How Do I Manage to Get Compensation from Australian Government while Living in the US? 身在美國 坐吃澳洲福利！

What is the happiest time for an author? It is when you receive "payment advice" from your publisher, or, somewhere else...

Well, these letters of payment advice are from the Australian Government (Department of Communications and the Arts to be exact). I've never understood how it works. My publisher applied it for me, and I just sit here waiting for the money to arrive once every year.

一個作家最開心的時刻到了！接到了來自澳大利亞政府通訊及藝術部的稿費通知！

I heard the basic idea is, because my books are in many public libraries and one copy has been shared by many readers. So it is unfair to the author who only receives the royalty for one copy. So the government pays the authors "public lending right" to compensate us. Quite good policy, right?

確切的說，這不是稿費啦，而是澳大利亞政府付給作者和藝術創作者的補貼，原因是作者的書在圖書館裏被多人同時閱讀，對只收到一本書的版權費的作者和創作者來說，是不公平的，所以澳大利亞政府會根據圖書館的存書量對作者進行補貼。

I have also been paid "Educational Lending Right". I didn't bother to understand what this is, but googled it in order to write this post. So the answer is:

"Australian book publishers or creators—authors, compilers, editors, illustrators and translators—can be compensated for the loss of income through the free multiple use of their work in Australian public and educational lending libraries."

我收到的補貼有兩項，一是「借閱補貼」，二是「教育機構圖書館借閱補貼」。這兩項補貼加起來，已經超過我去年得到的稿費了呢！

Yah, so it must be that many school libraries also have my book in the collection. 

I think they did the right thing. A journalist wrote in a Sydney Morning Herald review that my book "Witnessing History-One Chinese Woman’s Fight for Freedom" "Should be mandatory reading".

這說明除了一般圖書館外，很多澳洲學校圖書館也存有我的書啊。我想他們做的很對！《悉尼晨鋒報》的書評說，我的書《靜水流深》應該成爲政治家和中國問題研究專家的必讀物。

Valerie Pybus, a Past President of both the Society of Women Writers NSW Inc, also said that "This Book Should be Compulsory Reading for the Younger Generation".

澳洲紐省女作家協會前任主席說， 我的書應該成爲年輕一代的必讀物。

看來他們說的話管用了啊。

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Click here for info about where to read or buy Jennifer's book in English and Chinese, as well as where to watch award-winning documentary based on Jennifer''s story: "Free China: The Courage to Believe"

曾錚自傳《靜水流深》及紀錄片《自由中國》閱讀觀看鏈接：

Payment advice