The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS)

The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a UK not-for-profit organisation that collects and distributes secondary royalties to writers. It exists to make sure you’re paid when your work is copied, shared, or used in ways that don’t generate traditional royalties and has been operating since 1977.

‘Secondary uses’ are things like:

·       Scripts being used for broadcasting

·       Use of articles in journals and magazines

·       Lending in libraries overseas

·       Reprographic copying in businesses or public bodies

·       Photocopying of work in schools, colleges and universities

These uses are covered by licensing schemes internationally and in the UK, and ALCS collects this income and pays it to the writers who are due.

ALCS is open to self-published, as well as traditional writers, who write books, articles, broadcast scripts or make contributions towards any of these.

You may already be owed money, even though you have not yet registered; there is a search bar on the ALCS home page for you to check.

Click the image below to go to the site:

ALCS makes payments to its members twice a year in March and September.

It deducts a one‑off lifetime membership fee of £36 from your first payment, so you don’t pay anything upfront, and after that, you may receive payments every March and September, or only whenever something has been collected for you.

Registration is via the website, and you will be asked to provide contact and bank details, along with a list of all the works you wish to register.

Once your membership has been processed, you will be able to access the online members’ area and register your works. If ALCS has already collected money for you, you will receive it in the next payment cycle.

Be sure, when you register your work, that you include every edition of your book (e.g. ebook, paperback, hardback) and any articles that you have written, even if they were unpaid or published years ago. Then remember to keep adding to your list every time you release something new.

If you still have questions, there is a four-and-a-half-minute video on YouTube which may answer them here: