This is the time of year when we best-selling authors receive our annual public lending right (PLR) statement, telling us how often our books were borrowed from libraries in the past 12 months and how much money, at (a not ungenerous) 8.52p per borrow, we made from that particular literary gravy train. Last year, I learnt, my 1997 biography of James Dyson was borrowed 157 times in the UK, my 2010 anthology of prize-winning columns, Anger Management for Beginners, 104 times, and my page-turning 2012 restaurant memoir, How To Eat Out, a massive 262 times, yielding an overall cash total of £44.56. For only three solid years of writing. Well over £14 per annum. Which would be quite respectable if this were the 14th century.

Source: The Times February 12, 2019 00:00 UTC