Reproduced from STUFF website  READ HERE

The global supply chain which sees books end up on the shelves has developed a few kinks. Space on shipping freight and in crates is in short supply, and then when they are in transit, they’re often being delayed.

Writers are demanding greater urgency to improve schemes to compensate them for their work amid surging e-book, audiobook and school lending, none of which they are currently paid for.

Despite calls for an overhaul, review work has stalled one year on from lockdown, which has been cited by authorities as a reason for slow progress.

Frustrated writers say each day that passes without any concrete decisions is another where they go without deserved pay. “We’re not seen as a priority. It’s extremely frustrating,” said Mandy Hager, president of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

DAVID HAMILTON Mandy Hager, an author and president of the New Zealand Society of Authors, says the amount of time it’s taking to reform compensation schemes for writers is frustrating.

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A 2019 report by Copyright Licensing New Zealand found the average annual income for an author was about $15,200. More than half the survey’s respondents relied on a partner’s income or another job to supplement their earnings.

Qualifying authors are currently paid an annual cheque under the Department of Internal Affairs’ Public Lending Right, a scheme which sees writers, illustrators and editors compensated for their books being available in libraries.

But that does not include lending of e-books or audiobooks, the use of which has risen significantly since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Auckland Library, e-book lending surged to “unprecedented” levels during lockdown, up 23 per cent on the same period for 2019.

New Zealand also falls behind countries like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom by not having any equivalent payment scheme for schools using authors’ work. Hager said that “especially penalises” children’s writers and illustrators.

“The value that some people are putting on writers’ work … is astonishing,” said Jenny Nagle, the society’s chief executive. “Small policy tweaks could make an enormous difference.”

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Jenny Nagle, chief executive of the New Zealand Society of Authors, says the sector feels undervalued.

Hager said the “fragile” sector felt overlooked because it did not fit a government performance model.

“A book can change someone’s life, build empathy, and reading can improve the wellbeing of the country. … The industry contributes [millions] to the economy, but the people producing it are on the breadline or below it.”

National Librarian Rachel Esson said the lending right review was “continuing”. Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti discussed the review with officials in March.

Digital borrowing had been identified as an issue, and the department was considering options as part of the review’s next steps, she said.

SUPPLIED National Librarian Rachel Esson says the department met with minister Jan Tinetti about the Public Lending Right review in March.

Meanwhile, the society also had concerns about changes made last year by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment to the Copyright Act, which expanded free access to books to people who have a print disability.

But the ministry’s intellectual property policy manager, Susan Hall, said it had no plans to review those changes.

“People without a print disability cannot take advantage of the exception … We would be happy to receive any evidence that acceding to the Marrakesh Treaty has negatively affected the incomes of New Zealand authors.”

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Children’s book author Simon Taylor says he can’t see how young authors survive.

A ‘COMPLICATED, MESSY, UNPROFITABLE’ LIFE

Simon Taylor, a retired capital-based children’s author, said there was “no money to be made at all” as a writer. “The whole thing is too complicated, too messy, too unprofitable … There are so few margins, such little money, and so much competition.”

Taylor spends his time trying to self-publish and promote his books, which are deliberately written with characters any child could identify with but says he “cannot see” how younger authors survive.

“It isn’t financially viable. I do it because I have the time and the means.”