‘Magic Money Trees’ for UK authors: is there a payment waiting for you?
March is one of my favourite months here in Suffolk. The days are getting longer, the garden is bursting into life, and a lovely little bonus appears in my bank account. It’s ‘magic money’ season. At this time every year, as if by magic, a little pot of money arrives from a not-for-profit organisation called ALCS. Except there’s no wizardry here. This money is carefully sourced and it’s rightfully mine.
So what do ALCS do, exactly? Their full name is the Authors’ Licencing & Collecting Society, and their goal is ‘to make sure that writers receive the money they are entitled to when someone copies or uses their work’. This money is seemingly collected from nowhere – hence ALCS is affectionately referred to by its members as a magic money tree or the photocopy elf.
In reality, ALCS diligently collects money for writers from sources around the world. For those who write or contribute to books, magazines and journals, there are two main types of income:
The first type relates to reproduction rights. ALCS can collect an income for you from the photocopying and scanning of your works, and the digital reuse of electronic and online publications.
The second type of payment is collected from overseas Public Lending Rights (PLR). These PLR schemes are usually designed to pay authors when libraries lend out your books.
The payments from ALCS are therefore for ‘secondary uses’ or ‘secondary rights’: examples include when schools photocopy books they own, or libraries lend books. These payments are not to be confused with the royalties paid to you direct by your publisher (known as ‘primary rights’).
Funds are paid out to ALCS members twice each year in ‘distribution’ rounds. For the March 2026 distribution, over 112,000 members received their share of a whopping £34 million. While the individual payments are often very small (spoiler alert: you won’t be retiring yet), this is money that you would never see otherwise. When the median earnings from writing are as low as £7k per year (based on a 2022 survey), and academic authors often receive no book royalties at all, every extra payment helps.
Joining ALCS is easy and it’s a win-win situation. Lifetime membership is only £36 and this is taken off your first payment, so there are no upfront fees. If you’re a member of the Society of Authors, the membership fee is waived. Furthermore, ALCS may have already collected money for the use of your works. All you need to do is sign up and wait to receive your payment.
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You may have spotted that ALCS only collects payments from overseas lending schemes. If your publications are kept in UK libraries, you can earn money every time someone borrows your books. The UK’s own Public Lending Rights scheme is administered by the British Library, with over 60,000 book contributors signed up and receiving payments. To find out if you are eligible, and to register, visit the PLR website.
The PLR year runs from 1 July to 30 June, with no retrospective payments. So be sure to register your books by the closing date of 30 June. You could receive up to £6,600 per year from public library loans. In addition, it’s also fun to see how many times your books have been borrowed. It’s possible to view a breakdown by publication, by year, by area and by material type (e.g. ebook, print).
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It would be impossible for individual authors to keep track of when their works have been scanned, copied, or borrowed. These organisations perform an excellent job on our behalf. I strongly encourage all published authors to join ALCS and PLR, and receive your own pot of magic money each year. If you live outside the UK, please follow the advice on the ALCS and PLR websites, and investigate any local schemes that may be available in your home country.
Published: 7 April 2026