How I Came To Write for ALCS News

I have to thank Hereward Corbett, proprietor of the equally wonderfully named Yellow-Lighted Bookshops in Nailsworth and Tetbury, for his personal introduction to Caroline Sanderson, editor of the ALCS News.

I thought I was busy till I met Caroline. Not only is she newsletter editor for the ALCS, she’s also non-fiction editor for The Bookseller (the trade paper of the British book trade), chair of  literary festival events, book award judge, and a respected author – and she still finds time to volunteer in the local community, choreographing a fabulous Book Week for one lucky primary school in the neighbourhood.

A meeting with Caroline in one of my favourite coffee shops, The Olive Tree in Nailsworth. resulted in her commissioning me to write this overview of self-publishing in the March issue of ALCS. (The best author meetings happen in coffee shops, something I blogged about here.)

So what’s ALCS? I hear you cry

The organisation’s full name is the Authors’  Licensing and Collecting Society. This marvellous membership organisation for authors is much-loved by writers of all kinds because it looks after their rights and ensures they receive fair payment for the various uses of their work.  Membership costs just a one-off fee of £25 when someone first joins (this usually comes out of the royalties they collect), and in return members receive a regular income stream in addition to the earnings received directly from their writing (advances, royalties, etc).

The ALCS News is issued monthly online to keep authors abreast of developments affecting their rights and earnings.

Caroline asked me to write about self-publishing to raise awareness of its potential as a further source of income for members. My brief was to help ALCS members make informed decisions about whether or not to self-publish any of their work.

The reason Caroline asked me to do this is because I am more or less her counterpart within the Alliance of Independent Authors, for whom I edit a blog of self-publishing advice.

And ALLi….?

The Alliance of Independent Authors is the professional, non-profit organisation for self-publishing authors. Not surprisingly, there is a significant overlap between our membership groups. As time goes by, I’m hoping that overlap will increase. I should point out that ALCS is a UK organisation, and ALLi’s membership is worldwide, but there are equivalent organisations fulfilling ALCS’s functions all over the world.

How wonderful – and appropriate – that such a quest was kicked off in our local indie bookshop! There’s so much more to bookshops than just books. Use them or lose them, folks!

To read my article about self-publishing in the March issue of ALCS News, please click here.

For More Information

• To find out more about the ALCS, and to join it for just £25 for life, visit its website: www.alcs.co.uk
• To find out more about ALLi, visit the member website, go to www.allianceindependentauthors.org
• To read ALLi’s blog, edited by me, head over to: www.selfpublishingadvice.org
• And, if you’re in striking distance of Nailsworth or Tetbury, make time to visit either branch of The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop – you’ll be glad you did!

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