Authors' Matters by ALCS
Authors' Matters is a podcast by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) where we talk to writers from across the profession about how they earn their living, or at least try to. From copyright to contracts, we’ll also talk about issues that make the writing living easier or more difficult.
Authors' Matters by ALCS
Season 1, episode 8: Funding from the Arts Council England and a look back at 2020
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In the final Authors’ Matters episode of 2020, Paul Farrelly, Advocacy consultant at ALCS, talks to James Urquhart, Senior Manager for Libraries and Literature at the Arts Council England (ACE). They discuss the ways in which ACE has supported writers across the UK during the pandemic, as well as details of how to apply for the current programmes they have available for creators.
We take a trip down memory lane with Tony Bradman, ALCS Chair, as he looks back at his current tenure, including ALCS milestones and how the organisation has reacted to the pandemic.
Plus, Alice Donovan, Communications Executive at ALCS, gives members a heads up on upcoming deadlines and an exciting announcement about the Annual ALCS Awards.
Hello and welcome to Authors Matters by ALCS, the podcast from the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society. I'm Caroline Sanderson and I'm an author, editor and books journalist, and yes, a member of ALCS2. ALCS is a membership organisation that collects and pays out money to writers for secondary uses of their works. It has over 100,000 members in the UK and worldwide and has paid out over 500 million pounds to writers since it was established in 1977. ALCS represents all types of writers, journalists, academics, radio drama writers, novelists, poets, and more. If you're not already a member and want to find out more, visit the ALCS website at www.alcs.co.uk. In this episode of All This Matters, former MP Paul Faraday, now working with ALCS on advocacy, speaks to James Erkitt of Arts Council England about grants and other funding available to writers at this time. Following the LCS ADM, which marked his four years in post, we also catch up with Tony Bradman, children's writer and chair of the ALCS board about ALCS's work in this particularly challenging year for writers. And Alice Donovan from the communications team at ALCS updates on important deadlines and forthcoming events for membership. Former Member of Parliament, Paul Faraday, is now lending his advocacy expertise to ALTS. For author's matters, he spoke to James Erkut of Arts Council England in a bid to find out more about its sources of funding and support for writers at this challenging time.
SPEAKER_02Hello, James. You can introduce yourself in a moment. I'm Paul Farreller. I was a Labour MP until I stepped down at the last election and spent nearly 15 years on the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee. So that's where my uh involvement in the Arts Council came from. And over the past few months, I've been advising ALCS, which I've known for more than a decade, on campaigns and policy.
SPEAKER_03Hello, Paul. I'm James Eckert. I'm Senior Manager for Libraries and Literature at Arts Council England, which in practice means that I support my two directors, Sarah Crown for Literature and Sue Williamson for Libraries.
SPEAKER_02It's clearly been a hectic time for the Arts Council. You were very quick to move, which was much appreciated, and helped the Authors Emergency Fund at the beginning of the crisis. And there's been lots more money flowing through to the sector since in emergency response funding and the 1.57 billion cultural recovery fund. But you'll know that freelancers with portfolio careers like uh authors and writers have uh often fallen through the gaps, and the arts council's remit is is mainly to support organizations. So, how do you uh balance in in your response uh the needs uh of individuals? Uh venues have got to survive, but but uh individuals uh help create uh our vibrant uh creative and cultural sectors.
