestige-driven system and is paid by virtue of being granted tenure.

Dusty Waubiness · Answer

While individual sales of books by authors might garner the author a bit more per sale than the price of a paperback (e.g. $12.99 vs. $9.99) and arise in much greater volume, the book purchases in libraries by all types of libraries (school, public, university and special libraries) are almost entirely one-time payments to the author for the acquisition by the library of a physical copy, of an e-book license or of an audiobook license from a distributor to the library. There are special arrangements in a few countries which enable authors to earn something from public lending of their books under a Public Lending Right scheme but in the US there is no federal PLR scheme in place. In many countries there are collective licensing organizations which license certain types of digital use by authors and which pay the authors royalties on such use, but these organizations and their payment of royalties to authors are largely unknown outside of a few circles of writers and so comprise a rather unusual part of the overall book market. The payment per library sale of a book by an author is typically higher per copy than for sales to individual readers but the number of copies that are sold to libraries for the author is minuscule when compared to individual book sales. Library sales and the resulting income from them for authors, give them much needed additional discoverability of their books as well as the opportunity for steady, if modest, additional income from sales of many of their books to read by countless numbers of readers over many years. Recent changes to the book market brought on by the digital revolution have resulted in new models of licensing for writers and their books but in all cases payment for lending a book is restricted to the initial acquisition of the book by the library.

For self-published authors trying to make their books library-worthy, access to library-focused distributors like Library Book Distributors or distribution channels on library platforms like OverDrive can be difficult to negotiate.

jackie james · Answer

The Public Lending Right. PLR. It’s already been done another way, in other countries. The model does not currently exist federally in the U.S. but could be a way for authors to receive compensation for each loan of their book from a central fund, often government-backed. Many countries have a form of Public Lending Right in place, including the UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia. The idea is that libraries lending books instead of selling them could cost authors money and therefore authors should receive compensation for the fact that libraries are providing a public good. While it won’t bring in a fortune, efforts to bring Public Lending Right to the U.S. have been stymied by funding and administrative issues. Many authors would be happy to see their Canadian brethren receive periodic checks based on sampling of library data for their titles. Lit fiction authors, and poets in particular, would have a good chance of receiving decent sums of money were PLR to be established in the U.S. as their books don’t garner massive sales but are frequently studied and borrowed by libraries across the country.

How Do Authors Get Paid For Library Books In The US?

9 Answers

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