13 December 2017 The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It seeks donations of hard-copy books from libraries and individuals and then scans, digitises, and offers them for lending and downloading without paying royalties or PLR. According to our sister organisation…
8 December 2017 This year the Bookseller has recognised contributions by our President, Philip Pullman, and our Chief Executive, Nicola Solomon. Pullman has campaigned tirelessly for authors’ rights this year, as usual, leading the charge for better school library provisions, protection of public libraries, freedom of expression and fairer approaches to deep discounts on book…
5th December 2017 The £2,000 prize was presented at the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group (APWG) Winter Reception at the House of Commons on 5th December. The winner of the 2017 Award is THE BOOK OF BEES, written by Wojciech Grajkowski, illustrated by Piotr Socha, and translated into English from the Polish by Agnes Monod-Gayraud….
7 December 2017 Sally Rooney’s debut novel CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS (Faber) has won this year’s Sunday Times / Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award 2017. The £5,000 award was presented at a ceremony at The London Library on Thursday 7th December. This year’s prize was judged by The Sunday Times Literary Editor…
1st December 2017 We are delighted to reveal the four books that have been shortlisted for the 2017 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize, which recognises full-length works of imaginative and creative writing translated from Arabic. The winner will be announced in January, and presented with their £3,000 award at the Society of Authors Translation Prizes on…
29 November 2017 Next month the funds available to Scottish culture will be decided in a settlement between Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government. The proposals have been made available and each one presents a scenario where significantly less funding and fewer opportunities are available to develop arts and culture in Scotland. The Advocacy Group…
28 November 2017 The Management Committee has agreed that the fees paid to speakers at Society of Authors events should be increased. Authors – both as part of the SoA and independently – have pushed hard for literary festivals to pay speakers a fair rate. Considering the vital role authors play in bringing attendees and…
23 November 2017 While there are no major changes or surprises, we find little to be enthusiastic about in this week’s Autumn Statement, with several points likely to disappoint authors, particularly those on lower incomes, and nothing to stimulate publishing and the creative industries as Brexit progresses. Yesterday’s Autumn Statement, while offering some concessions to…
20 November 2017 The Vondel Prize for Dutch Translation has been awarded to David McKay for War and Turpentine (Harvill Secker), translated from Oorlog en terpentijn by Stefan Hertmans. McKay will be awarded with the €5,000 prize on 1st March 2018 at The Society of Authors’ annual Translation Prizes ceremony at the British Library. This…
The 2018 rate of PLR, recommended by the British Library Board, is 8.2 pence per loan, an increase of .38 pence over last year. Sadly, the proposed increase is not because the government is increasing funding but because library cuts mean that the estimated number of PLR-registered loans has decreased. The Department for Digital, Culture,…
15 November 2017 On Friday 10 November, The Bookseller published the findings of its survey into sexual harassment in the publishing industry. We now join their call for all sections of publishing to work together to find constructive solutions. As Publishers Association CEO Stephen Lotinga said on Monday: ‘Any single example of harassment is completely…
15 November 2017 What and why is the GDPR? The GDPR will govern the way companies of all sizes manage and are responsible for the personal information they store and use. It is designed to give people more control over the information that is held about them, and to provide a legal framework to protect…
