Authors to profit from library scheme

BEST-SELLING authors such as Marian Keyes, Cathy Kelly and John Grisham are set to earn up to €8,200 a year extra from the State from next year when a system of payments for books borrowed from public libraries is introduced for the first time.

Popular children's authors such as JK Rowling and Eoin Colfer are also expected to profit significantly when the Department of the Environment introduces an Irish version of the public lending remuneration scheme common in other Western countries.

Draft regulations which are currently being finalised are expected to cap the maximum yearly payment to an author to about €8,200, the sum currently payable under the UK scheme. The minimum payment is expected to be as low as a few euro a year.

Some 13 million books, CDs and DVDs are borrowed from 350 public libraries each year, but no breakdown of this figure is currently available to show the most borrowed authors. However, according to Dublin city council, the most requested books in its libraries are by Kelly, Keyes and Grisham, followed by James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell and Khaled Hosseini. Rowling and Colfer are by far the most popular children's writers.

Keyes' This Charming Man and Kelly's Lessons in Heartbreak were the most borrowed books in Cavan this summer, according to that council's library department. Also in demand were Thanks for the Memories by Cecelia Ahern, the Hamlyn Cookery School and - signs of the times - Family Finance 2008 by Colm Rapple. Books about computers, wedding flowers and the driving test also featured in the Top 10, while Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy was the favourite among children.

The Library Council, which is currently recruiting extra staff, will run the scheme but funding is coming from the department from monies voted by the Oireachtas. While the exact size of the fund hasn't been decided yet, it is likely to be about €2.5 million a year.

The introduction of a public lending scheme is the result of pressure from the EU, which started legal proceedings against Ireland in 2003 over our failure to transpose a directive on rental and lending rights. The issue went to the European Court of Justice, which found in the commission's favour.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times