The Bookseller - Features - Author unions call for reform to address concerns over paid-for publishing deals

The Society of AuthorsThe British authors’ organization, with a membership of over 7,000 writers. Membership is open to those who have had a book published, or who have an offer to publish (without subsidy by the author). Offers individual specialist advice and a range of publications to its members. Has also campaigned successfully on behalf of authors in general for improved terms and established a minimum terms agreement with many publishers. Recently campaigned to get the Public Lending Right fund increased from £5 million to £7 million for the year 2002/2003. Regularly uses input from members to produce comparative surveys of publishers’ royalty payment systems. http://www.societyofauthors.org/ (SoA) and the Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) are calling for reform of the "hybrid"/paid-for publishing sector, in which the writer both pays for publication and hands over the rights to their work (as opposed to self-publishing, where rights are retained by the author), after finding that the average loss for a writer engaged in such a deal was £1,861, with some participants reporting losses as high as £9,900.

Of 240 authors who responded to a joint online survey from the two authors' organisations, conducted over eight weeks between February and April 2021 as part of the report titled Is it a Steal? An Investigation Into "Hybrid"/Paid-For Publishing Services, published with the support of the Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS), 125 accepted a "hybrid"/paid-for deal. Among those, only four respondents reported making a profit, while 61 reported making a loss. A mean average of 412 books were sold per deal, with 42 writers selling 100 books or fewer.