Authors wants cut of second-hand sales

Leading authors including A.S. Byatt are demanding a cut from second-hand sales reports The Times. Second-hand sales are booming on websites such as Amazon and in charity shops such as Oxfam, but authors don't make a penny in additional royalties.

Dame Antonia Byatt has called for new rules to protect novelists using a system known as droit de suite, which guarantees artists a payment for each subsequent sale of their work. The rule is already scheduled to be introduced for visual art next year to ensure that painters receive a payment for second-hand sales of their work.

“Droit de suite is a very good way to protect us,” she said. “I hope they do something because earnings for an author can be absolutely pitiful.”