Authors overwhelmed by schools' requests for free books

Children’s authors are being overwhelmed by requests for free books and promotional materials from schools with dwindling budgets, writers have told The Bookseller.

M G Leonard, who published her Beetle Boy trilogy with Chicken House, said she regularly receives one of three kinds of messages from schools: generic requests for free books or promotional materials on Twitter, with several authors tagged in the tweet; requests for help from schools she has already worked with (which she is usually happy to fulfil); and handwritten requests from pupils.

“It’s the latter that gets my goat because it’s the schools which are encouraging the children to write to authors asking for books," Leonard said. "They write generic texts they have obviously copied from the board. I find these really upsetting but schools don’t understand that we only get about 20 copies of our books so all of this stuff comes out of our pockets.

“You feel as an author you should support children’s reading and I want to help, but not at the expense of feeding my own children.”

Paula Harrison, author of The Rescue Princesses and The Secret Rescuers (Nosy Crow), said the number of requests for free books and resources had definitely upped over the last 12 months. “Requests usually come through Twitter or my website," she said. "Requests on Twitter frequently tag dozens of authors at a time. I'm happy to donate posters or other promotional materials to schools where a teacher has sought me out individually. However, I draw the line at donating where someone is clearly carpet-bombing authors on social media.”

Nicola Morgan, whose books include The Teenage Guide to Friends (Walker Books), said part of the problem was schools facing budget cuts, but she also said schools think authors get lots of promotional materials for free.

“Many authors have to create and pay for their own posters, etc, and pay for the postage. Or we get requests for free events from schools ‘because our budget is tight’. Even though I’m well known for standing up for our right to be paid, I was very recently asked by email for a free event. When I refused, the teacher showed zero understanding or respect - it was phenomenally insulting.”

Some schools organise “underhand” book awards, where they contact authors, say they’ve been shortlisted for the award then ask them to come to the school, unpaid, and sometimes even do workshops, she added.

“Authors can  then feel guilty if they say no, because they are made to feel that the children will be disappointed,” she said.

One anonymous author, whose debut novel was published this month, said she had sent some postcards to schools to raise her profile but had also received requests for books. “I can’t afford to keep doing that, however much I might want to,” she said. “It is hard when you are trying to establish yourself as a name.”

YA author Perdita Cargill said authors needed the support of librarians and teachers. “The cost of preparing, printing and posting falls on us but the most frustrating cost is post and packing," she said.

“We’ve been helped by some of the lovely school library services who have requested materials and then distributed them to schools - much more cost and time efficient for the author but of course another burden on a different stretched service.  I suppose we will keep trying to do what we can when we can but it’s a patchy solution.”

Alison Tarrant, the director of the School Library Association, said the rise in schools asking for free books and promotional materials was down to tight budgets but suggested that was not the “whole picture”.

“We seem to be living in a new golden age of children’s literature, meaning there’s more and more schools want to buy, and yet we have school libraries which have no budget but still expected to make their library compete, and continue to provide resources for pupils. In most of these cases the person will ask; not out of expectation necessarily but out of hope.

“I also think there is a significant lack of understanding about how authors/illustrators are paid, and the percentage of money they receive which leads people to think they have lots of spares to just give away. I once had an author visit who had to print their own postcards – the publisher didn’t do it for them – this is something I’d not thought of. I’d just assumed that the publicity materials would be provided by the publisher – and of course sometimes they are, but not always.”

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said:  "Schools should not have to scrabble around for resources or equipment or have to ask for donations for essential items or repairs. The government urgently needs to address the real terms cuts to school funding, which has fallen by 8% in England since 2010, to stop this situation escalating."