A Few Important Reminders That Pay You...

This will be my last blog post for a week, I'm taking some time-off to recharge my batteries and catch up with some reading- as well as sorting presents and organising food for the hungry horde (my OH and growing children- if only they would stop growing :-) ).

Before you finish for the year you might want to make sure that you've added everything you need to add to your ALCS (Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society) page. You'll find some of the available downloads useful. And best of all if you have any qualifying work it will eventually mean you'll get payments.

A big thank you to writer Vivian Hampshire who mentioned DACS on the Talkback forum.

This is similar to ALCS but for visual artists- and if you're a writer who has had your photos or artwork used in a UK magazine, in books, or broadcast on certain TV channels, then you may be eligible for future payments.

You have to claim each year, and it's too late for 2012's Payback, but it will relaunch in summer 2013, so if you're eligible sign up now ready for next year.

So remember:

  "If you are a photographer, illustrator, sculptor, cartoonist, fine artist, animator, architect, designer or craftsperson, and your work has been reproduced in UK publications or on UK television, you can claim your royalties due."

So find out more here.

Don't forget PLR (Public Lending Rights), register your print books there- do it by the end of June each year.

E-books currently don't qualify for payment, but I was told by the Licencing section of the ALCS this week to submit the details so they were on record; even very short stories in anthologies qualify.

Who knows, if there's enough presence of e-books, and library lending of e-books becomes more widely available, it may help the case for future payments- it's been recommended that library loans for e-books should get PLR, but it's not been put into action yet.

Merry Christmas...

image courtesy of digitalart/ http://freedigitalphotos.net

It's the Office Party-Welcome to My Christmas Past...

As mentioned yesterday, today is the Office Party for all of us who are the only people in the office...

So to my little piece about Christmas- don't worry, I can't access the old photo of me sat on Santa's knee (I was only 5 years old :-) ).

But that did get me thinking about Christmas in the 60's compared to Christmas now.

In fact there was one special day every Christmas when I was little that told me Christmas was on its way. We lived an hour from London (by train) and the adventure started the moment we came out of Charring Cross Station.

Across in Trafalgar Square the big tree would be covered in lights- not on during the daylight of course.

We take for granted that the streets will be decorated with coloured lights in fantastic designs, but when I was little that was a rarity outside of the big cities. But I did get to see the Christmas lights in Regents Street every year.

Christmas Lights

The lights were strung from one side of the street to the other like a bejewelled necklace; and I remember walking along gazing up in delight at the stars and curls of light that filled me with absolute wonder.

There would always be a visit to look around Hamley's. We couldn't afford to buy anything, but it was a joy to see the toys out
and to my imagination at six I thought that this must be what Santa's workshop looked like...

Our next stop would be to look at the different window displays at Selfridges. The big windows were filled with Christmas montages...

As the daylight faded we would walk back along the streets now lit up to full effect in the darkness.

The day would finish off with a trip to the Panto at the London Palladium. I remember seeing Tommy Steele as Dick Whittington, and I've vague recollections of Jack and the Beanstalk too.

One year it was Cilla Black playing Aladdin...

Having found a link about the pantomimes held at the Palladium, I've just realised how many 'names' I saw as a child...This makes interesting reading.

When the panto was over we'd wander back to Trafalgar Square, look at the Christmas tree lights one last time, then go across to the station to get our train home. I certainly slept at the end of the day, dreaming of all the wonderful things I'd seen...


Snowman design courtesy of Feelart/freedigitalphotos.net

Christmas Banner courtesy of Simon Howden/freedigitalphotos.net