Tuesday 29 June 2010

The Archive Hack - all the writer's news

This summer will see the launch of a new magazine aimed at the historical short story - Snapshots of History, stories from the past will be a quarterly magazine and a 12 month subscription will be £5.

TV Book Club which returned to TV channel, More 4 yesterday is this year dominated by big publishers. All eight slots have been filled with titles from Penguin, Hodder,Orion, Bloomsbury,Macmillan and Random House. The show which is presented by Jo Brand and Dave Spikey has been criticised for ignoring smaller independent publishers.

The National Trust have jumped into bed with Mills and Boons for the publication of a novel set in Ham House, one of the trust's historic sites. This is intended to be the first in a series of novels set in historic houses owned by the National Trust.

The current fierce spending cuts being implemented by the new UK government will harm writers - it has been announced that the rate of PLR, monies paid to writers for books hired from libraries, is to be cut.

Authors receive just over six pence per loan, up to a cap of £6,600, through the Public Lending Right (PLR) scheme, something many describe as a "lifeline". Along with all bodies funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the scheme's budget is being reduced this year by 3%, to £7.45m, and authors are desperately concerned that further reductions will be forthcoming in the autumn, when the government's next spending review is published.

Jim Parker, PLR registrar, said the organisation would be able "to absorb some but not all" of the 3% cut, and was concerned about the impact this could have on authors. "It will be very difficult to sustain last year's rate per loan because of the cut in funding," he said.

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