Who is the Mugger, Pray, and Who the Mug? (fao UK authors)

[steepholm]

If you're a member of the ALCS - the body that licenses educational institutions to copy and use writing for academic purposes - you should probably take a look at this.

In brief, the Government is proposing to scrap all fees for educational copying, and hence all licensing income for authors. Since most journals do not pay their authors, and the amount of paid time officially allocated for research for academics* is about a quarter of that actually spent (judging by my own case), the annual cheque for £120 or so has been very welcome, not least as a reminder that someone out there is reading and using one's work.

It used of course to be said that academics were "paid in promotion" for the time they put into scholarship. Well, twenty-one years, two monographs, two edited collections, a scholarly edition, numerous articles, chapters and introductions, an international research project, and six novels later, I'm still waiting to see the truth of that one. Not that I'm bitter...

* Of course, by no means all the authors of material copied by universities and other educational institutions are paid to do research at all.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Deep joy.
It was always on the cards with this govt, of course. We can hope, but we don't have much clout, sadly.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I know!

Maybe I'll just give up writing, reviewing and research!

Sigh :o(

[calimac.livejournal.com]

I don't think we have that in the US. I've been paid for reprints of my material a couple times, but that came directly from the publisher. Once when an article of mine was used in a class, any cash payment would have been derisory; instead, I asked for (and received) an e-mail from the professor after the term, telling me how the discussion went. That provided the kind of emotional satisfaction you describe.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I think the only time I was ever paid for a reprint, it was by an American journal. I can't even remember which it was, now.

That's a nice idea about the letter. The individual payments are derisory of course, but over the course of a year they build up into a useful (though not large) sum.

[sheenaghpugh]

This is really bloody annoying. ALCS are good eggs and have been one of my few steady sources of writing income. I might write to my MP, for all the good it'll do (he's a LibDem).

Only a blockhead...

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

...as Doctor Johnson said. I take great pleasure in the very little money I get from reprints and the like. The very little money. It gives me what Philip Pullman, in his great adult novel Galatea, calls economic reality.

Also, six novels? Where can I find one? (I think I know your name, but maybe not.)

Re: Only a blockhead...

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you were so distinguished and it might indeed be nice to read some of your works.

There is nothing like this in the US. In fact during a recent exchange with you elsewhere I had no idea what to make of your mentioning fees paid for using library books and was baffled. and I was largely educated by British trained scholars, too, but they never mentioned anything of the kind, even in passing.

Re: Only a blockhead...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I had no idea you were so distinguished and it might indeed be nice to read some of your works.

'Distinguished' is pushing it! But, ever eager for new readers, I've put a list in my reply to nightspore, should you be interested.

In my experience, academics are very slow to know about these schemes. The PLR scheme we talked about before applies only to borrowings from public libraries, and since most academic tomes are in university libraries it wouldn't earn more than a few pennies for most academics - or so they may believe. My novelist friends are generally well aware of it, however. What's more surprising is that many UK academics aren't aware of the ALCS either...

Re: Only a blockhead...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you for asking! The last one - apart from a couple of short books for reluctant teen readers - was published six years ago. I had a different name then, and much else has changed, but I'm still proud of them, even if they look at me with increasing reproach for not adding to their number. (I'm still trying to get my head back in the right place for fiction.)

Only the first two were published in the States...

The Darkling
Timon's Tide

And these are the others...

Calypso Dreaming
The Fetch of Mardy Watt
Death of a Ghost
The Lurkers

Of course I like them all, but if I had to recommend one or two, I think I might go for The Fetch of Mardy Watt (if you prefer essentially upbeat), or Death of a Ghost (if not).

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

I am *so* fond of The Fetch of Mardy Watt. I hope to own a copy when I have some money for book-purchasing.

Re: Only a blockhead...

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Okay - just ordered Death of a Ghost. Though I like upbeat too.

Re: Only a blockhead...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoy it!