Hong Kong authors seek public lending right so libraries pay royalties on book loans

When well-known comic artist Ma Sing-yuen received thanks from a grateful mother who told him that his books had taken her son deep into the world of reading, he had mixed emotions.

He was excited that his books could have had such a positive impact on a child, yet saddened that the family had not bought any of them - the boy had encountered his books in a library, like many other Hong Kong children have over the years.

"If an author has no income from selling his books, he will lose the incentive to continue creating," Ma said.

He is one of almost 450 local authors lobbying the government to introduce a public lending right law. Such a measure would require public libraries to pay authors who publish books in Hong Kong a royalty - of HK$3 to HK$5 - each time a book is borrowed. Authors have a right to be paid for free public use of their works in libraries, they say.

With smartphones and internet connections ubiquitous, ever-rising inflation and skyrocketing rents, more bookstores had closed and people tended to save their money for other things instead of buying books, Ma said.

In Hong Kong's publishing market, the situation is worsened by the number of public libraries - 67, with 10 mobile libraries - which had further reduced people's desire to buy books, because everyone had a library just round the corner, he said.