Public Lending Right loans - 2007/2008

I had a pleasant surprise to brighten any day in post-Christmas cash-strapped January - I received my PLR statement.

Once a year I, like other registered authors, receive a statement from the kind people at PLR (Public Lending Right) informing me how many people have borrowed my books from libraries over the past year. For each loan I earn a few pence which, at the end of the day, add up to a fair few pounds (now that I've established a bit of a back catalogue of publications).

The idea behind the PLR is to reimburse authors for what are effectively lost earnings, as a result of people borrowing books rather than buying them. There is a limit to how much an author can receive from the PLR (it's £6600 if you're interested) so that the likes of Terry Pratchett and J K Rowling don't wipe out the £6.63m fund.

As I optimistically predicted this time last year, the period July 2007 - June 2008 saw an increase in the number of my books being borrowed, partly because I simply have more books out there than ever before. So, following David Bishop's lead, here are my top most borrowed tomes for July 2007 - June 2008 (with previous year's placing in brackets):

1. (-) Howl of the Werewolf (published Sep 07)
2. (-) The Horror of Howling Hill (Mar 08)
3. (3) Bloodbones (Sep 06)
4. (1) Conquest of Armageddon (Dec 05)
5. (11) Curse of the Mummy (Apr 07)
6. (15) Spellbreaker (Jun 07)
7. (4) Iron Hands (Aug 04)
8. (2) Necromancer (Jan 05)
9. (8) Unnatural History (Feb 07)
10. (-) Leviathan Rising (Mar 08)