Last reviewed by Robert Prime, July 2026
Yes — self-published authors qualify for Public Lending Right (PLR), the UK scheme that pays authors each time public libraries lend their books. If you're named on your book's title page, the book has a valid ISBN, and your principal home is in the UK (or the European Economic Area), you can register free of charge with the British Library, which administers the scheme. For the 2024/25 scheme year the rate was 12.40p per loan, with payments capped at £6,600 per author per year and a £1 minimum — and the money arrives every February for loans in the year ending the previous June.
It won't make most authors rich. It is, however, free money for a 20-minute registration, it compounds as your backlist grows, and library lending is one of the few places self-published books sit on genuinely equal footing with the Big Five. Here's how the scheme works and how to claim your share.
TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- PLR pays authors per library loan. UK rate for the 2024/25 scheme year: 12.40p per loan (up from 11.76p the year before — the rate is reset annually, so check the current figure when you register).
- Self-published books are eligible. The scheme cares that you qualify (named on the title page, UK/EEA principal home) and the book qualifies (valid ISBN) — not who published it.
- Register by 30 June to be counted in that scheme year. Registration is free at the British Library's PLR portal and each book only needs registering once.
- Print, ebooks and audiobooks all qualify under the UK scheme (ebook eligibility came in from July 2018 for remote lending).
- Payments: statements in January, money in February. Minimum payment £1; maximum £6,600 per contributor per year.
- Loans are estimated from a sample of UK library authorities, scaled up nationally — so regional lending patterns produce noisy per-book results.
What is Public Lending Right, exactly?
Authors lose a retail sale every time a library lends their book for free; PLR is the statutory compensation for that. The UK created the right in 1979, funds it with an annual government grant (around £6.6 million), and since 2013 the British Library has run it from Boston Spa. Each year the fund is divided by the estimated national loan count to set a rate per loan, which is why the rate moves annually — more borrowing spreads the same fund thinner; the 2024/25 rate of 12.40p was confirmed through a DCMS consultation in late 2025.
The right belongs to contributors, not publishers: authors, co-authors, illustrators, translators, editors, narrators and photographers can all register shares of a book, provided they're named on the title page or entitled to a royalty. This matters for self-publishers who hire help — if your illustrator is named on the title page of your children's book, PLR expects the shares to be agreed between you.
Do self-published books really qualify?
They do, and there's no gatekeeping beyond the formal criteria:
| Requirement | What it means for a self-publisher |
|---|---|
| Named contributor | Your name appears on the book's title page (or you're entitled to publisher royalties) |
| Valid ISBN | The book has its own ISBN — see our UK ISBN guide for the Nielsen route vs free Amazon ISBNs |
| Residence | Your only or principal home is in the UK or EEA when you register |
| Formats | Print books, ebooks and audiobooks all qualify under the UK scheme |
Two practical wrinkles for KDP authors. First, each format's ISBN registers separately — your paperback ISBN and any ebook identifier are different records, so register every edition. Second, and more fundamentally: PLR only pays when libraries actually stock and lend your book. Print-on-demand books don't flow into library supply chains automatically. UK libraries buy through wholesalers and suppliers, and they respond to requests from borrowers — which is your lever. Encourage readers to request your book at their local library: patron requests are the single most effective way for a self-published book to get purchased into stock. Wide distribution beyond Amazon helps too, since library suppliers source more readily outside KDP; our KDP Select vs wide guide and Draft2Digital comparison cover the trade-offs (D2D, notably, can reach library ebook platforms).
How much money is realistic?
Set expectations with the arithmetic. At 12.40p per loan:
| Annual loans of your books | PLR payment |
|---|---|
| 50 | £6.20 |
| 500 | £62 |
| 5,000 | £620 |
| 53,000+ | £6,600 (the cap) |
The cap exists to stop a handful of mega-borrowed authors draining the fund — a real phenomenon: library borrowing is dominated by high-volume genre fiction, especially crime, romance and children's books. For a self-published author with a modest backlist in a borrowable genre, tens to low hundreds of pounds a year is a realistic ceiling; children's authors and prolific series writers can do considerably better. Because loans are measured from a sample of library authorities rotated around the UK and scaled up, your individual results will also wobble year to year in ways that have nothing to do with your actual popularity.
Worth £0 of effort to ignore, though? No — because registration is one-off, free, and pays annually for the life of the book, and because the same 20 minutes also future-proofs you: once registered, every February payment arrives without further admin.
How do I register? (Step by step)
- Create a contributor account at the British Library's PLR portal (bl.uk/plr). You'll need your address, date of birth and bank details — payments are by bank transfer.
- Register each book by ISBN. The form asks for title, ISBN, publication year, and your contributor role. If there are co-contributors (illustrator, translator, co-author), you declare percentage shares — which the contributors must agree between themselves.
- Register every format — paperback, hardcover, ebook and audiobook editions each have their own identifier.
- Do it before 30 June. The UK scheme year ends 30 June; books registered by then are counted for that year's loans. Miss it and you simply start accruing from the following year — PLR is not retrospective for years before registration.
- Check your January statement. Statements are issued online in January and payments made in February.
While you're doing rights admin, note the neighbouring scheme: Irish PLR covers loans from public libraries in the Republic of Ireland, and UK-resident authors can register for it through the same portal (payments in December). Ebooks don't qualify for the Irish scheme, but print does. And if your books are borrowed in other PLR countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and two dozen more), the ALCS (Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society) collects several of those foreign entitlements for UK authors — a separate, also-worthwhile registration.
One last housekeeping link: getting library-ready is also a rights-and-obligations moment — your book should have its copyright page in order and you have a legal deposit obligation to the British Library that's separate from PLR. And if the edition you send into the world needs to look the part first, our formatting service produces a bookshop-and-library-grade interior from £69.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can self-published authors claim PLR in the UK?
Yes. Eligibility depends on the contributor and the book, not the publisher: you must be named on the book's title page (or entitled to royalties), the book needs a valid ISBN, and your only or principal home must be in the UK or EEA when you register. Registration is free via the British Library's PLR portal.
How much does PLR pay per loan?
The rate is recalculated every year by dividing the government-funded pot (around £6.6m) by estimated national loans. For the 2024/25 scheme year the UK rate was 12.40p per loan, up from 11.76p. Payments are capped at £6,600 per contributor per year, with a £1 minimum.
Do ebooks and audiobooks qualify for PLR?
Under the UK scheme, yes — ebooks and audiobooks lent by UK public libraries qualify, with remote ebook lending covered since July 2018. The Irish PLR scheme covers print but not ebooks. Register each format's ISBN separately.
When is the PLR registration deadline?
30 June each year. Books (and contributors) registered by 30 June are included in that scheme year's loan calculations, with statements the following January and payment in February. Registration only needs doing once per edition, and there's no fee.
How do I get UK libraries to stock my self-published book?
Libraries buy through their suppliers, largely in response to borrower demand. The most effective route is asking readers to request the book at their local branch — patron requests regularly trigger purchases. Distributing beyond Amazon (for instance via Draft2Digital, which reaches library ebook platforms) widens the paths through which library suppliers can buy your book.
About the Author
Robert Prime is a self-published author, veteran e-commerce strategist, and the founder of publishing.co.uk. With over 25 years in digital business — including running the Amazon advertising agency MrPrime.com, he brings a practical, numbers-first perspective to self-publishing. After navigating the formatting and marketing of his own book, Google. Panic. Repeat., he built publishing.co.uk to help UK authors avoid the same pitfalls. He is co-owner of the LoveReading.co.uk network and a member of the Forbes Business Council.
