Authors Registry Hits $2.5 Million Mark for 2008

June 30, 2008. The Authors Registry, the not-for-profit organization founded by the Authors Guild and others in 1995, has paid more than $2.5 million since the start of the year, a record for the organization. Since its founding the Registry has paid more than $8 million to authors.

Most of the fees and royalties the Registry distributes are from foreign rights societies, principally the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society in London, Kopinor, the Norwegian photocopy rights administrator, and from LIRA, an authors’ rights organization in The Netherlands. The Registry has distributed payments, ranging from as little as $10 to thousands of authors. The Registry retains a 5% commission from payments to authors in order to recoup some of its operating costs.

For more information on the Authors Registry, including a list of 300 authors the Registry has been unable to reach for whom the Registry is holding more than $100,000, please visit its website at www.authorsregistry.org.