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19th November 2008

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Radical change required

25.03.08 Tom Tivnan

Traditional author payment models are unsustainable, publishing is a "flailing, failing" industry and business models need to alter radically for the future. Those were some of the ideas put forward in a lively, sometimes fractious exchange of views at the British Library’s Intellectual Property "Authors and Publishers in the Digital Age" round table debate, held last week.

Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling novelist and Society of Authors chair, suggested that the current model of advances and royalties would become outmoded in a digital world where less people were prepared to pay for content. She called for radical new ways of author payment, including a government sponsored writers academy and a "writers license", which would be similar to a TV license.

Simon Juden, Publishers Association c.e.o., said he was "sanguine about the future" but stressed that publishers need to find new digital business models to ensure both they and their authors get paid. He added: "The users don’t care who creates content, don’t want to care and don’t want to pay for it."

Author and blogger Charlie Leadbeater clashed with Juden, saying Juden was "flailing around trying to prop up a failing industry, rather than dealing with the issues at hand".

Leadbetter suggested that authors be paid not necessarily for their writing, but for "what is scarce". Scarcity, Leadbeater believes, are the authors themselves, and suggested some could be compensated in new ways such as from live performances.

Juden countered by saying that with an overall turnover of around £5bn a year, publishing was "one of the UK’s unsung sectors", and that publishers were already experimenting with a variety of models for the future.

Event chair Dame Lynne Brindley, the British Library's c.e.o., concluded the debate by urging authors and publishers not to be complacent. She said: "If we don't look after our creative people to make a living in some kind of model, we are all dead, and our society is dead."

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