I wrote this post nearly two years ago about donating books to libraries and signing up for the UK’s Public Lending Rights scheme and earning money for every time someone borrows your book.
Since then, the British Library was the victim of a cyber attack and everything went a bit pear-shaped for a while. This meant that no authors could log into their PLR account or receive the money that’s owed to them from library loans. Now, for a small-time author like me, who earns enough to buy a book and a coffee from their annual loans, this is no big deal. However, for some, this meant missing out on a payment of up to £6,600.
Well, you’ll be please to head that everything is back as it should be, authors have been paid and can log into their PLR accounts and check out their loan insights, which is exactly what I’m going to share with you here.
My loans
Total loans
The Keeper of Portals: 832
The Archivist: 217
My thoughts
Honestly, I’m not sure what I think about this. In some ways, I’m very happy. The Keeper of Portals came out in January 2017 and there are still people checking it out of libraries in 2024. Also, while there are fewer people checking it out, the 2023/2024 number is still 36 % of the 2017/2018 number, which is reasonably high.
I am a little disappointed that The Archivist hasn’t received more attention. In general, that’s my feeling about that book. It is easily the better book of the two, and while it was better reviewed, it never really found its audience, this is true both in its sales and library loans. I can only hope that one day it will fine its people.
I also think that Portals outperformed The Archivist because it is a children’s book. As an adult, I don’t get books out of the library, but both of my children do. Perhaps children’s books just do better. I believe I also donated more copies of Portals to libraries, around 200, whereas I only managed to donate 88 copies of The Archivist.
What’s next?
My next book, The Girl Who Sold Time, will also find its way into libraries – if I can find enough willing to accept copies. My expectation (hope) is that it will outperform The Keeper of Portals. It is a better book with a far more eye-catching cover. I have high hopes for this book. Be sure to check back in a couple of years and see what the data say!
