How I Turned £36 into £533.94+

This is a true story about how I turned £36 into over £500 in the course of four years. It dosen’t seem like a lot for the time, but any money growth is a win in my eyes. It’s £500 towards living costs that I wouldn’t have had without the investment. I don’t deal with stocks or investments often, but enjoy reading people’s stories about their experiences with cryptic currencies and stock investments. They all seem very complicated for me, but I commend them for trying.

There are many ways to earn money nowadays. Some money opportunities are better than others. There is a market for everything, even if the market is niche. Writing is one of the popular ways to earn money online, but the hardest to master. Through once you’ve mastered it, it’s the most dependable tool there is. Writing is one of the most valuable skills there is and is needed for almost every kind of job that involves documentation and copy editing.

If you write and publish work on a regular basis, like me, it is worth being a part of a union like The Author’s Society and The Writer’s Guild. These are British organisations but there are companies in other countries as well. If you are already a member of these you can get a lifetime membership with the Author’s Liscencing Collector’s Society (ALCS for short) for free. I found out about ALCS through a writing magazine that I subscribe to. I didn’t know this till after I joined WGGB, but I think the £36 I paid was worth it. They do take fees out of your earnings to keep the place running, but it’s very low so I don’t mind so much.

What I like about being a part of the ALCS is once you’ve paid that £36, that’s it! They don’t take any other payments. They give you money (if eligible for the rest of your life).

Which is why I’m so shocked that so many writers have never heard of ALCS when I mention it. I can imagine many authors can receive a lot more than me if they had joined ALCS.

I joined ALCS four years ago after publishing a small collection and of poetry books. They pay twice a year in March and September. My first payout was around £70. I don’t always get the september payment, but I do end up getting something in March most of the time.

ALCS collect money on your behalf on works you have contributed to. They also work with international resources, so you only need to sign up to ALCS. You would have to declare these by filling in the relevant forms. The Site is easy to use and the forms are easy to fill in. Don’t forget to keep the ISBNs and ISSNs of all the work handy.

They are now trying to create schemes where author’s can get paid if their work is sold second-hand. They have also added a section where authors can claim for blogs and online content they have created. They have been working hard to make sure that authors get the money they are entitled to. This year I received my biggest payout. I’m not sure if I will get a payout in September, but they usually email you if you are due to receive some money.

If for any reason you can’t claim for a peice of work or need proof of something, they will contact you and explain why. At the moment, you can’t claim for things that have been published in newspapers. This might change in the future.

They go over how they do it briefly on their website, but to me it still feels like magic. They collect secondary royalties that I never even thought about. Every time somebody borrows your book from a library. Whenever a school or institution uses a section of your work. All of this eventually adds up to some respectable earnings.