At the end of June, the Estonian Authors’ Compensation Fund will pay writers, translators and illustrators lending compensation for 2025. This year, 27 authors earned the maximum amount of €8,368, an increase of €444 from last year.
The 2025 compensation was calculated based on 4,051,004 electronically registered loans in public libraries.
The compensation budget totaled €1,412,360. Of that, €1,402,041 was distributed among 2,115 authors and rights holders, and €10,319 was allocated to collective management organizations for audio and video loans.
The full unit value was €1.48 for authors of original‑language works (including authors of forewords, afterwords and compilers), up from €1.42 last year. For authors of original works in translation, the unit value was €3.28 (up from €2.39). Translators received €0.34 per unit (up from €0.33), and authors of artistic design received €0.71 (down from €0.88).
Maximum payout has increased
Each author’s compensation was calculated based on the number of loans, authorship category multipliers, the number of co‑authors and illustration volume multipliers.
Read more: ERR.EE
