“We are asking the state to help protect us from the relentless pressures of the market, to which we have long been exposed as the most vulnerable link in the publishing industry,” the author organization said, in a statement.

By Jaroslaw Adamowski, Contributor

The Polish Literary Union, the country’s leading writers’ association which counts Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk among its members, has launched a campaign to require  local publishers to pay authors list price royalties—a minimum of 10% of a book’s cover price— instead of its selling price, as net royalties.

The association is in talks with Polish authorities to include a relevant provision in a draft bill proposed by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage designed to protect the Polish book market.

“The Polish Literary Union is launching the 10% campaign, inspired by an initiative created by French children’s authors affiliated with the La Charte association. We are calling for the introduction of a statutory minimum royalty rate for writers. This is neither a radical nor an unfounded proposal,” the organization said in a statement. “In Poland, both salaried employees and people working under civil-law service contracts are guaranteed a statutory minimum wage. Yet when our readers learn that an author in Poland earns just PLN 2.87 [or $0.76] from the sale of a single book, they usually react with disbelief.”

In the association’s view, very few authors active in the Polish market receive royalties that amount to 10% of a book’s cover price.

“For debut authors, in particular, such a rate remains virtually unattainable. As a result, we often receive less than PLN 5 from a book that a reader purchases for PLN 50,” according to the statement. “We believe the time for change has come. In recent years, lawmakers have increasingly extended legal protections to the most vulnerable categories of workers, recognizing that they are often unable to protect their own interests.”

While rare in Poland, a 10% royalty rate is considered standard in numerous European countries, including Germany and Spain, among others, according to data collected by the Polish Literary Union.

“We, authors, remain outside that protection. We want to make one point absolutely clear: we are not asking for public money. We are asking the state to help protect us from the relentless pressures of the market, to which we have long been exposed as the most vulnerable link in the publishing industry,” the organization said. “It is time for the same standards to apply in Poland. Experience has shown us that appeals and requests alone are ineffective, which is why we are convinced that without legal safeguards, our situation will not change.”

Publisher Concerns

Meanwhile, acclaimed writer and publisher Mariusz Szczygieł, who heads the Polish nonfiction-focused publishing house Dowody, has stated that the measure could push certain publishers out of business, particularly smaller outlets that specialize in more ambitious literary works and emerging authors. This is because numerous industry players are already struggling to stay financially afloat, according to Szczygieł.

“For many years, we signed contracts with our authors that provided royalties calculated as a percentage of the cover price (a fixed price that guaranteed authors at least a minimum sense of financial security—something the Union has been fighting to preserve),” he said in a social media post.

The author said that, as a writer, he understands that, at their current levels, royalties often do not permit Polish authors to make a living from their work as writers. He also believes there is a need to introduce more transparency into the dealings between authors, publishers, and distributors. At the same time, Szczygieł suggests, niche publishers such as Dowody often subsidize the publication of unprofitable releases with revenue generated by bestselling titles.

“At a time when almost all publishers switched to royalties based on the selling price (a variable price that depends on who the publisher sells books to and at what discount), we remained, as far as I know, the only publisher to continue using the cover price as the basis for royalties,” Szczygieł added. “Some time ago, however, in order to stay afloat, we fell into line with everyone else and abandoned royalties based on the cover price in favor of the industry standard.”