Collecting, prizes & grants · UK scheme · Less obvious
ALCS and copyright collecting
Money from photocopying, educational use, retransmission — collected in bulk, paid to those who joined.
In the UK, the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) gathers fees for secondary uses of your work that you would never chase yourself: photocopying in schools and businesses, educational recording, some retransmission. You join, you register your works, you are paid. Writers who do not join are donating their share to the ones who did, in effect. Other countries have sister societies. Reciprocal deals exist. This is not a tip jar. It is the plumbing of copyright.
- Typical pay
- Often a few hundred pounds a year for a modestly published writer; more if you are widely used in education or have a long backlist. Occasional distributions surprise people who had forgotten a textbook chapter from 2003.
- Ceiling
- Modest ceiling
- Speed
- First money in months
- Effort
- Light extra work
- Needs
- Needs a book
How it works
- 01
You join ALCS (there is a fee, modest, sometimes waived or recouped), and you register books, articles, scripts as the rules allow.
- 02
Collecting societies license institutions and companies for secondary uses, then distribute according to data and membership.
- 03
Payments arrive on their cycle, with statements that look like a crossword until you have seen two of them.
How to start
- 01
Join. Register the backlist. Set a reminder to add each new publication.
- 02
If you write articles, register those too. Photocopying does not respect your hierarchy of what 'counts'.
- 03
Writers in other territories should look up their local collecting society and the International Authors Forum's map.
Watch out
- 01
If a publisher claims to collect this for you, ask how, and whether you should still be a member yourself.
- 02
Keep your contact and bank details current. Unclaimed payments sit in a limbo you will not enjoy.
- 03
This is not a substitute for licensing the primary rights correctly. It is the net under the trapeze.
When I was a publisher I saw how much text is copied, legally, in places writers never visit. ALCS is how some of that money comes home. Joining is the least romantic professional act I will recommend on this site, and one of the few with a reliable pay-off.