The latest COVID-19 update from our CEO

2.04.20

Dear members, subscribers and friends,

I hope that you and your families are coping during what continues to be such a difficult time. The ASA is working hard to support Australian authors and illustrators through this crisis, and to keep you informed. 

On Monday, the government announced a new $130 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme designed to keep Australians in jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This $1500 per fortnight subsidy is available for sole traders (which most, if not all, authors and illustrators are) as well as employees. Find more information about your eligibility for this payment here. 

The eligibility for the JobSeeker payment has also been expanded. Previously, if your income had dropped to nil but your partner was still working, the threshold for your partner's earnings was approximately $48,000 per annum. This has been increased to $80,000 per annum. For a full guide to government payment schemes click here, and for case studies from the Department of Social Services illustrating the financial support available to creators under the JobSeeker payment scheme, click here.

We'd like to commend the Australia Council on its decision to redirect approximately $5 million to new programs designed to provide immediate relief to Australian creators and organisations. The Resilience Fund will open for applications tomorrow, and information about the fund will be made available here.

The ASA is aware that the impact of COVID-19 will be felt by writers and illustrators over the medium and long term. The royalties many of you are receiving now, at the end of the first quarter, will be unaffected by the pandemic. Our concern is that royalties due at the end of 2020 and early 2021 will reveal the damage caused by the disruption to supply channels and bookshop closures. We're also concerned about cash flow issues for many smaller publishers who may not be able to pay royalties on time. It will be very important later this year to collect royalty data and report into Australia Council and government.

In our interaction with government to date, we have called for: 

• PLR / ELR payments to be made as quickly as possible this year
• the rapid expansion of the PLR / ELR scheme to digital formats
• a plan to help bookstores survive this crisis (rent / lease relief is crucial)
• a government-backed public campaign to encourage consumers to buy Australian stories and support Australian authors, as well as their local bookshops and libraries, at the end of the pandemic to assist recovery
• additional funding for Australia Council, including to support an increase in individual writers grants

We were pleased by the speedy response from the Office for the Arts to our request to consider bringing forward PLR / ELR payments this year. We understand that the stringent steps taken to administer PLR / ELR are part of a regulated process and cannot be cut short. The survey data on which the calculations are based is just in. The Lending Rights team is assuring claimants that there will be no delays in making PLR / ELR payments before 30 June 2020 and will do their best to deliver payments as efficiently as possible.

How can you help? If you are expecting a payment and your bank account details have changed since last year, please log onto the Lending Rights Online portal, at www.lendingrights.arts.gov.au to update those details now. If you have not previously logged onto Lending Rights, you can email lendingrights@arts.gov.au to either update your details or be issued with a password for the online system.

The expansion of the PLR / ELR scheme to digital formats remains under consideration. 

At this time, it is so distressing to see that the Internet Archive, based in the US, is using the COVID-19 pandemic as justification for making millions of copyright protected books freely available online without restriction on its Open Library site. The US Authors Guild has issued a strong statement which you can read here. The ASA also condemns its 'National Emergency Library' which we believe undermines legitimate book sales and damages the revenue of our creators, many of whom are already on low incomes. We encourage all authors who object to their books being included in the 'National Emergency Library' to opt out, using the instructions found here.

While all of the impacts of COVID-19 are being keenly felt by our community, it is not all bad news. I am so impressed by the individuals and groups in the creative arts using this time as an opportunity to support and enhance the literary sector. We hope you will take inspiration from some of those initiatives, outlined here. 

Best wishes,

Olivia Lanchester

CEO