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CPSIA Update: Book Community Calmer and Compliant, But Still Confused
A little over a month after the first key provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act went into effect things have calmed down significantly. New and used booksellers, libraries and publishers continue to lobby Congress and the Consumer Products Safety Council for an exemption for books, and they are still confused about many of the Act’s provisions. In the meantime, however, they have taken steps to comply.
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The Good Old Days
We asked some industry veterans to share memories of what publishing was like “back in the day."
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CPSIA Enforcement Waived for Post-1985 Books
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has outlined its enforcement policy for the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. While consumer products for children 12 and under cannot contain more than 600 parts per million of lead in any accessible part, the Commission said it would “not impose penalties against anyone for making, importing, distributing or selling” a list of specified products, including “an ordinary children’s book printed after 1985.”
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CPSIA Stay Provides Relief But Not Reform
Last Friday’s one-year stay of enforcement of the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 has caused many in the publishing industry to breathe a sigh of relief. Even with only about a week left until the testing and certification provisions of the Act were to kick in, many publishers were still struggling to figure out how to comply without costs becoming dangerously high.
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CPSC Delays Enforcement of CPSIA Testing Requirements for One Year
On Friday, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comission approved a one-year “stay of enforcement” for certain testing and certification requirements for manufacturers and importers of products for children 12 and under, including books, as dictated by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. At the same time, however, the products must still be “safe,” as per the Act’s requirements, starting on February 10, 2009.
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The 2008 Cuffies
For our annual “Off the Cuff” awards, we asked retailers for their picks in a variety of categories. The winners (and selected bookseller comments) appear below.
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The Very Latest on CPSIA and Books
The children’s book industry continues to intensify its efforts to push for an exemption from the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act. The Act, which goes into effect February 10, requires all products for children 12 and under—including books—to be tested for lead.
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Eeyore's Alums Look Back
Camilla Corcoran, now a national account manager with HarperCollins Children’s Books, recently attended a reunion with her former co-workers at Eeyore’s Books for Children in New York City, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the store’s closing.
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WestSide Books Prepares for Its Debut
Come spring 2009, there will be a new player in the world of YA fiction: WestSide Books will publish its first list starting next February.
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Kids' Stores Grow Up
The 1970s and '80s saw a burgeoning of children's specialty bookstores. Many started small. In fact, the first location for Booktenders Secret Garden in Doylestown, Pa., was so tiny that author/illustrator Stephen Kellogg dubbed it “the enchanted closet,” recalls owner Ellen Mager. She bought the store, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, after it had been open only...
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Kensington Grows Its Children's Offerings
With the addition of three imprints in two years, Kensington Publishing is working to expand its presence in the children’s market.
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Handprint to Become Chronicle Imprint
Chronicle Books has acquired Handprint Books, and the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based children’s book publisher will become a Chronicle imprint beginning with its fall 2008 list.
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Licensing Hotline: May 2008
There’s plenty of licensing news this month: Grosset & Dunlap signs a license for a new literacy-based PBS series, Harper signs up for the horse-themed property Bella Sara, Hawk’s Nest wins a Major League Baseball license, Brighter Minds acquires two new properties, and Todd Parr creates an Olympic-themed book for Hilton Hotels.
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Spreading Sunshine
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has officially declared May 5—12 to be Project Sunshine Week, in honor of the 10-year-old nonprofit organization that connects hospitalized children worldwide with visiting volunteers, celebrities and others. And one of the group’s new programs, the Project Sunshine Book Club, has close connections to children’s book publishing.
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Ten Years of Children's Books at Sleeping Bear
Sleeping Bear Press, which launched in 1994 as a publisher of regional titles and began publishing children’s books exclusively in 1998, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first children’s release this year.
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Running Press Kids: Five Years Out of the Gate
On its fifth anniversary, Running Press Kids is celebrating its successes in several genres relatively new to its list, including young adult fiction and licensed series. The imprint’s annual output has increased considerably over the past two years, growing from 30 to 50 titles. To mark its five-year milestone, the publisher is giving the list an updated look, creating five new logos to delineate the categories of books that comprise the list.
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Looking Back: The 1974 Macmillan Massacre
Janet Schulman, currently an editor-at-large at Random House, was publisher of children’s books at Random House and Knopf, and marketing director at Macmillan before that. Here she recounts a tumultuous chapter in children’s book publishing that coincided with the legal battle for women’s rights in publishing in general.
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Facts and Figures 2007: Farewell to Harry
“I shall not look upon his like again,” said Hamlet of his departed father, a sentiment that children (and adults) all over the world might express about the end of the Harry Potter saga. Publishers and especially booksellers would surely concur. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final volume in J.
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Roaring Brook Adds David Macaulay Imprint
Roaring Brook Press has signed a deal with author David Macaulay establishing a new imprint, David Macaulay Studio, which will launch in 2011.
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Zondervan Enters YA Market
Zondervan, the evangelical Christian unit of HarperCollins, has announced its entrée into the YA market. The house plans to publish 10 titles per year, with the first books coming this spring. Established authors Melody Carlson, Bryan Davis and Bill Myers will launch the line.
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