SPEAKER_03Sure, well you're absolutely right, hectic times indeed, and very concerning and uh difficult times for many individuals and venues alike. Uh there's there's always more genuine demand for funds than there is resource, uh, and the pandemic has certainly amplified that. Just to kind of cover what we've done so far, back in March, the Arts Council acted as swiftly as we could to repurpose all our available uncommitted funds. That's what became the emergency response package. And we tried really hard to balance the needs of organisations and individuals within that. Uh, that included a fund of about £20 million, um, which in the end we were actually able to increase to £21.1 million, targeted specifically at individuals. That included four million pounds for a range of, I think it's about 10 benevolent fund uh and hardship funds that were administered by key membership organisations. Uh in literature specifically, um, we we made 328 successful awards to individuals uh from that fund, which totaled just under three-quarters of a million pounds. And the success rate was over 81%, which we were really, really pleased with. Um and in terms of literature, that was almost the highest of all our different art forms and disciplines in terms of success rate, well above the average success rate for all the applications we had, which was around about 73%. And I mentioned the £400,000 that we were able to offer to the Society of Authors uh Benevolent Fund, uh, which they've separately reported on as being very valuable and well received. Our contribution helped the overall um benefit from the Society of Authors uh to support almost 700 individuals, which is which is we're really, really pleased with. And since then, over the summer, uh we worked strenuously to support further investment from the government uh in what became the uh the hugely welcome uh Culture Recovery Fund from uh Secretary of State Oliver Dowden. Uh we're very positive about this and supportive of the funding. Um, it's worth saying that it's it is very specifically a government programme that we're administering to the best of our ability uh rather than one specifically designed by the Arts Council. Um, and it does have an explicit focus on supporting viable organisations to weather the storm and to adapt or be ready for potential reopening next spring. In terms of further support for individuals, and in terms of how we balance that, we focus very much on reopening project grants and uh developing your creative practice, which is our programme specifically aimed at individuals.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I just want to come on to that. Um, of the 500 million of uh grants from the Cultural Recovery Fund, uh, there is just over 70 million left to come, but that those will be the bigger awards going to uh bigger bigger venues. You've just mentioned that you've got two sets of open awards, uh open funds left to help people uh individually. Yeah, the National Lottery Project Grants and the developing your creative practice awards. Could you just explain um for ALCS members what sort of projects involving authors and writers are likely to qualify and how they might benefit?
SPEAKER_03Sure. So, in terms of how they qualify, um I'll say I'll say a bit of a word uh about each of those. Um so as soon as we we got past the the hurdle of delivering our emergency response package, we were really keen to reopen project grants, uh which we managed with a budget of uh 78 million pounds, uh, which runs until April 2021. We were really keen to reopen that because we were aware that in closing that to enable us to try and uh put as much resource into an immediate response as we possibly could. That was also cutting off a supply line to lots of um often smaller organizations and individual freelancers and artists and creatives, uh, that they use very much as a as a means of uh of supporting their practice. So we were acutely aware that that was you know not that that was an unintended consequence that we had had to bear. So uh we reopened as soon as we could. There's essentially no change to the published criteria of the program. So, in terms of what you could apply for, it's very much as it was uh previously. We did state that we would be more likely to fund projects that could happen in this financial year to try and kind of kickstart things again, uh, and also ones which benefited individual and freelance artists. So the types of projects that could be applied for were the same as before. And they included creating new work uh or, for example, residences or digital projects or workshops, but clearly these are projects that needed to be devised in ways that enabled them to run uh in a COVID-safe environment.
SPEAKER_02So these these um funds are open until uh next year, April for the project grants and October for creative practice. Um you must be inundated. So, how are you managing uh the flow and uh assessing the bids that you're receiving?
SPEAKER_03Well, uh there is very high demand, there's there's always high demand for these programs. Um, I say the the end dates that you've um identified there relate specifically to the budgets rather than to the end of the program. Um so project grants is a rolling program, an open access program. I don't in any way anticipate that will that will stop um uh come April. Uh but the the uh budget figure that we've given of £77.9 million is what we've got to to spend in that in that fund uh up until April 2021. There'll be a new budget we we would hope uh following that. Uh in terms of of demand, um the there's always huge demand for project grants. What we've said publicly is that we'd we'd be really keen to uh award more than 50% of the under £15,000 awards uh to individual applicants rather than uh to organisations. At the moment, my understanding is that some something like 78% of the awards are going to individuals. So we're very positive about the focus on uh benefits to individuals through project grants.
SPEAKER_02That's um that's welcome news that you're being able to do that. How long uh do people have to wait um for a result to when you apply to project grants?
