ALCS, the UK Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, collects secondary royalties on behalf of writers for work published in the UK, and campaigns and lobbies on writers’ rights at national and international levels. Founded in 1977, to date it has paid £650 million to its 120,000 members.
These royalties are very difficult for individual writers to collect. They come from photocopying & scanning by business, education and other organisations, overseas library lending, retransmission, and other sources. There’s more detailed information on their website.
Lifetime membership costs only £36.00 GBP, deductible from your first royalty payment. In fact if you are a member of the Society of Authors or one of a few other organisations, membership is free.
I wasn’t sure if membership is open to all nationalities so I contacted the ALCS and they confirm that is the case – anyone can join.
So why should you join? Well, why shouldn’t you? If you have had any magazine articles, short stories, novels, scripts, etc published in the UK, you may well be owed money. The ALCS will collect it for you.
I’m by no means a widely-published writer but my payments are worth having – my latest payment was just over £136.00. Honestly, I have no idea where this comes from and am very grateful to the ALCS for their collection efforts. Some writer’s payments are far more substantial.
Once you’ve joined all you need to do is register existing work and add new publications as they come along. Then, once a year, you can look forwards to some extra income from your hard work.
Which reminds me, I need to update my publications.
David Gullen is a two-times winner of the British Fantasy Society Short Story competition. His work has appeared in The Best of British SF 2020, and 2021, F&SF, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, and more. Other work has been short-listed for the James White Award and placed in the Aeon Award. Born in Africa and baptised by King Neptune, David has lived in England most of his life. He currently lives behind several tree ferns in South London with his wife, fantasy writer Gaie Sebold, and the nicest cat you ever did see. Find out more at www.davidgullen.com.
milfordsfwriters 