If you're a Canadian author, illustrator or photographer with a published book, it's time to register for the Public Lending Right Program. PLR is a Canada Council for the Arts program that distributes payments to Canadian creators to compensate them for the lending out of their books through Canadian public libraries.

This year's registration period runs from February 15 to May 1. In order to register, you'll need to fill out and mail in a signed registration form along with photocopies of the title page, copyright page and table of contents of the book or books you've contributed to. But it's worth the effort -- last year the average payment sent out to registrants was $568.

For details on eligibility criteria or the application process, see the Public Lending Right Program's website.