Jacqueline Wilson, who next week celebrates 20 million sales of her books, remains the most borrowed author in public libraries. With more than two million loans between July 2003 and June 2004, she is ahead of adult readers’ top fiction choices Danielle Steel and Josephine Cox. The closest competitors among children’s authors on the “most borrowed” chart are Mick Inkpen and Janet and Allan Ahlberg. JK Rowling is not among the top 20 most borrowed authors, but Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the most borrowed title.
The ratings come from figures released today by Public Lending Right, which makes payments to authors for public library loans of their books (at 5.26p a time up to a maximum of pound;6,000). In 2003-04, 18,826 authors shared Pounds 6.55 million; the figure is expected to rise to pound;7.4 million for 2005-06.