SPEAKER_03If you apply for um uh it's it's one program, but there's a threshold at £15,000, um, whereby if you if you ask us for less than £15,000 to support your project, then we will turn that decision around in six weeks from the point at which you submit the application uh on granting, which is our project management system, our project grant system. Um if you apply for more than £15,000, then it takes us about 12 weeks because there's a slightly more in-depth um assessment of the uh the project application that we need to make. Um, but I I think six weeks is still a fairly swift turnaround for for funding up to about £15,000.
SPEAKER_02One uh further strand of the Arts Council's work is uh in supporting uh regional writing development agencies, and ALCS is hoping to work with them on a project to try and get uh uh more support for writers um and promote uh inclusion and more equality of opportunity uh across the industry. Can you describe uh your approach in supporting those those agencies and how you're doing it now?
SPEAKER_03Sure. So there are there are actually seven um uh specific writer development agencies uh up and down the country. So so the the one based in Norwich is is the National Centre for Writing, um uh uh which which used to be called Writer Centre Norwich but now has a more national uh name. Uh we also have Writing East Midlands and Writing West Midlands, uh based in Nottingham and in Birmingham, respectively. Uh we have New Writing North, based uh up in Newcastle, and New Writing South down in uh Brighton. Um, and we have literature works uh in the West Country. Uh we also have Spread the Word, which I think is based in Lewisham, but certainly does some really interesting work in some of the outer boroughs in London, whilst also relating to London generally. Our support for them is that they are all funded through the national portfolio. Um, they get very differing levels of uh uh funding uh because they all offer slightly different programs, but all of them uh kind of have in common the fact that they they offer support for writers, and that can include degrees of mentoring, it can be signposting, it can be sometimes finding some platform opportunities, uh, and on a really basic level, which is why I would really encourage your members uh uh to uh look them up and get in touch with their local um development agency, is that they are just a very supportive, often a peer um supportive organization that can kind of maybe maybe take some of the loneliness out of writing. Um the writing development agencies up and down the country are very well skilled with um supporting individual writers to uh to um identify what their career uh needs and aspirations and different tracks might be. Um and many of them are good at kind of supporting writers to look at putting in uh positive bids to the develop your creative practice um uh program. And the reason I mention that is that actually it's our our one funding program that is very explicitly focused on individuals and it's a good match for writers. Um it's uh I suppose what I what I'd say about it is that in recognition of the current situation, Paul, we've we've increased the budget from three and a half million to 18 million pounds over the next year. Um, and it's it's an opportunity for individuals to come in for something that might develop their craft or something that might adapt their ability to function to a post-COVID world or develop new skills potentially involving mentoring or or um uh other activities they might want to do to try and improve their lot when normal gigs in Inverted Commons uh may once again be possible in the in the future. Unlike project grants, it is a quarterly submission cycle. Project grants is is an open application program that you can simply submit an application to whenever. The um Developing a Creative Practice has a quarterly submission cycle, and the first one since we reopened the fund has has only just closed. So I can't give you any any up-to-date figures uh uh about success rate. But since the start of the project, the success rate for literature applicants has been about 16%, uh, which is just above the the uh average uh for all applications. And in terms of whether whether a writer should come and consider develop your creative practice or um perhaps a project grant application, both of them support creating new work. So I could see that a writer might understandably um uh have a bit of a head scratching moment trying to work out which application to which funding program to come into. Um rule of rule of thumb is that if there is a public-facing element to the project that you want to do, then it's probably best suited to look at project grants. If it's something that has less immediate traction for an audience uh and might be more focused on developing a craft or or a or a technique for a writer or including something like skill building or mentoring, a more private affair, a more developmental affair, then it's it's probably something to look at, develop your creative practice. But you know, we really welcome applications from uh from writers to either of those funds, and our customer service colleagues um uh available on on our website um uh are very ready to offer advice about that.
SPEAKER_02And how have they been faring during the the pandemic in in what they do?
SPEAKER_03Sure. So um broadly they are, I think, hunkering down, responding as well as they can and being as responsive in support of their kind of their core constituents of writers. Um uh our support for them is ongoing, the national portfolio funding hasn't hasn't gone away. Um, but the uh interestingly, one of the things they're doing is they're often trying to innovate and find ways in which they can support those writers um whilst responding to the current situation.
