SoA urges HMRC to protect authors’ exemption from withholding tax

8 February 2018 The government is planning to broaden the circumstances in which certain payments – such as royalties – made to non-UK residents are liable for income tax. A consultation on the subject is running until 23 February. HMRC has commented that the legislation is primarily aimed at groups of companies rather than individual…

Diverse shortlist announced for inaugural TA First Translation Prize

17 January 2018 The judges of the inaugural TA First Translation Prize have announced a shortlist of six books by new literary translators. Among the shortlisted books are a graphic novel, four works of fiction and one non-fiction book, in translations from Arabic, French, Polish, Russian and Thai. The TA First Translation Prize was founded…

Audio Drama Awards 2018: thematically diverse Imison & Tinniswood shortlists announced

We’ve announced the shortlists for this year’s Imison Award (for best original audio drama script by a writer new to the medium) and Tinniswood Award (for best original audio drama script of the year). Topics tackled by a thematically diverse array of scripts include colonialism, Jewish divorce and a chilling vision of a near future…

We just shared £140,000 between 61 authors to support new work

22 December 2017 Established and debut authors share in this year’s second round of literary grants for works in progress. (from left: Nazneen Ahmed, Sarah K Marr, Muhammad Khan, Eli Goldstone, Sam Riviere and Wendy Moore) Over the past six months we have received more applications than ever before for our biannual round of literary…

Warning about the Internet Archive & Open Library

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…

Philip Pullman and Nicola Solomon feature in Bookseller 100

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…