Maltese authors will finally be remunerated every time their books are borrowed from any of the 43 public libraries.

The €10,000 scheme will be implemented by the end of the year, bringing the island in line with an EU directive on rights related to intellectual property.

Although introduced about three years ago, the scheme could only be implemented now because the necessary software to record the loan data was only installed recently at public libraries on the insistence of the National Book Council.

The news was welcomed by authors who feel that although the money will not make a big financial difference, it is a form of recognition for their work.

“I think it was high time to introduce this scheme. There is a local perception that authors make thousands of euros off books but we can only write books on the side,” said Mark Camilleri, author of recently-published police thrillers.

There is a local perception that authors make thousands of euros

An assistant head who writes for the love of the language, Mr Camilleri said a similar system should be extended to the local music scene as in Malta people seemed to expect intellectual property for free.

The chairman of the National Book Council – also called Mark Camilleri – said: “Until now, we have only €10,000 allocated for the scheme but we are pressuring the government to channel more funds.

“The National Book Council believes that public lending rights for Maltese authors is very important since it can create a new source of revenue from a very restricted and small local market.”

John Bonello, a young fantasy author, said the market was too small to make a living from fiction writing. Although he would receive some extra income, he said it was more about having his work recognised.

Clare Azzopardi, author and lecturer, noted that publishing books did not provide much income and the remuneration would be like pocket money. If more funds were allocated, however, it could even financially help local authors, she said.

“It is my dream to one day have local authors who can focus on just writing, but the lending rights scheme is a good start.”

However she expressed concern about the backlog of cataloguing in public libraries.

Mr Camilleri, from the National Book Council, said that, normally, the Central Public Library purchased most of the books published locally but the problem was a huge backlog in the cataloguing unit leading to books remaining in storage.

“The council has been putting pressure on the library authorities to solve this backlog ever since I entered office and our pressure has yielded fruit in some ways but it is not enough. There are still thousands of books in storage which we would like to see on library shelves,” he said.

Authors must still register to receive payment even if their books are available from libraries. Apart from the main Central Public Library in Floriana there are seven regional and 35 branch libraries.

Authors published locally under an ISBN issued by the council need to apply for the scheme and remuneration will then be calculated according to lending statistics.

Mr Camilleri said there was no fixed amount that would be handed out to the authors but the council was committing itself to issue payment early next year for books loaned in the last quarter of this year. It is not yet known how much authors would receive because this depends on how many of them register and how many books are actually loaned. The council will be getting a list categorised by authors and by how many times a book was loaned and then calculate the remuneration based on such data.

Although funds were allocated for the scheme in previous years, these were lost as it could not be implemented because the necessary computerised system to record the loans was not in place.

The council consulted authors and publishers on who should be remunerated. Some countries divide the compensation between authors and publishers.

In Malta, however, the remuneration will be pocketed by the authors because local writers, unlike publishers, do not have the option to live off books, Mr Camilleri added.

Chris Gruppetta of Merlin Publishers welcomed the introduction of the lending rights scheme saying the income authors received would supplement the royalties received from publishers.