SPEAKER_02You um uh at the arts council hold regular meetings of what's called the Libraries and PLR Forum, um which uh has involved DCMS. Um, can you describe um what that does, uh, how it benefits uh writers, and how you became involved in it uh from the arts council?
SPEAKER_03Of course, yeah. In terms of how it benefits writers, it's it's slightly at one remove. It's more of a sector leadership um forum. And um, back in the day, by which I mean about two years ago, uh the DTMS had a committee called e-Lending and PLR. This was largely a task and finish um group which was uh set up to discuss the terms by which e-books loaned by public libraries could be included in the scope of the public lending right. And this became a statutory instrument, instrument that was laid before Parliament in 2018. So at that point, um our DCMS colleagues asked if it was uh if you know job done, uh, is there a need to continue? And actually, all of us around the table said yes, we you know we really value um getting together, uh, and I volunteered to uh take it on and chair it for the arts council. Um we we all found those around the table found real value in there being a range of groups, um uh which you know ALCS was was one of those around the table, still is. Also the Society of Authors, there's the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association, the Association of Authors Agents, there's the British Library in their role as uh administrators of the PLR. And there's also Libraries Connected um uh and uh the Chartered Instrument Chartered Institute of Libraries Informational Professionals, SILIP. So there's a real range of voices around that table. Many of us talk to each other as a matter of course, but I don't think there were many, many opportunities for all of us to get round a table and share sort of. I I suppose the purpose of it is is to um to keep that potent group of sexual member organizations involved and talking to each other um uh and sharing comments and best practice in some respects, but also trying to find those opportunities where we could um we could cooperate with each other and we could add value. So at the last meeting um back in the mid-summer actually, um I cleared the agenda so we could hear from everyone around the table how the pandemic was affecting their organization. And also, I mean, the these are by and large member organizations, so it's very much hearing about the uh the challenges facing writers uh and individuals and small publishers and booksellers as well. So, what that forum really does, I mean, it does have the interests and the uh the passion of writers very much at its heart. Um, so so the the purpose of it really is to allow people from those those key different organizations that that represent parts of the writing and the selling and the publishing uh and the audience um industry uh to uh to get together and share knowledge.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you for taking that forward, uh James. Uh uh it's much appreciated, I know. And uh now I just wanted to look look ahead um beyond the cultural recovery fund, and Darren Henley, uh your boss, has has uh been very vocal in expressing his concern about freelancers, and the DCMS Select Committee uh did too, and it also warned of the risks that COVID uh and the pressing need for uh uh emergency funding opposed to uh the arts council's strategy, uh let's create in the future. So, how are you going to adapt uh come the new year and in in the following uh periods?
SPEAKER_03Okay, so uh yes, you're absolutely right. Darren Henley has been very public and very supportive and concerned about the crucial need for supporting freelance and individuals as well as other aspects of the sector. It's a really, really difficult area. Uh, in terms of let's create and and our our 10-year strategy, uh we we published uh the the 10-year strategy um earlier this year, pretty much as uh as as lockdown well, as the pandemic really really took off. And uh what we had intended to do was to publish a delivery plan around about April that really put the flesh on the bones of the strategy and and that translated the the aspirations that we have within Let's Create um into um a set of activities or or types of activity that we we'd be positive about promoting and supporting. Um COVID completely rolled us over on that, and we weren't able to publish the delivery plan. And we have um uh, whilst managing all the other pressures this year, uh been working away at um uh refining and and uh considerably reworking actually the delivery plan so that actually what we have in that delivery plan, which we hope to publish in the new year, um, is a set of principles and measures that actually really reflects and responds to the uh the the pre the the mid and post-COVID reality. Um so so that delivery plan should be coming um sometime in the spring, hopefully before April. Um and uh I'm not really able to preempt much much of the detail in that, uh, but I do think it's fair to say there'll be a distinct and specific priority around the need to support individuals.
