The Bookseller.com

14th October 2008

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Pearson to resolve royalty confusion

18.06.08 Benedicte Page

The Society of Authors has met with Pearson's royalty manager Philip Rowe to express concerns raised by members over confusing royalty statements.

SoA deputy general secretary Kate Poole said: "Pearson switched to a new accounts system last summer and the first batches of statements were chaotic. Particularly for EFL writers, who may have 40-50 books, each produced at several different levels in several different countries, statements can be 150-200 pages long and some of the big authors with complex statements were having problems. The information was unclear." There had also been a backlog at dealing with author queries, she added.

However Poole said that she was happy with the outcome of the meeting, at which improvements to statements and Pearson's query-management system were discussed. A Pearson spokesperson said: "The idea of the proposed improvements is to make the statements clearer. We are hopeful the discussions will end speedily and are working to resolve any queries by the end of June."

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