Making time to get your ALCS admin done matters. On the third week of March each year, thousands of UK freelance journalists get super excited for ALCS reveal Monday. That’s when you find out how much you’ve earned from organisations photocopying your work. Once you know your number, it’s in your bank account by Wednesday. Just like magic!
But not all professional writers are even doing annual ALCS admin, as they’re not signed up. ALCS cannot claim on your behalf if they don’t know about your work.
My biggest ever ALCS payout came during the pandemic when I really needed it, but being a freelance healthcare and medical journalist means the March payments are nearly always pretty good to me.
Creating an ALCS admin habit
The key to ALCS being able to claim for your work is threefold. Firstly, you need to register with ALCS. It’s very straightforward. Secondly, your work has to have been published in a UK title that has an ISSN number. Many print titles that are now digital would fall into this category. And thirdly, you need to add your entries before November 30 each year.
If you don’t know whether a title has an ISSN, ALCS has a search function. What else? You can claim for work from the previous three years. And, ALCS’s claims-based system works a year behind. For example, in 2026, we will be adding work entries for 2025, and 2024 and 2023.
Some journalists upload the titles and details of their work each month over the year. While others (like me!) do it all in the one lengthy but worthwhile ALCS admin session.
If you’re thinking of joining, ALCS has created a very handy guide. And, if you need a little more convincing – in the latest March 2026 distribution, ALCS paid 112,111 members a combined total of £34,137,132. Don’t miss out – doing ALCS admin pays!
Thank you, ALCS – you are a real treasure for us freelancers.
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash