Category: News

APWG welcomes Creator Remuneration report

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The Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee report, which APWG Secretariat, ALCS gave evidence to, highlights the precarity facing creators and calls for measures to improve pay and conditions.

In September, ALCS gave evidence to the CMS Committee including APWG Chairperson, Giles Watling MP, along with partner organisations on creator remuneration. The Committee has now published its report and recommendations.

We are delighted to see recommendations that we have long campaigned for and that will have a tangible impact on pay and conditions for creators.

ALCS CEO Barbara Hayes said: “The CMS Committee report into creator remuneration shows real insight into the issues facing the industry. We’re pleased to see that it both recognises the crucial role that creators play in the UK economy and calls for achievable actions to actively address the downward trajectory in creator incomes and to support creators at a grass-roots level, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds.”

THE SMART MONEY IS ON THE SMART FUND

The Committee called for the introduction of a UK private copying scheme, such as the Smart Fund proposal that the APWG supports. They said: “We recommend the Government work with the UK’s creative industries to introduce a statutory private copying scheme, which, at minimum, safeguards reciprocal payments from abroad, to be produced within the next twelve months.”

Private copying schemes involve manufacturers paying a small fraction of the revenue from sales of electronic devices to creators, at no additional cost to the consumer. Such schemes are common throughout Europe, but the lack of a UK equivalent is a double-blow for creators. Not only do they miss out on much-needed domestic income, income from international schemes is also jeopardised due to a lack of reciprocity from the UK.

FIX IT FOR FREELANCERS

The report also called for the establishment of a Freelancer Commissioner. It said: “We recommend that the Government appoint a Freelancers’ Commissioner, with appropriate powers and cross-departmental oversight, to advocate across Government in the interests of creative freelancers, and of other freelance and self-employed people more broadly.”

Freelance creatives lack representation, and this has accelerated a decline in pay, rights and conditions. A dedicated Freelancer Commissioner would foster better engagement between Government and freelance creatives and help to find solutions to the issues they face. The APWG has long campaigned for the appointment of a Freelancer Commissioner and are pleased to see the Committee recognise the urgent need for it.

AI AND CREATORS

The Committee urged the Government to do more to ensure creators are compensated for the use of their works in artificial intelligence systems. The report said: “The Government must ensure that creators have proper mechanisms to enforce their consent and receive fair compensation for use of their work by AI developers.”

Last year we published our Principles for AI and Authors, which provides policymakers with high-level principles to consider in the development of any future policy in this area. This includes ensuring that creators are both acknowledged and fairly compensated when their works are used by AI systems. We welcome the Committee explicitly acknowledging the necessity of these principles.

Read the full CMS report here.

Read our manifesto to learn more about our campaign work.

Freelance journalism research findings announced at APWG AGM

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The findings of the research, commissioned by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and conducted by CREATe, were announced at the event ‘How do we create a fairer future for freelancers?’ which followed the All Party Writers Group AGM. 

The research surveyed almost 500 freelance journalists in the UK to learn more about pay, contracts, working conditions and copyright issues. 

The findings were presented by ALCS Deputy Chief Executive Richard Combes. 

He said: “In a year featuring multiple general elections across the globe, the need for professional, reliable and independent journalism has never been greater. Yet this report reveals the unsustainable working conditions faced by many UK freelance journalists. We look forward to working with the Government to ensure that the forward-looking recommendations set out in the report are implemented without delay.” 

Freelance journalist Anna Codrea-Rado told APWG members about her experiences. She said: “The ALCS report hammers home a harsh reality: freelance journalism pay cannot sustain a livelihood. It doesn’t for me, nor scores of my freelance colleagues.” 

Chair of NUJ Freelance Industrial Council, Angus Batey offered an overview of the problems within the industry. He said: “Low fees are only a part of the challenge we face. Contracts and a lack of rights, diversity and opportunities are all linked. We need help, in whatever form that takes, to get the money that is available and increase the sources of funding we do have access to. We need rates that don’t stay static for decades and we need help enforcing those rights that we’ve managed to hold on to.” 

Research findings 

Pay 

The survey found that pay for freelance journalists is notably low. Median income for primary-occupation freelance journalists sits at just £17,500, a figure below the minimum wage, assuming a typical 35-hour work week. 

There was also anecdotal evidence that pay is stagnating: “In staff jobs people get pay rises and promotions – or they change jobs and get an increased salary. As freelancers we just get paid the same rate. I think most freelancers are afraid to ask for more in case they aren’t commissioned anymore.” 

The ‘Wild West’ of freelance journalism 

A surprising number of respondents invoked the metaphor of the ‘Wild West’ to illustrate the profession’s lack of regulatory oversight and systemic approach to remunerating journalists. This means that most journalists are missing out on desperately needed sources of licensing revenue. The survey found that: 

  • 40% of journalists took on work without contracts. 
  • 47% of journalists allowed their copyright to be assigned to news publishers. 
  • 47% of journalists have signed an exclusivity clause, locking them out of benefiting from wider opportunities, often in perpetuity. 
  • 93% of journalists have never received a payment from established international licensing agreements between publishers and online platforms. 

The report revealed a profession characterised by informal contract practices, where agreements are routinely made orally or over WhatsApp. Copyright allows journalists to be compensated for the exploitation of their work. However, where contracts exist, they typically compel journalists to forfeit these rights and potential associated revenue streams. 

While there are some licensing agreements in place between publishers and platforms in the UK for so called news scraping, the survey also found the vast majority (93%) of freelance journalists have never received a payment from this source. This is despite the increasing significance of secondary uses for online content. 

Artificial intelligence 

The research highlighted widespread concern among freelance journalists that technology companies are using their content to train artificial intelligence systems, without consent or compensation. Given the nature of freelance journalism, they are also concerned that these artificial intelligence systems will have the effect of devaluing, or even outright replacing, their labour. 

Inequality 

The research found significant inequalities based on class, ethnicity and disability: 

  • Most freelance journalists came from professional family backgrounds (63%), whereas only 19% came from “lower” socio-economic backgrounds. Journalists from lower socio-economic backgrounds were found to earn nearly half that of journalists from more privileged backgrounds. 
  • Freelance journalism was found to be an “overwhelmingly white profession”. Black freelance journalists were found to earn seven times less than their white counterparts, although caution is advised due to the very small number of black respondents. 
  • Disabled journalists earned significantly less (£11,500) than their non-disabled colleagues (£17,500). 
  • There were however no observed inequalities among women and LGBTQIA+ journalists, in terms of both representation and pay. 

Next steps 

CREATe recommend the following steps to improve the conditions, rights and livelihoods of freelance journalists: 

Compulsory negotiation requirements between digital platforms and rightsowners. Similar ‘bargaining codes’ have already been employed in both Australia and Canada.  

Establishment of a freelance commissioner. The APWG supports the proposal to establish a dedicated commissioner to facilitate discussions between freelancers and the UK government.  

Changes to copyright legislation. The establishment of clearer rights for the use of journalistic content for emerging secondary use markets (such as news scraping) should be considered, which may, in turn, also bring about more comprehensive collective bargaining and licensing (resulting in more payments). 

Reducing barriers to access for marginalised demographic groups. The report demonstrates that the profession risks becoming the exclusive remit of the ‘privileged’, excluding workers from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Active, supportive advocacy may be needed at the early stages in a prospective journalists’ career. 

Rights and contracts education. This report confirms that many journalists are uncertain about their rights, particularly in regard to rights assignment and waivers of moral rights, both of which may have important implications for routes to earnings. More effective signposting to existing resources would greatly assist freelance journalists. 

 

All-Party Parliamentary Group for Writers Annual General Meeting Minutes

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Annual General Meeting Minutes

Tuesday 19 March 2024

From 14.50

Dining Room B, House of Commons, London

 

Quorum: Five APPG members (from either House)

Electoral procedure:

  • Voting will be by a show of hands.
  • The group will allow a prospective officer to be elected in absentia.

 

Notetaker: Jonathan England (c/o Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society)

 

Attendees: Giles Watling MP (Con), Baron Hunt (Con), Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench), Baron Alderdice (Lib Dem), Lord Balfe (Con), Chris Evans MP

(Lab), Dean Russell MP (Con), Baroness Blackstone (Lab)

 

**Arrived during or late for the AGM but attended meeting: Baroness Bonham-Carte (Lib Dem), Lord Truscott, Baron Woodley, Viscount Colville (X), Lord Don Foster (Lib Dem), Lord Taylor, Lord Dubs (Lab), Pete Wishart MP (SNP), Baroness Featherstone (Lib Dem)

 

  1. Welcome from the Chair of the APPG for Writers, Giles Watling MP.

Giles Watling brought the meeting to order at 14:55.

 

  1. Election of APPG Officers and Members (in accordance with new APPG rules)
    1. Election of Chair.

 

Giles Watling MP was proposed as Chair again and was voted through unanimously by show of hands by those members present (eight).

 

  1. Election of co/Vice Chair

 

Chris Evans MP was proposed as Vice Chair and was voted through unanimously by show of hands by those members present (eight).

 

  1. Election of other Officers (up to four)

 

The Earl of Clancarty and Lord Clement-Jones (in absentia) were proposed as final two Vice Chairs and were voted through was voted unanimously by show of hands by those members present (eight).

 

 

  1. Final Results:
Role Name Party
Chair Giles Watling MP Conservative
Vice Chair Chris Evans MP Labour
Vice Chair Lord Clement-Jones Liberal Democrats
Vice Chair Earl of Clancarty Crossbench

 

 

  1. Approval of income and expenditure statement (2023-24) – PAPER B

 

The group approved the income and expenditure statement for the group.*

 

  1. Declaration of benefits-in-kind for 2024-25 – PAPER C

 

The group approved the benefits-in-kind from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society for Secretariat support in year ahead.*

 

  1. Approval of the Annual Report of the APPG for Writers (2023-24) – PAPER D*

 

Re-elected Chair, Giles Watling MP, invited Jonathan England to present the review of the year which featured the launch of the Freelancer Commissioner campaign as well as the ongoing work of the APWG for a smart fund and roundup of the campaign meetings and receptions hosted in association with the group.

 

Priorities of the group for the next year:

 

Re-elected Chair, Giles Watling MP, invited Jonathan England to present the priorities of the group for next year before opening the conversation to the group and inviting questions on the report or financial statements.

 

The Chair of the APWG anticipates the focus in the coming year will be on:

  • Continuing to campaign for greater creator engagement with government through a dedicated freelancer commissioner.
  • Ensuring authors are fairly compensated for the use of their work in the platform economy. 
  • Continuing to monitor AI technologies and their impact on authors, campaigning for protection of their interests and for licensing solutions to secure fair remuneration where their works are used.

 

In addition to these areas of focus, ongoing policy concerns for writers will include: 

 

  • The creation of a ‘Smart Fund’ to pay authors for uses of their work and also deliver targeted support to creative communities across the country with funds raised from sales of technical devices to compensate authors for the copying of their works such devices enable.
  • Protect and promote the UK’s effective copyright system, as the IPO has not made a final decision on the status of the UK’s copyright exhaustion regime
  • Remove VAT on audiobooks to resolve an ongoing unfairness, where other formats of books are VAT free.
  • Campaign for an increase in the Public Lending Right pot for authors to better remunerate them for the contribution they make to libraries, the Public Lending Right fund has not been increased in over ten years

 

For more details on the below, please visit www.alcs.co.uk/campaining

 

  • A Manifesto for Writers
  • AI Principles Paper
  • Freelancer Commissioner
  • The Smart Fund

 

The CREATe research into Freelance Journalism can be found at www.alcs.co.uk/research

 

* the full financial statement and year review report were circulated to members prior to the meeting and can be requested by emailing advocacy@alcs.co.uk

**please note the APWG website will be updated to include these papers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AGM and All Party Writers Group reception, Tuesday 19 March 2024, 3-5pm, HoC.

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AGM and All Party Writers Group reception, Tuesday 19 March 2024, 3-5pm, Dining Room B, House of Commons

The APWG is holding its AGM which will be followed by a reception where ALCS will share new research into earnings of freelance journalists, carried out by CREATe. The Group will hear from expert representatives from across journalism including the NUJ.

The AGM will take place before the reception with the results of the officer elections and any other outcomes of the meeting to be published afterwards.

Refreshments will be provided.

For more information please contact the Group’s secretariat at: allpartywritersgroup@alcs.co.uk

APWG Winter Reception 2023

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The Winter Reception, hosted by All Party Parliamentary Writers Group (APWG) Chair Giles Watling MP, provided an opportunity for MPs and Peers to learn more about the issues facing freelance creatives.

Giles opened the event by thanking creatives and underlining his support: “This is all about putting what creatives do in front of Parliamentarians and making sure that our sector is well looked after. Nothing happens in the world of the arts without somebody having the courage to put pen to paper. Thank you for doing what you do. I will support you as best I can.”

He reaffirmed his support for the proposal for a Freelancer Commissioner to be appointed to Government to represent the interests of freelance creatives: “During the pandemic, 3.1 million freelancers fell through the gap and missed out on support. There are other things that workers take for granted, such as maternity and paternity leave, holidays and sick pay. The creation of a Freelancer Commissioner would be an excellent move and a step forward for creatives and especially writers.”

He then introduced Chair of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), Barbara Hayes. Brarbara began by paying tribute to Janet Anderson, a former Chair of the APWG and champion of authors, who sadly passed away in February.

Barbara announced that ALCS has commissioned the CREATe Centre at the University of Glasgow to conduct a survey examining freelance journalists’ earnings, in order to better understand the challenges they face. The full report will be available in 2024 but Barbara shared some preliminary findings:

“Earnings from freelance journalism have stagnated over the past five years with professional median earnings now standing at around £19k per annum.”

“A major secondary use is the scraping of news stories by platforms like Google who offer them to users, securing significant advertising revenues in the process. The added value gained by the platforms associated with this type of activity is estimated to be in the region of £1 billion per year. And less than 10% of the freelance journalists surveyed had ever received income from this type of re-use. This is something that we want to see change.”

Barbara expressed hope that the proposed Digital Markets Bill can help address this: “In the UK, we hope to see the Digital Markets Bill (Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill) enacted which would empower the Digital Markets Unit to support efforts to secure a fair share, the right share, of this money for journalists.

Barbara then introduced freelance journalist, Marie Le Conte, to provide first-hand experience of life as a freelancer.

Marie spoke about the difficult conditions for freelance journalists: “Newspapers and magazines are paying less and less, and as you may have noticed, everything is costing more and more. I managed to become a journalist and for quite a few years I made a point of giving talks at universities to tell journalism students that they should give it a shot if that’s what they wanted to do. Increasingly, I’m not sure I can give that talk anymore.”

She then explained journalism’s heavy reliance on freelancers: “News rooms rely increasingly on freelancers. They’ve been gutted from wave after wave of redundancies, and what that means is they need us to fill the pages of their publications. At the same time, they don’t pay us enough, they don’t pay us on time”

Finally, she outlined the importance of the profession and the consequences of failing to protect freelance journalists: “Journalism is crucial. Disinformation and misinformation are massive issues, especially on the internet. If space is not filled with relevant and reliable information written by professional journalists, it will be filled by other actors, who are often acting in bad faith.”

APWG roundtable on Freelancer Commissioner proposal

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The All Party Writers’ Group (APWG) held a meeting in Parliament this week to bring together industry representatives for a roundtable discussion on the need for a Freelancer Commissioner.

The APWG was joined by ALCS, Creative UK, Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), the Society of Authors and the Writers’ Guild in discussing the proposal.

The roundtable was chaired by Giles Watling MP and included freelance writer Anna Codrea-Rado and visual artist Charlotte Warne Thomas.

The APWG has supported the Freelancer Commissioner policy since its AGM in April and is actively exploring the proposal and campaigning for the creation of a dedicated Freelancer Commissioner as we believe it would be an effective solution to some of the unique challenges facing the freelancer community.

It was for this reason that the APWG gathered industry voices to hear more on the issues facing freelance creatives, the need for a dedicated Commissioner and what form it should take, as well as how to best move the campaign forward.

Charlotte Warne Thomas spoke about aspects of the freelancer workforce that are overlooked by UK policymakers: “We’re looking at a situation where visual artists, and I’m sure other freelancers too, are juggling a small income they get from their creative practice with other sources of income. European countries are well ahead of us on this in terms of supporting the creative freelancer workforce. The city of Berlin has just put forward more money than the whole of the UK for visual arts funding.”

Anna Codrea-Rado outline the unviability of making a living in freelance journalism: “You’d be hard pressed to find a report or a news story out there that a freelancer hasn’t touched… but the numbers don’t add up to make freelance journalism a viable career right now. I write for some of the top publications and my ability and skill increases, but my bank balance does not reflect that. I now make my money elsewhere because I’m exhausted trying to make this work.”

This was echoed by Lara Carmona, Director of Policy and Engagement at Creative UK, who said: “There is a need to sustain people and to put in infrastructure in place that is supportive of people’s rights to choose freelancing as a viable career”.

Nicola Solomon, Chief Executive of the Society of Authors, raised the key concern about the rights that freelancers often miss out on: “We need to look at the benefits system which is really broken. Sick pay, maternity pay, pensions. These are things you automatically signed up to when you are an employee but freelancers are missing out on.”

Reema Selhi, Head of Policy and International at DACS, discussed the government support that freelancers often miss out on: “A lot of artists earn far below the minimum wage. The cost of being an artist is expensive, you need studio space, you need materials etc. Public support, such as Arts Council funding, too often goes into bricks and mortar and waged employees, and far too little finds its way down to the freelance individuals who are actually producing the creative content.”

ALCS Deputy CEO Richard Combes said: “The number of people able to make a living in the creative industries is getting smaller. The Government tends to get it wrong by assuming there will always be people who want to create, therefore there will be this inexhaustible supply of talent and creativity. The ‘intrinsic motivation’ factor is diminishing. A Freelancer Commissioner would help to address this crisis.”

The discussion then moved on to the proposal for a freelancer commissioner to help address these issues.

Richard Combes said: “A Freelancer Commissioner would help because we have data to provide and practical suggestions to make but at the moment we are pitching to DCMS. Having a dedicated hub of knowledge that we can feed into would be incredibly useful.”

Anna Codrea-Rado agreed stating: “At a basic level, it’s to have political representation for freelancers. When chasing late payments or negotiating a contact, it can feel like David and Goliath for creators. There’s no political face for this community. A commissioner will elevate the status of freelancers. It needs to put onto the political agenda to stop freelancers feeling invisible.”

Lesley Gannon, Deputy General Secretary at the Writers’ Guild, continued: “We need someone who is seen as neutral, who can sound the alarm on areas of practice that have longer terms implications for the UK economy as well as the creative sector.”

APWG Chair Giles Watling MP concluded by voicing his full support for the Freelancer Commissioner proposal: “I intend to become a champion on creating a Freelancer Commissioner. I will push forward on this.”

The APWG have pledged to take this policy proposal forward and campaign for it.

APWG 2023 AGM and AI Discussion – Report

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The AGM took place prior to the meeting on AI and details of the elected officers and more detailed minutes can be found here.

Following the conclusion of the AGM business and review of the year delivered by Group Administrator, Barbara Hayes; APWG Chair, Giles Watling MP reiterated his appreciation for the achievements of the group. Whilst also reaffirming the need to commit to the group’s priorities; for greater remuneration for authors as well as fair and licensed use of their works.

These efforts will become particularly pronounced with the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Rights Bill, published last week, that will have real consequences for authors.

As new legislation to mediate between authors and platforms to ensure their written works use on platforms and beyond, are fairly rewarded with a new regulatory body; to extended collective licensing agreements – following our departure from the EU and then especially in light of recent advances in machine learning, where copyrighted works are being used at unprecedented scale to train Large Language Models and other AI technologies; it is vitally important that the group works to protect writers but also the human creators given the inevitable impact this will have on jobs and sector as a whole.

Giles Watling then introduced Tom Chatfield, Writer, Broadcaster, Lecturer and Tech Philosopher who has particular interest and expertise in thinking about AI and its implications on how we will live and how we will live with it. Tom is Visiting Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute and has advised major tech companies such as Meta and Alphabet as well as being a successful published author.

Tom was able to set both the technical and legislative scene but stressed the importance of principled structured thinking when addressing a future with AI.

There is so much happening so quickly that predictions and laws to reign in advances will already be irrelevant or outdated. Why do we want humans involved? What is it different when humans do it? The products may look indistinguishable, but the processes involved are vastly different. Thinking and legislating well requires us to be considering and developing a very clear sense of what an AI is (generally just a very large statistical model) and why it is important to have humans in the loop and to what extent humans should maintain final oversight or be made aware when engaging with a computer rather than a human.

The group has developed and released a principled foundation for a fair approach that is available here –  ‘AI Principles’ paper.

 

APWG welcomes the CRA nomination to the CIC

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The All Party Writers Group has been championing the policy of a Creator’s Council since it released the report ‘Supporting the Writers of Tomorrow’ in 2018. The aim was to secure an avenue of dialogue between the government and writers.

We are pleased to say that the Creators Rights Alliance has been successful in gaining a position on the Creative Industries Council as of February 2023. The CRA is made up of a range of organisations who represent different creatives including writers, photographers, journalists, and musicians. This is a significant move forward in the balance of representation on the CIC which previously was entirely made up of industry bodies and organisations.

The APWG believes this is an important shift as we saw the difficulties creators, in particular freelancers, had with accessing government support during the pandemic and having government policy genuinely reflect the working conditions of creatives. We hope this continues and the Government finds further ways to engage and understand the views of creative freelancers.

It is a positive that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has listened to our concerns and reflected that by embracing dialogue with the creative workforce who are the backbone of the UK’s world leading cultural sector.

Read the CRA’s full press release here

APWG Winter Reception and launch of the latest Authors Earnings Report

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The All-Party Writers Group (APWG), together with the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), held its winter reception in the House of Commons on Tuesday 9 December 2022. The event brought together ALCS members, industry heads and parliamentarians to hear speeches on how important writers are to the cultural makeup of the UK as well as marking the launch of the new ‘Authors’ Earnings and Contracts’ report, commissioned by ALCS.  

APWG Chair, Giles Watling MP, highlighted how intrinsic authors are to society, and how much they do for us. From the stage to the screen, to books, writers are at the heart of the full spectrum of cultural activity for all.  

Giles said “We are here to celebrate writers and their contribution to society at large …as a writer myself and having worked in the arts, I understand the plight of the authors. We will hear from an academic and a working journalist this evening on the state of the profession and what must be done.” 

Amy Thomas, Lead Researcher and Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law at University of Glasgow, provided insight into the latest findings of the Authors’ Earnings 2022 report. She talked through many of the key statistics and challenges facing writers in the sector, particularly the uncertainty around the sustainability of a career in writing today for most.  

Amy highlighted the declining earning power of authors and some evidence as to how the viability of writing as a career is being undermined, stating “The myth I want to debunk that is pervasive, is that creative labour is this inexhaustible resource that is constantly replenishing itself through the altruism of the creators and through the intrinsic motivation that art for art’s sake will prevail…If you believe that myth, then it’s very easy to justify a world in which you don’t have to renumerate them properly as their art ‘will feed them’ alone”.  

There is massive inequality in the profession, with the top 1% of authors taking 24% of profits. Most authors take home less than minimum wage due to having to work for free or under murky contracts, with women and black and multi-heritage authors taking the brunt of the impact. Amy stated starkly: “40% of authors could make a living from writing alone in 2006, this fell to 28% in 2018, just prior to the pandemic and we have now found that only 19% of authors report that they are able to make a living from writing alone, making it unsustainable” 

More detail and case-studies can be found in the full report here. 

Giles then introduced author and journalist, Anna Codrea-Rado, to share her experiences in the sector, considering her clear successes whilst still contending with lower real-term earnings.  

“Financial insecurity has become a normalised part of the writing profession. The ALCS report confirms something that, as an author, I already know to be true – that making a living as a writer is unsustainable. My portfolio career isn’t so much a savvy business decision, but rather a necessity in order to finance my journalism and book writing. Consistently undervaluing creative labour in this way comes at the expense of our livelihoods.” 

She continued: “I am hopeful with legislative support we can continue to have a flourishing writing profession.” 

Giles echoed this was “a powerful message” and invited guests to continue the celebrations in honour of writers as we were joined by senior parliamentarians from across the house including Lord Dubs and former chair of the APWG, Sir John Whittingdale. 

 

 

 

Business of being a Writer; from manuscript to publication.

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This event brought together a panel of experts from across the publishing industry to discuss the key aspects of a writer’s journey, from initial idea to manuscript to eventual royalties and the professionals that support writers along the way.

Hosted by Giles Watling MP, the event featured guest speakers representing authors, from the organisations that support them.

Nicola Solomon, Chief Executive of the Society of Authors (SoA), joined us to share how this union supports its members, including their free contract-vetting service (their team review between 8,000-10,000 each year, making them well-placed to assess the calibre of any publisher). Nicola identified the first important factor any author starting out must consider: what kind of publishing reflects their goals and skillset. A traditional route with a publisher typically offers an advance and royalty deal, with the benefit that a publishing team delivers expertise in marketing, editing, printing, and distribution, providing a total service for the author and book. Whereas with self-publishing, authors engage a service provider to print (physically or digitally) their book and sometimes provide a platform to sell on.  Successful self-published authors typically spend half their time marketing their work and may earn less, but retain more control, which can benefit the right kind of author for 70 years after death.

Another type of publishing has grown in prominence in recent years, often referred to as ‘hybrid’, ‘contributory’ or vanity publishing. With no advance these publishers charge for the services expected of a publisher while also taking a share of the author’s royalties. The SoA produced a report on the recent rise of this kind of publishing, titled Is it a Steal.

Literary agent Catherine Clarke spoke on her work as President of the Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA), the industry body representing 118 agencies in the UK and Ireland. It’s run on a voluntary basis and seeks to establish best practice models for literary agents. As a literary agent, Catherine described the critical role agents play in supporting an author.

Talking more about the process, Catherine explained how agents apply their expertise to negotiate the best possible deal for the author and their work including the ‘after-life’ of the book such as selling the rights for adaptations or translations. Agents often specialise in different areas, so it is important for an author to consider who they work with.

As authors often approach agents with an idea for a pitch to a publisher, agents will help significantly in bringing together the proposal, crucially providing a sense of the market in terms of competition. This is done alongside offering feedback to the writer preparing samples for publishers.  Agents also represent their clients in the coordination of the sales of foreign translation rights; the deals/sales/publishing in other territories or through managing relationships with sub-agencies to get these deals done.

Barbara Hayes, CEO of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Agency (ALCS), explained its role in collecting and distributing payment from secondary royalties to its members. With over 117,000 members and over £41 million distributed in 2021, ALCS helps get money to authors so that they can keep writing.

The organisation also campaigns for authors’ rights and to protect the broader creative ecosystem. Alongside secretariat support for the APWG, ALCS also works to commission a periodic Authors’ Earnings Report, disseminating the findings and further campaigning on improving the income of authors to arrest the established downward trend.

Julia Eccleshare, from the British Library, set out the role of libraries and Public Lending Right (PLR), and how important libraries are to engaging readers. PLR was set in legislation over 40 years ago to remunerate authors who previously saw no payment for repeated loans of their works.  Every time someone borrows a book, ebook or audiobook from a public library, the author gets a small amount of money. The annual fund is £6.6 million with payments to any one author capped at £6,600. The fund pays out to a wide range of authors with over 21,000 receiving payment each year. While it’s not always a huge amount of money for authors, we know PLR makes them feel more connected to their readers – the money and motivation has kept many authors writing into further success.

Questions were raised by the audience on issues such as the importance of reviews and book fairs, to sales in the present time, to why earnings have dropped, and the growing proportion of the market that Amazon controls both in book sales and increasingly publishing.

The APWG brings together parliamentarians from all sides to inform and campaign for writers’ interests, safeguard their intellectual property and ensure the equitable remuneration and recognition of writers for their role in the economy and society as a whole. Its next event will be the APWG Winter Reception on Tuesday 6 December 2022 at 6.30pm-8.30pm in the Terrace Pavilion, House of Commons. Contact the secretariat with any questions (allpartywritersgroup@alcs.co.uk).