If, like Time Magazine, B.C. BookWorld were to select a Man-of-the- Year, our choice would be Mission City writer Andreas Schroeder.

In June Schroeder stepped down from heading the Writers Union of Canada's long and successful drive for Public Lending Right legislation. Working tirelessly and efficiently behind the scenes, Schroeder has now left in place a system that will benefit over 5,000 Canadian authors annually.

Schroeder kept administrative costs down to less than 9% of budget. A similar PLR system in West Germany spends 39.4% on administration. In Canada the average government bureaucracy spends approximately 18% on administration.

Literally hundreds of authors have written letters of appreciation to Communications Minister Flora MacDonald for the $3.8 million program. "She really put her political muscle behind it," says Schroeder.

Schroeder had to lobby desperately for an eleventh hour increase in funding to match a 28% increase in eligible registered (5,200) Canadian authors with over 19,000 titles listed on the PLR's data base. 713 B.C. writers received 14% of the funds for 12.1% of the eligible titles. The average PLR payment was $660.

[BCBW Summer 1988]