17 July 2015 The Earl of Clancarty has asked the Government ‘what steps they plan to take to improve the rights and income of professional authors and writers.’ The SoA welcomes the interest of the Peer who raised the issue of the rights and income of professional authors in the House of Lords this week. Baroness…
Nicola Solomon, Chief Executive of the Society of Authors, made a call for immediate action to protect creators from onerous contracts when she spoke last night to the All Party Writers Group Summer Reception. Following addresses from Pete Wishart MP, Chair of the All Party Writers Group, and John Whittingdale, Secretary of State for Culture,…
On 25 June £85,500 was distributed to writers at the Society of Authors’ annual Authors’ Awards. Novelist Sarah Waters (a previous recipient of a Betty Trask Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award) presented prizes to writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and English Language Teaching writing, at a ceremony held at the Army & Navy Club….
The High Court has today granted The Publishers Association’s application (under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988) for a blocking order against several UK Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The blocking order applies to seven websites which have been found to contain substantial amounts of infringing content. AvaxHome, Ebookee, Freebookspot, Freshwap, Libgen,…
22 May 2015 The Society of Authors is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2015 Betty Trask Prize. This year’s shortlist offers a diverse range of first novels, transporting us from the heated environment of a professional kitchen to the desolation of post-war Berlin and exploring the opposing conditions of old age and youth. …
21 May 2015 On 20 May the Supreme Court overturned an injunction preventing the publication of a memoir by classical pianist James Rhodes. The SoA welcomes this as a victory for freedom of expression and a very clear statement by the courts that people have the right to tell their own story in their own…
We are delighted to announce that the 2015 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography will be awarded to Ben Macintyre for A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal (Bloomsbury). The £5,000 Prize will be introduced by Roy Foster and presented by Flora Fraser on Thursday 25 June at the Society of Authors’…
A number of SoA staff volunteered on World Book Night, along with Sarah Wise and Alison Baverstock, to hand out books and share stories at a London homeless shelter. Sarah’s account of the evening follows. Homelessness can happen to anyone – a fact I’ve always known but which was once again forcefully underlined by our…
27 April 2015 Last Thursday (23 April), SoA members and staff visited Shelter from the Storm – London’s free homeless shelter – to share stories and to hand out books for World Book Night. The team, which included Alison Baverstock (member of the SoA Management Committee) and the author Sarah Wise, handed out books to 45 guests of the…
24 April 2015 After a tireless campaign by the Society of Authors, PLR UK, the Association of Illustrators, the Association of Photographers and SoA member Nicola Smee, artists and estates in the UK will receive over £240,000 from DACS. The money is for the lending of books featuring their artwork by libraries in The Netherlands. Illustrator and SoA…
The Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) has published a worrying report on author’s incomes and contracts. The report states that ‘for the majority, writing remains a low earning profession. The survey found that the median (typical) pre-tax net earnings which professional writers obtained from their writing (£11,000) was a little over 40% of the…
Malorie Blackman, Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, Roger McGough, Ian Rankin, Anne Sebba and Sarah Waters have all joined the Council of the Society of Authors. Daniel Hahn, Chair of the Management Committee, welcomes them: We are all delighted and immensely proud that Malorie, Neil, Joanne, Roger, Ian, Anne and Sarah have accepted positions on the…