SPEAKER_02Sure, I I understand that, and uh uh it'll be very welcome. Um the national lottery, of course, is absolutely vital um for what the arts council does. Are there issues uh in future gaps in the funding because so much of it has been brought forward now to help with the emergency response?
SPEAKER_03Um I wouldn't say there are it's yeah, it's difficult to say there are gaps, um, and we have used as effectively as we can uh funding that was flexible. Um uh that's not less. us denuded of budget for the for the rest of the year but it did and and and consequently the the remaining budget has allowed us to um uh to put back uh project grants and developing your creative practice um and sort of in parallel with that we're also delivering the cultural recovery fund uh which obviously is delivering significant amounts of of government money to other parts of the uh of the sector so so it feels to me as if there is a balance of funding opportunities um uh going out to the sector uh will there be gaps there's never enough to go around um there are you know we pre-pandemic we will always caveat any development or or application conversations by saying we are um uh perhaps not inundated but we always have more positive and credible uh project applications uh for us to consider funding than we have resources available to do that.
SPEAKER_02James can I um uh thank you uh for your time um we look forward to the Arts Council's uh next delivery plan in in the spring uh and hopefully uh as 2021 approaches we can use the round table that you've um been taking forward to to uh get together um uh and discuss uh uh uh ways in which uh writing and literature can be helped and promoted even further. So thank you very very much.
SPEAKER_05Thank you Paul really welcome it the recent ALCS AGM which took place online of course marked four years since Tony Bradman became chair of the ALCS board. We invited him to look back on his tenure to date and tell us about ALCS's recent work in the context of this very challenging year for writers. Tony welcome back to Authors Matters I think we caught up with you earlier in the year but we've just had the ALCS AGM which took place online for the first time and that also marked you having served four years as chair of the ALCS board. So when you look back what do you reflect on and what do you think you've personally helped to achieve in that time?
SPEAKER_01Well thanks thanks for having me back on the podcast it's great and and I have to say that the podcasts have been terrific but really really interesting good to listen to and I recommend them to everybody. Four years it's a bit of a cliche but it's it's whizzed past um lots of things have happened. I think over the four years the first two three years were brilliant uh and uh we had a couple of record years uh and it was great to see that and ALCS is a smoothly running machine I mean Owen and the team are absolutely brilliant staff are great and it was terrific to see uh record record income record distributions uh you know the usual ups and downs in in any organization but it was great you know and we good strong board and it was really working well clearly the last year has been very very tricky um but I think um what's been amazing is how the staff uh have adapted to working from home done a fantastic job uh working just as well perhaps even better in some ways than they were in the office under enormously stressful circumstances so um uh it's a delight for me um and the board I think to to see uh just what a great team it is and how well they've done um there are other stuff you know that's happened in the four years we hit some milestones uh 40th anniversary was brilliant and uh great having Maureen Duffy around still to to celebrate that one of the original founders uh we had some great events um to to celebrate that and the thing that struck me was as well that um we we've paid out over half a billion pounds in in that time and that's a huge amount of money to writers you know think of all the things that are supported and and the work that's supported and and and the people who are creative and and generating terrific books and and TV programs and films and all sorts of stuff and we've really been a part of the creative economy for such a long time um the other other milestones were reaching going over 100,000 members I mean Owen was kind of counting them down before um in the 40th year you know we just I think we just after the AGM uh and I think uh at the AGM this year we've said that it's over 108,000 but it's actually 110 now I think isn't it we've hit 110 in so I believe yes 115 different countries as well so that's as I always say that's everywhere from South London to um uh Canada and New Zealand and but most important part is South London clearly but there you go um so so lots of um lots of terrific milestones and it's been great it's been really good and um you know uh even though we're in the middle of this kind of massive crisis ALCS still goes um you know uh rattling along doing what it should collecting money for writers and distributing it as efficiently as possible yes and I think as an as a writer myself I I kind of I love that I love feeling that you know I'm part of this this uh big you know company of of of writers you know in the UK but across the world as well but then of course when we get our individual payments we're individually very happy um so just to talk a little bit more about this year and the challenges of this year um could you talk a little bit about how LCS has sought to react to the pandemic and and kind of help reduce the obvious impact on uh on creators and on writers um yeah