Public Lending Right: What It Means for Authors and Used Booksellers

Public Lending Right (PLR) is the right of authors and other rightsholders to receive payment for the free public use of their works in libraries. It’s a system grounded in legislation that mandates author payments for the use of their works—and it has been instrumental in supporting authors since its inception in the 1940s.

In today’s world, where everything is becoming more circular, PLR should act as a model for how creatives can be supported. Books are inherently a very circular good. The activities undertaken by libraries are even called circulation, for goodness’ sake. Outside of libraries, we’re seeing that consumers are increasingly motivated by the reusability of books. Secondhand sales are one of the fastest-growing spaces in the book industry.

As books continue to transition away from a single-use model to a multi-use model, we should look to Public Lending Right as a lighthouse for how to support creatives.

What Is the Public Lending Right?

In the 18th century, circulating libraries were all the rage. General literacy rates were on the rise, but mechanization hadn’t yet dropped the price of books to mass affordability. The solution? Aggregate purchases under a library system and lend out expensive books to interested readers. These libraries were established with both public and private backing.

The Public Lending Right was first developed in Denmark in the early 1940s. This came after decades of opinion pieces, speeches, and resolutions by writers’ associations and individual authors. These writers spoke of a loss of income due to the popularity of the library system. In truth, they were losing sales—one book might be passed around to dozens of readers, diluting its sales potential.

While broadening the audience is always critical for writers, this loss of income struck a deep chord. The outcry was widespread.

PLR emerged as a form of compensation to authors for a library’s interference with an author’s distribution right. Libraries, by lending books freely, are technically violating a writer’s right to determine how their books are distributed. Therefore, compensation is owed.

Today, 34 countries have established PLR legislation, with an additional 24 developing it at various stages. Many countries without PLR still receive funding from participating nations, allowing authors in those countries to receive payments for the lending of their work.

PLR in the Netherlands Today

In the Netherlands, where I live, PLR forms a consistent income source for writers whose work is lent to the public. In 2023, around €5 million was distributed through the Public Lending Right. Over 5,000 writers received payment for their work.

This funding was generated on a per-loan basis. Each loan generated €0.1749 in payment for the author. If we do the math, the library system conducted roughly 34 million loans in 2023. Not bad for a country of less than 18 million people.

What should be clear is that a library loan is not equivalent to a book purchase in terms of payment to the author. But the loan payment is a form of compensation that builds into meaningful support. No author is getting rich off these payments—they’re simply making up some of the loss they’ve incurred by not selling copies to the public.

Public libraries are great democratizers of information and entertainment. The access they provide is incredible, and from a reader’s perspective, there’s no better place in the world. In a country with a Public Lending Right, authors can at least be sure they’re supported through this lending activity.

Still, it should be clear: authors do lose out in this system. If even a portion of those 34 million library loans were converted into book sales, authors would earn significantly more from their work.

PLR and the Circular Reading Economy

The world is getting more circular every day—and rightly so. Reuse is one of the best ways we have to reduce our impact. Books offer a clear pathway to circularity: each copy should be read as many times as possible.

But if we follow this line of thought to its full conclusion, we end up recreating many parts of the library system: one book, many readers—and authors missing out.

Unlike libraries, which are directly linked with government policy, used book resellers seem remote from legislation. Between the distance to the point of sale and the time it takes to enact new laws, we can’t wait for a PLR-like system to ensure that writers are compensated as their books are consumed again and again.

The spirit of PLR is this: libraries interfere with a writer’s right to control the distribution of their work, and therefore compensation is owed. Used sales violate this same spirit. To ensure we, as readers, support our writers, we must take individual steps to better the ecosystem.

Author Advantage: A Voluntary PLR for the Circular Economy

Author Advantage is one answer to this problem.

By recreating the PLR model, readers can ensure that the authors of their favorite books are paid—even when the work is bought secondhand. Our model is essentially a voluntary PLR, where our bookseller partners have committed to supporting the creatives behind the books they sell.

This is a new way forward. As the world embraces circularity, we must ensure that authors aren’t left behind. PLR shows us that per-use compensation is not only possible—it’s fair. And with Author Advantage, we’re building on that foundation to create a more equitable future for authors and booksellers alike.