Legal deposit is the requirement to give free copies of your book to the national libraries. It applies to every publication in the UK, whether or not it has an ISBN, whether you sell one copy or a thousand, and whether it’s printed or electronic.
There are two parts to it:
- One copy to the British Library — always. Within one month of publication. No exceptions.
- Five more copies — usually. These have to be requested rather than sent automatically, but in practice most registered books do get a request.
It’s worth budgeting six free copies plus postage when you plan your print run. Most authors only find out about the five when the request lands.
1. The British Library copy
Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, the British Library is entitled to one free copy of every publication within one month of the day it’s published. The copy you send must be “of the same quality as the best copies” you’ve produced for sale; so send a normal finished copy, not a proof or a second.
Send it to:
Legal Deposit Office The British Library Boston Spa Wetherby West Yorkshire LS23 7BY
If your book is an e-book
You can deposit electronically or simply post a printed copy to the address above, if one exists.
If you publish in both print and electronic formats
Deposit the printed copy. The British Library treats print as the default format, and you don’t need to supply an electronic version unless a legal deposit library requests it and has confirmed it can process digital content. See the British Library’s legal deposit guidance for the current position.
Depositing an e-book electronically
If you’d rather deposit electronically, email us and we’ll handle the submission. We need a single zipped archive containing two files, named as follows:
- Metadata in ONIX 2.1 or ONIX 3.0 format, saved as
.xml - Content in EPUB, or PDF if no EPUB version exists, saved as
.epubor.pdf - Both files zipped together into one archive per publication
Use the ISBN as the filename prefix throughout. For ISBN 9781784128265, that means 9781784128265.xml and 9781784128265.epub, zipped into 9781784128265.zip.
Don’t have software that generates ONIX files? We can create one for you.
2. The five additional copies
Five other legal deposit libraries are served by the Agency for Legal Deposit Libraries (ALDL) in Edinburgh. They aren’t sent copies automatically (they have to request them within 12 months of publication), but most registered books do receive a request.
The request will come from us, not from the ALDL. We will email you to confirm which of your books has been requested and what to do next. So there’s nothing to do until you hear from us.
If you do receive a request, you’re legally required to supply five free copies. They go to Edinburgh, not to the British Library:
Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries Unit 21 Marnin Way Edinburgh EH12 9GD
You can send them without waiting
Since most registered books eventually receive a request, you’re welcome to post the five copies directly to the ALDL at the same time as your British Library copy. It costs you the same six books either way, and it means the whole obligation is dealt with in one trip to the Post Office rather than resurfacing months later.
3. Publishing in Northern Ireland? One more copy
If your book is published in Northern Ireland, you have an additional obligation that authors in England, Scotland and Wales don’t: you must also deposit a copy with Trinity College Dublin, the legal deposit library for the island of Ireland.
This is on top of your British Library copy and any ALDL request; not instead of them. Authors elsewhere in the UK have no obligation to Trinity College.
Legal deposit requirements at Trinity College Dublin.
More information
Where this fits
Just received your ISBN and working out what to do with it? See our step-by-step instructions.
Still planning your print run and pricing? Read our guide to self-publishing; legal deposit copies are part of the arithmetic.
Not sure whether something applies to you? Get in touch; we’re happy to help.