Authors in the U.K. are upset that the government may make cuts to the national Public Lending Right, which provides authors with a payment of six pence each time one of their books is checked out from a U.K. library. Jeremy Hunt, the British secretary of state in charge of the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, has been instructed to reduce the department’s budget, and authors are nervous that he might be eyeing PLR as a place to make cuts.

So nervous, in fact, that prominent writers such as A.S. Byatt, Hari Kunzru, Victoria Glendinning, and Ali Smith have added their names to a petition requesting that the government keep PLR, which they say “gives effect to a legal right and is not a subsidy,” intact. The petition goes on to state, “Press coverage tends to focus on a few successful authors, yet most struggle to make ends meet. PLR provides a significant and much-valued part of authors’ incomes.”

Quoted in the Guardian, crime writer Penny Grubb, who also chairs the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (whose website is hosting the online petition), said that the funding review will be a “dog fight,” but called for action to ensure that PLR money remains untouched:

“For many writers PLR payments are a substantial part of their annual income and exceed their income from primary sales,” said Grubb. “With average earnings for writers so low, and with such a short shelf life for books in shops these days, PLR income for many writers is a vital part of their take-home pay.”

Author Trisha Ashley, also quoted in the Guardian, seconds Grubb’s concerns:

My books may be out there in the supermarkets and bookshops, but I still want them to be available to those who can’t afford to buy them, or want to read them in large print. And for that reason and to support the many friends I have whose main source of income is PLR, I signed the form and would be prepared to march with banners, lobby parliament, or do whatever else it takes to keep this vital payment at at least the same level.