Canada Council - Public Lending Right Commission

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The Public Lending Right (PLR) Commission distributes annual payments to Canadian authors for the presence of their books in Canadian public libraries.

PLR Program Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible for a PLR payment, both authors and their titles must meet the program eligibility criteria. Please read the following text carefully to determine whether you are eligible.

Who is Eligible?

You may be eligible for a PLR payment if you are a:

• author or co-author
• translator
• illustrator or photographer
• editor with an original written contribution
• anthology contributor (with no more than six contributors to the title).

In addition, you must be a Canadian citizen (living in Canada or abroad) or have Permanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Your work must also meet all of the following eligibility criteria:

• your work must be a book of poetry, fiction, drama, children’s literature, nonfiction or scholarly work
• your name must appear on a given work’s title page or copyright page or, for an anthology contributor, in the table of contents
• your book must be at least 48 pages in length, or in the case of children’s literature, at least 24 pages
• your book must be printed and have an ISBN
• your contribution to the book must comprise at least 10% of the length of the book
• there must be no more than six contributors to the title, excluding editors and translators, but including illustrators and photographers.

No claim may be made on behalf of a deceased author by the estate or survivors. Moreover, the shares of ineligible or deceased contributors do not accrue to other contributors.

What Types of Books are Ineligible?

• A practical book or a book giving advice or instructions, a self-help or “how-to” book; a manual or guidebook on any subject including travel and nature guides; a cookbook
• a professional guide such as legal, technical, medical, scientific, pedagogical, accounting or financial guide
• a book designed primarily for an educational market
• a list of any kind: a directory, index, compilation (in which short segments of information are brought together in a list format), bibliography, dictionary, atlas, encyclopaedia or genealogy
• a book resulting from a conference, seminar or symposium
• the catalogue of an exhibition
• a newspaper, magazine or periodical
• an unpublished work (e.g. doctoral thesis, a manuscript, non-print formats, etc.
• a second or subsequent edition of an eligible book, unless at least 50% of this edition constitutes completely new text, not revised text. In this case, the new edition will be considered eligible as a new title
• a report, survey or program evaluation
• a title prepared for or published by a governmental or paragovernmental or­ganization, institution or corporation
• wholly or mainly a musical score
• a calendar, agenda, colouring book, quiz book or game
• a book created for your employer in the course of your employment.