Kamila Shamsie wins 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie has been named as the winner of the £30,000 Women’s Prize for Fiction at an awards ceremony in Bedford Square Gardens this evening.
SoA calls for tax relief extension for authors undertaking training
The Society of Authors has responded to a Government consultation on tax relief for training, calling for relief to be extended for authors and other self-employed workers who undertake training for new skills.
Volunteer to help shape the future of PLR
The British Library is looking for authors to volunteer to give feedback on the PLR website. The sessions will last for one hour and will take place on Wednesday 6 June and Thursday 12 July in London.
Scale of Gender Inequality in UK Screenwriting Exposed
A new report has exposed the scale of gender inequality in the UK screenwriting industry. The report reveals that just 16% of working film writers in the UK are female, and that only 14% of prime-time TV is written by women.
SoA welcomes international legal study on fair remuneration for audiovisual authors
A new international legal study has been published calling for legal reforms to help screenwriters and directors earn royalties for the use of their works.
Stephen Fry to present 2018 Authors’ Awards
Announcing our esteemed panel of award-winning judges for the SoA’s annual night of ‘riches’ – eight awards worth more than £98,000 in total.
Payouts to freelance writers in 17-year-old copyright suit
Thousands of freelance writers are due to receive a total of more than $9 million as compensation for copyright infringement by electronic database, newspaper, and magazine publishers, including Dow Jones, The New York Times, and Knight Ridder.
Make your views known to Government on PLR
You will remember that, after strong lobbying by the SoA, legislation to extend PLR to ebooks was finally passed last year. However we are concerned that the Government has not taken the necessary action to implement the change. An additional piece of secondary legislation needs to be passed, which the Government committed to completing by 1 July 2018, so that the first in arrears payments could be made by February 2020.
National Insurance Contributions could become an unaffordable luxury for low-earning authors
Writers, illustrators and translators earning less than £6205 per year can currently make voluntary payments of £2.95 a week towards the state pension and other contributory benefits, in the form of Class 2 NICs.
World Intellectual Property Day
Every 26 April, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) marks a day to raise awareness of the role that intellectual property rights play in encouraging creativity.
End the chill on free speech now: reform defamation in Scotland
Today is the 5 year anniversary of the Defamation Act 2013 receiving royal assent.
Lack of funding to close adult literacy campaign Quick Reads
The popular adult literacy campaign, Quick Reads, is due to be shut down after a fruitless 18-month search for a new sponsor.