Poland raises library book payments for writers
Poland’s parliament has approved a copyright overhaul that will double the pool of money paid to writers and publishers when books are borrowed from public libraries, a move that will channel millions of zlotys more into the country’s book market without charging readers a fee.
The decision matters because it raises a long-standing cultural subsidy into a more material income stream for the publishing sector at a time when margins remain thin and print sales are under pressure from digital competition and broader household spending constraints. By lifting the Public Lending Right allocation from 5% to 10% of the prior year’s library acquisitions budget, lawmakers are effectively enlarging a state-backed compensation mechanism that rewards creators for free public access to their work.
According to calculations from the Culture Ministry, total PLR payments came to about 5 million zlotys in 2025. Of that, 3.8 million zlotys went to creators — including authors, translators and illustrators — and 1.2 million zlotys to publishers. Under the new rules, the ministry expects payouts to rise to about 7.6 million zlotys for creators and roughly 2.5 million zlotys for publishers.
For the industry, the money is not transformative in absolute terms, but it is meaningful at the margin. The extra income can help offset lower unit economics in a market where library borrowing competes with retail sales, especially for backlist titles, literary fiction and educational works that tend to circulate for years. For smaller publishers and freelance writers, a higher PLR pool is also a more predictable source of cash than the volatile consumer market.
Readers, meanwhile, will continue to borrow books for free, preserving the public-library model that policymakers were keen not to weaken. That removes the main political obstacle to the change and makes the reform easier to defend as a redistribution from public cultural spending rather than a new tax on access.
The payment system will remain run by Stowarzyszenie Autorów i Wydawców Copyright Polska, which was selected by the Culture Ministry to administer the fund and may retain up to 10% of the award for operating costs. The money itself comes from the Culture Promotion Fund, so the change amounts to a reallocation of public cultural resources rather than a direct hit to consumers or libraries.
For investors and market participants, the key takeaway is that Poland is signaling a greater willingness to support domestic creative industries through public funding. That may not move broader financial markets, but it is relevant for publishers, rights holders and authors who depend on a mix of royalty streams and government-linked compensation. The reform also reduces the risk that the library system becomes a bigger economic drag on rights holders as borrowing remains free and likely to stay popular.
The main question now is whether the higher ceiling is the start of a broader reset in Polish cultural policy or simply a one-off adjustment to keep compensation in line with current economics. Either way, millions of zlotys are now set to flow more directly from the state-backed fund into the hands of Poland’s writers and publishers.
| Entity | Gains | Losses |
|---|---|---|
| Polish writers | ▲Higher royalty income | ▼Lower relative dependence on book sales |
| Publishers | ▲Bigger PLR payouts | ▼Smaller share of a fixed public fund |
| Readers | ▲Free library access preserved | ▼No direct financial benefit from reform |
| State cultural fund | ▲Clearer support for domestic publishing | ▼Higher outlays from the budget-linked pool |