Books and spoken word cassettes and CDs borrowed from public libraries can earn their authors a fee.  Authors registered with the national Public Lending Right scheme (PLR) can get up to £6,600 a year under the scheme.

In 2005-2006 some 18,500 authors received payments under the scheme, with 262 getting the maximum and over half getting under £50.

Borrowing is recorded via sample authorities across the UK.  From 1 July 2007 Moray becomes a sample authority for the next 4 years.

For those interested in the top 10 most borrowed authors the order was:

1. Jacqueline Wilson
2. James Patterson
3. Josephine Cox
4. Danielle Steele
5. Ian Rankin
6. Janet & Allan Ahlberg
7. Mick Inkpen
8. Roald Dahl
9. John Grisham
10. Nora Roberts
    

And the most borrowed book?

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code

For readers and listeners borrowing from Moray's libraries the service will publish top 10 lists every quarter.