well it what what what's great about the company is that Owen and the team immediately identified the things that they needed to do. First of all it was to make sure the staff were okay and and and could work properly from home or from you know wherever they were. So we worked very hard at that and Owen the team did a lot on that. Secondly it was about I mean there are various things one is um making sure that we are maximizing the revenue from as many sources as possible. So it's really about looking at everything that's coming into the company keeping a check on that and working with partners both CLA the copyright licensing agency where two thirds of our income is derived from international partners and really talking to everybody and make sure are we okay are you okay is there anything we can do to maximize the return can we help you and all those kinds of things um and the the point of that as well is is to try and make sure that we kept up as the distributions the half field distributions to as high a level as possible um so that that's been really really important. So Owen hasn't exactly I wouldn't say he's been looking down the back of the sofa for uh coins that he might have dropped but it's close um we've really been you know shaking the tree um seeing how we can speed things up um looking at everything we can do to maximize the amount of money that we can distribute to authors and actually the distributions have been terrific it's been really really good uh and the third part is really um looking at costs uh it's it's you know any any business you know you can make a lot of money but if you're spending too much in that process then you know you're not doing a good job. ALCS has always been really really good at keeping its cost to a minimum because that means we can keep the commission rate down and it is one of the lowest commission rates in the world for this kind of um organization. I'm not going to say the lowest just in case someone comes up with another one but uh it is very very low and historically we've kept it low um but we look really hard at all the costs fortunately um everyone working at home means costs are a bit lower anyway for one reason or another um uh expenses are much much lower you know um and that's great because that means you know more money is freed up to um to to pay to to members and also it means that we do have money invested we've got quite a lot of money invested but that's really the ballast of the company that enables us to make good decisions and and keep uh the company going and maintain the staff without having any redundancies because the staff are a terrific resource are hugely experienced a lot of understanding of a very complex business complex partnerships and we need to protect that because we want to keep uh ALCS going for another 40 years paying out another half billion or even more so all of those things you know it it's what I don't I think people don't see you know they get their statements they come to the AGM or or see the newsletter all of that is going on all the time so the team really well led by Owen and Barbara and the rest of the SLT work really hard at keeping all those plates spinning at once and it's not easy but you know um I think they've done a terrific job this year.
SPEAKER_05Yeah and and I mean I know that ALCS has also sort of looked outward as well I mean actually financially contributing to the Authors Emergency fund early on which has really helped some new writers to to get through this time and also supporting other good cause projects um it's about collaboration as well isn't it as well as you sort of putting our our own house in order as it were well like you what I always liked about ALCS from the moment I I arrived and found out about it was that it is it's kind of connected to the world of writers you know we all we're all together you know there are lots of different organizations there are the unions as the Society of Authors and the writers guild and we work very closely with them and we support as many different organizations as we can you know you you you know you've got to get the balance right you could spend a lot of time doing that and and the important part of collecting the money is to give it to our individual members that that's who it belongs to.
SPEAKER_01So we're very conscious of of um being careful in what we support but we do support a lot of really good causes they're the the organizations and causes and awards and prizes that support the writing community that actually help writers to make a living or to spread the word about writing or spread the word about you know the important aspects of everything we do to raise the value of what we do in people's eyes and understanding. So we're always always happy to support good causes uh which support writers and writers organizations. I mean I'm particularly fond of all the awards we do the Educational Writers Award um and uh the CLPE we've helped the Clipper Prize which I'm very fond of you know and the poetry for kids yeah so yeah and and everybody's happy to do that the board loves it we love it um and we we'll make sure that continues now you of course yourself are a writer you're a children's writer very very prolific one um and I wondered uh how this year's been for you because I think for children's writers it's particularly hard because things like school events just haven't happened and so on.
SPEAKER_05Have you managed to find a way to be productive and maybe just say something about how you know your own personal life as a writer um feeds into your work as chair of the LCS board um actually it's interesting I mean it's been a tough year.
SPEAKER_01I mean I I started the year I wrote a couple of books at the beginning of the year a short one for a wonderful company called Barrington Stoke um which I've done a lot for and um a short book for Walker which is connected to another book I've done um called Viking Boy and that was fine and then the lockdown hit and um I'm supposed to be writing a longer book um which was commissioned and I it just ground to a halt just couldn't do it and the plot ran out of puff uh I got really wound up about it um really a terrible study I mean I've written 200 books you know I mean I've just you know for 40 years I've been doing this and I did the full total meltdown you know going downstairs to see my wife that's it my career's over you know I can't do anymore I've finished told the publisher told my agent and they just said yeah calm down Tony another six months you can have another six months so I've I've done all that you know and I know and I've got a lot of mates who are children's writers and um and it's been really tough. I mean the school visits dried up and a lot of children's writers depend on school visits paid visits to keep them going that's where their main source of income is and it just vanished you know and uh there's nothing you can do about it um and that's really really hard so I I see those pressures um I yeah I've I I didn't I've never done a lot of school visits you know enough and I do like them but I've done a lot of virtual school visits this year you know and talk to classes for like 45 minutes or an hour. Done three this week actually and that's fun although it's a bit odd you know I mean I I they tweet the a picture of me afterwards you know and it's some huge huge screen at one end of the classroom with my huge moon face looming over these poor kids you know um so yeah and I I talk to a lot of friends and I've on social media a lot with other mates um and I've it's been tough but actually despite all that some really really really good work has been done some really great books have been uh written this year um all of that does feed into my work as chair of ALCS because I do I do feel after a lifetime as a freelance writer a working life I do understand what it means to be a writer I know all the ups and downs all the all the stresses and strains you know and the the the stuff that people don't see you know the getting stuck on a book when you know you've run out of money and um you've got to finish it because you need to get the rest of the advance in because you've got to pay the bills and you know you've got three lovely little kids sitting around the table saying what's for tea daddy you know and um so uh you know all of that kind of stuff and I do think it's really important to for for whoever is chair of ALCS people who sit on the board is to understand writers and the pressures they're under um and being a good writer I was saving the surprise for the end um I've actually sorted out the plot on the book I was supposed to be writing and um uh I'll I'll get back to it probably just before Christmas and just after and it's going to be the best thing I've ever done. So that that's what we writers do. We survive, we carry on, we stick with it and uh with the support of great organisations and the people who run them like ALCS and the team there who send us money every six months to keep us going we produce brilliant work which is um uh out there for people to enjoy.
SPEAKER_05Tony thanks so much for talking to us for Authors Matters and thank you Caroline it was a lot of fun thank you. And finally in this episode we talk to communications executive Alice Donovan about things ALCS members need to look out for in the near future. Hi Alice so tell us what's coming up that ALCS members need to know about.
SPEAKER_04Hi Caroline uh well we have a deadline coming up that ALCS members should be aware of um our visual deadline at the end of the year um so members need to add any visual contributions they've made that's things like illustrations diagrams photos um to their account by the 31st of December okay great so that's 31st of December for visuals. Anything else in terms of deadlines? I think that's everything for now although we do have a very exciting event coming up that we'd like to invite everyone tool something to look forward to at last what's that then? Well on the 9th of December at 4 pm we'll be hosting the ALCS annual awards virtually of course at this event we'll be announcing the respective winners of this year's ALCS Educational Writers Award which is the UK's only award for creative educational writing and is administered by the Society of Authors. We'll also be presenting the Ruth Rendel Award which celebrates the author who has done the most to champion literacy throughout the UK over the past year and which is administered by the National Literacy Trust. You can find out more details of the event at alcs.co.uk forward slash awards and we hope to see you all there.
SPEAKER_05Fantastic two very worthy awards and a lovely cheerful way on which to end this year. Absolutely thanks so much Alice for updating us. Thanks Caroline We aim to reflect the views of a wide variety of writers on our podcast but their views are of course their own we'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions do drop us a line at communications at alcs.co.uk and please join us next time goodbye