ALCS Focus Group & Networking

Last week I took part in the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) focus group in

ALCS = Free Money!

Birmingham and in the networking event that followed. It was the first time ALCS had ventured out of London since Covid and the first time I’d taken part in any sort of focus group.

For those of you who don’t know, ALCS makes sure that writers receive the money they are entitled to for secondary uses of their work, such as when someone photocopies a magazine article or a book extract. Understanding where ALCS get the money they pay to writers is complicated and I suggest reading what it says on their website.

There were ten of us ALCS members, ranging from academics to poets, novelists and indie authors,  around the table in the focus group plus various ALCS staff members (as well as cookies, muffins and hot drinks to fuel us!) Various topics were thrown at us for discussion and the ensuing conversation was recorded. Points that came up:

Initially some people had been reluctant to sign up to ALCS because ‘free money’ in exchange of bank details sounded like yet another internet scam.The fact that the membership fee is only taken from a writer’s ALCS earnings was a major selling point, because there is no risk of not receiving enough money to cover the joining fee.Very few of the writers present were aware of the ALCS podcast.Few of the writers present properly understood where ALCS source the money and how it is shared out – we were just happy to receive the payments!The big discussion point was Artificial Intelligence and how it might be used to plagiarise our work or to create new, ‘original’ pieces of writing. ALCS are currently lobbying MPs and the government to bring in laws that will protect writers from any negative effects of AI.

At the end of the discussion we were joined by other writers and offered prosecco, wine and lovely little canapes! It was interesting to discover all the different types of writing served by ALCS. I spoke to a script writer for the Horrible Histories children’s television series, a feature writer for Bauer magazines, an indie romantic novelist and an academic who got nothing on publication of a textbook but had received regular payments from ALCS because it was widely photocopied.

Conclusion: ALCS are definitely on a mission to protect and campaign for writers’ rights. If you have had anything published then you have nothing to lose by joining ALCS and you may well receive some free money!
(Members of the Society of Authors receive free ALCS membership)