For both UK and Irish PLR, you will need to calculate your contributor ‘share’ when registering your books and audiobooks for PLR.

Sole contributor

Typically a sole contributor is the only person named on the title page of a book and no other person has contributed. If you are the sole contributor of a book, you are entitled to 100% of any PLR payment.

Multiple contributors

If there are two or more contributors, any PLR payment will be based on the percentage share that reflects your contribution. Percentage shares should be agreed between all eligible contributors before you register the book for PLR. Each contributor should submit their own separate application.

Share agreements can be made either verbally or in writing (this includes emails). The percentage split should reflect individual contributions to a book, and the figures should be whole numbers (e.g. not 33.3%).

If you are unable to contact the other contributors, you may only apply for a share which you feel reflects your contribution to the book. However, if the other contributors subsequently apply for different shares, we may remove your share until an agreement is reached.

If there are other contributors named on the title page who are deceased, not eligible for PLR or do not wish to register, you should allocate a notional share to reflect their contribution.

Contributor shares are calculated as follows:

• Writer/author – share to reflect your contribution
• Illustrator/photographer – share to reflect your contribution (even if paid by fee)
• Translator – share fixed at 30% (if you are named on the title page or elsewhere in the book)
• Original author – a notional share allocated to reflect the original author’s contribution (even if the title is out of copyright or the original author is deceased)
• Adaptor/re-teller – 80% of the text share (after the illustrator's share has been allocated) where the original author is named on the title page or 100% of the text share where no original author is named
• Ghost writer – share to reflect your contribution (if you are a ghost writer whose name does not appear on the title page you are not eligible for PLR unless you have a royalty agreement with the publisher or an agreement with the author named on the title page. The subject or interviewee may be regarded as a co-author if they had a significant part in producing the book, apart from giving interviews, such as checking manuscripts, making revisions etc.)
• Editor/compiler/abridger/reviser – share to reflect your contribution. Basic share is 20% but joint editors/compilers should choose a share from the guidelines below and divide this equally between co-editors.
• 20% share – if, in addition to normal editorial work, you have written more than 10% of the book or 10 pages of text and you are named on the title page. If you are not named on the title page you may still register 20% if you have a royalty agreement with the publisher, regardless of whether you have contributed 10 pages or 10% of the book.
• 50% share – if you have compiled the book from diverse material involving substantial rearrangement, editing, transcribing, and/or abridgement plus some explanatory writing.
• 80% share – in exceptional circumstances, for example, where it has taken many years of research to produce a book from obscure primary material and there is a large amount of original writing by the editor or compiler.
• 100% share – if you have written the entire book (even if you are only credited on the title page as editor or compiler).

Audiobook shares 

Audiobook shares are calculated differently to reflect and remunerate narrator and producer contributions. If your audiobook contribution is both as the writer and narrator, you can claim for both shares (ie. 60% + 20% = 80%). If there are multiple writers, the writer’s share allocation should be split between all writers. If there are multiple narrators, the narrator’s proportion should be shared between all narrators. See example calculation below.

• Writer/author – share fixed at 60% (if the audiobook has not been abridged or translated.* In cases where you have made an additional contribution (for example as narrator), you may claim both shares (see narrator’s share below).
• Narrator – share fixed at 20%
• Abridger* – share fixed at 12% (where the writer’s original text has been abridged prior to recording as an audiobook)
• Translator* – share fixed at 18% (where the writer’s original text has been translated from another language)
• Producer** – share fixed at 20%

*The audiobook abridger and/or translator’s share is deducted from the writer’s share. An abridger’s 12% is deducted as 20% from the writer’s share and a translator’s 18% share is deducted as 30% from the writer’s share.

**The producer is defined as ‘the person who organised the performance’ not the publishing company who employed the producer.

Contributors	Original audiobook shares (100%)	Translated audiobook shares (100%)
Writer	60%	42%
Narrator 1	10%	10%
Narrator 2	10%	10%
Producer	20%	20%
Translator	0%	18%

Please note that audiobook titles are not currently eligible for PLR under the Irish scheme.

Audiobook ‘pack’ shares

Under the UK PLR scheme, your audiobook ‘pack’ is separated into 50% for the book element and 50% for the audio element. When registering your pack titles, you should apply agreed book shares to 50% and agreed audiobook shares for the remaining 50%. See example calculation below.

Contributors	Share of book element (50%)	Share of audio CD element (50%)	Total pack share (100%)
Writer	50% of 50% = 25%	60% of 50% = 30%	55%
Illustrator	50% of 50% = 25%	0%	25%
Narrator	0%	20% of 50% = 10%	10%
Producer	0%	20% of 50% = 10%	10%

Under the Irish PLR scheme, you may only register a share for the 50% book element as audio material does not qualify. See example calculation below.

Contributors	Share of book element (50%)	Share of audio CD element (0%)	Total pack share (50%)
Writer	50% of 50% = 25%	0%	25%
Illustrator	50% of 50% = 25%	0%	25%
Narrator	0%	0%	0%
Producer	0%	0%	0%