Questions and answers

After registering with Lending Rights, you can submit title claims as a creator or publisher for the books. These books are surveyed in a sample of either public lending libraries (PLR) or school, TAFE and university libraries (ELR).

Payments are determined by the number of copies of eligible books estimated to be held in public lending libraries or educational lending libraries. If 50 or more copies of an eligible book are estimated to be held in the libraries surveyed for either scheme, then a payment may be made under that program for that book.

Books are surveyed annually for two consecutive financial years following their year of publication. If, in the second year, a book is still held in sufficient numbers in public and/or educational lending libraries, it will be resurveyed at least every three years.

Books with fewer than 50 copies in the second or subsequent survey are resurveyed for one more year before being dropped from the survey cycle. However, if a new title claim is received for a new edition of a book previously claimed and now out of survey, then the book will be resurveyed.

The Educational Lending Right (ELR) program is administered under the ELR Policies and Procedures 2011.

The Public Lending Right (PLR) program is administered under the Public Lending Right Act 1985 and the Public Lending Right Scheme 2016.

If your books are available in a national bibliographic database (SCIS or the Australian National Bibliographic Database) you are able to lodge a claim.

Please note that you should not apply to register for PLR/ELR until after your books are published. Incomplete applications (where all required information has not been provided) will be considered ineligible.

Yes, you can choose to use your literary agent as your contact and/or to receive payments on your behalf. If you are a new claimant, you can select the Literary Agent via Lending Rights Online or use the 'Creator Registration through Literary Agent' paper form (available at Australian Lending Right Schemes (ELR/PLR) | Office for the Arts) to register.

If you are an existing claimant and now wish to use your literary agent as your contact or to receive payments, please log onto Lending Rights Online or notify our Lending Rights team via phone, email, or post.

If you have given them authority to do so, your literary agent can submit title claims on your behalf and they can notify Lending Rights when your contact or other details change.

Not without the consent of the claimant. Due to privacy laws and fraud protections, we must receive notification of changes to contact and banking details directly from the registered person, unless there is prior approval for you to act on behalf of the claimant.

If you are a claimant and would like to authorise someone to have access to your account, please contact the Lending Rights team in writing.

If you have power of attorney for a claimant, please contact the Lending Rights team for more information.

No, back payments will not be made for books not claimed in previous program years.

The following items are not eligible for PLR and ELR:

• electronic resources, such as audio visual kits, compact discs, electronic books, DVDs and talking books
• magazines and other serial publications
• games or cards
• books designed for a single-use, such as activity books, sticker books or workbooks
• any other item without an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

No. Creators must have an ongoing financial interest in the book (that is, a right to royalties or equivalent) to be eligible for lending rights.

New claimants will receive a password upon registration.

Existing claimants who require assistance resetting their password should contact the Lending Rights team.

You can change your password through Lending Rights Online. You will need to answer the security questions you have set up for your Lending Rights Online log-in in order to change your password.

You can also contact the Lending Rights team via phone or email to have your password reset.

Yes, security questions can be reset by contacting Lending Rights.

You can find your claimant number on your PLR or ELR payment advice statements. You can also ask the Lending Rights team.

Payment notification letters are sent to you each year and payments made into your nominated account. If the notifications or payments are returned to us (bounce) we will place the payment on hold until we receive updated details from you.

To avoid delays in receiving payments, please update banking details before the cut-off date in the notification to ensure payment is made (the notification is usually sent by May each year, with payment in June).

You can update your details by email or on Lending Rights Online.

Banking details cannot be updated by phone.

It is your responsibility to keep your contact, address and bank details up-to-date.

No, you do not need to submit another title claim for that book unless a revised edition, or a new format (large print, foreign edition, paperback, hardback etcetera), with a new ISBN is published.

Your payment advice statements list books that were included in the year surveyed and books that that have carried a score of 50 or more from a previous year.

Historical payment advice statements are available through Lending Rights Online.

You can find your book's BRN on a payment advice statement. If you are unable to find the BRN, or have not yet received it, you can leave this section blank.

We do not acknowledge title claim forms sent to us via post or email. You will immediately see your claim in the "New Claims Successfully Submitted" section of the title claims view, if you submit a title claim through Lending Rights Online.

All claims for new books are visible in the Previous Claims section on Lending Rights Online. Different ISBNs for multiple formats or editions will only be visible if you view the individual Book / title claim details.

No, you need to submit only one title claim form for each title. Your publisher might not know that you have already submitted a title claim for the book.

You should put the proportion of royalties that you receive out of the total royalties your publisher pays to creators for this book. This proportion is used when calculating PLR and ELR payments due to you for the book.

For example, if you and another creator each receive an equal royalty rate for a book you worked on together, you would list your percentage entitlement to royalties on your title claim form as '50%'. Alternatively, if you are the sole creator of the book entitled to receive royalties, you would list your percentage entitlement to royalties as '100%'.

You should list all creators receiving royalties for the title (it should total 100 per cent). This is for the purposes of lending right payments and should not include the publisher component of any income derived from the work.

For example, if the two creators that receive royalties for a title, John Smith and Mary Lu, receive a six per cent and a four per cent royalty respectively, you would show the following on your title claim form:

Yes, you are eligible to claim as both a creator and a publisher.

For each book you have claimed, we calculate a payment from the survey score i.e. the number of copies of the book estimated to be held in public libraries (for the PLR) and separately in educational libraries (for the ELR).

We then multiply the score by the creator or publisher rate of payment for the current program year. A payment will only be calculated for a book if its survey score is 50 or more copies and if the payment is above the minimum payment amount of $100. If the total payment is below this threshold, your payment advice statement will show the total payment due to you as 'NIL'.

If you are the sole creator or the publisher of a book, you will receive the entire payment for that book. If you are a joint creator, your share of the payment will be determined by the share of royalties you are entitled to receive for the book.

There is a minimum payment amount of $100 for the PLR and ELR programs. A creator or publisher will receive a PLR or ELR payment only if the total amount due to them for all eligible books claimed under that scheme is above this threshold.

Payment advice statements are usually sent out in May each year. Payments are made by 30 June each year.

Please note that if the Lending Rights team does not have your current banking details, you will not receive your payment. Additionally if the Lending Rights team loses contact with you, your record may be placed on hold and the money withheld.

You can view previous statements including the current statement via on Lending Rights Online.

No, we cannot split payments.

We make payments by direct deposit into Australian financial institutions.

If you are an Australian Citizen and unable to provide an Australian bank account please contact Lending Rights by email at lendingrights [at] arts.gov.au or call 1800 672 842.

If an eligible creator is not getting a payment, then you won't be paid. In this case your payment advice statement will show your Survey year as PUB ONLY and your equivalent number of copies for that book as 'NIL'.

No, we are a separate agency to the Copyright Agency. You will need to claim for lending rights separately. You can find more information about CAL at the Copyright Agency website.

No, payments are only made to living creators and publishers of works by living creators.

As an exception, a final payment may be made for the financial year in which a creator has died.

PLR and ELR payments are deemed as income for taxation purposes and should be declared on your annual tax return. The Australian Taxation Office has ruled that PLR and ELR payments are not subject to GST.

The ABN to use for taxation purposes is: 86 267 354 017.