CPSIA Rules Ease, But Is It Enough?

The CPSIA took effect yesterday amid small fanfare and much confusion. The confusion stems from the applicability of the law, which may have been clarified substantially, at least for books, by guidance put for this week. According to the guidance, the law does not apply to books published after 1985, as long as they are not intended primarily for play, or have not been altered or processed in any way that might introduce lead.

In addition, vintage childrens' books that, because of their age and value, are no longer intended for children, are exempt. All other books intended primarily fall under the auspices of the law. Apparently, ink in childrens' books used to contain lead. However, according to this article, the lead would have to be ingested somehow for it to effect childrens' health.

This guidance will assist bookstores and many other organizations, but libraries, whose budgets are suffering from the economic downturn, may suffer disproportionately. In particular, libraries in poorer areas and school districts that lack the budget to turn over their books more regularly. The question is, how many of those books are more than 24 years old? The answer will become apparent based on the number of empty shelves in the coming weeks.

In summary, while this act still needs to be improved, some reasonable accommodations have been made. Here's hoping future changes will continue to add sanity to a necessary law.

And now the news...
Publishing and the Economy
HarperCollins lays off employees, closes division -- The bleeding continues as HC announces a layoff of a "small percentage" of it staff and closes its non-fiction division.

More details on HarperCollins layoffs -- Several editors and a PR director were let go.

Kindle/e-Books
Authors Guild Questions Kindle 2 Audio Feature -- The new Kindle will read your book for you. But that may present an intellectual property issue.

Battle Brewing Over Electronic Books -- Amazon appears to be modeling the Kindle business approach after Apple's iPod, but that may not work.

Self-Publishing
Be Your Own Book Publisher -- Createspace.com publishes your book on demand for free. You get a cut for each copy sold.

Osprey Launches Self-Publishing Offer -- The new service, AuthorHouse, is aimed at military writers. Unfortunately, it's a British publisher.

Publishing News -- 1/13/2009

The Cost of e-Books
Last weekend, I interviewed Lori Perkins of Ravenous Romance on FWA Radio. Ravenous Romance publishes erotica e-books for low prices, considering that the costs of raw materials and logistics don't figure into the price of the book.

Unfortunately, must of the rest of the industry isn't following that model. There's been early disappointment in the prices of e-books and other materials. For instance, to download the New York Times to your e-reader, you'd spend 75 cents. To buy Stephanie Meyer's latest on Amazon, you'd shell out $12.64. The e-book costs $11.38, a savings of $1.26. At that savings rate, your Kindle will pay for itself after you read about 270 books.

Granted, the Stephanie Meyer book is heavily discounted in Amazon, but still, unless it's a loss leader, someone's paying the cost of materials and logistics. You might tend to agree with me, but this blog article (Why e-books are so expensive) provides a different viewpoint.

Other News
Freelancing and Article Writing
Your Article Resource Box Must Promise a Strong Benefit -- If you're writing an online article and you include a resource box, fill it with as much useful content as your article.

Ten Tips for Moving from Part-Time to Full-Time Freelancing -- It would be so nice to ditch the j-o-b for a writing life. Here's a list of things you have to do first.

How I Make Money Blogging -- Blogging can be like freelancing online. And you can make good money at it, if you monetize your work. Here are some good tips.

Marketing Your Work
Gimme a "Mama" to Go -- An author set part of her novel in a diner. Now the diner sells her book.

Online Promotional Tools for Writers -- -- Blog post that highlights a website with free promotional tools.

Publishing and the Economy
Major Investor Drops B&N Stock -- Persching Squary Capital sells its 11.8 percent stake because of dropping sales numbers.

The Craft
Every non-fiction book needs an index: here's why -- An index created by a professional--not by a program--is your best bet if you want a high-quality non-fiction book.

Characters, Sex, and the Characters They Have Sex with -- It's bound to come up in something you write, so here's some Q&A about this potentially uncomfortable subject.

Self-Publishing
The First Self-Publishing Success Story of 2009? -- Notes Left Behind details notes hidden around the house by a six-year-old cancer victim that were found after she died.

Social Media
If you are laid off, here's how to socially network yourself to a new job -- 19 very solid tips for using social networking to get a new job.

New Publishing Directory for Twitter -- If you ever wanted to Tweet someone in the world of publishing, now you can!

New Media Venture Turns Bloggers into Print Journalists -- The Printed Blog will publish twice a day with local blog content. It will be available in Chicago, San Fransisco, and New York.

Publishing News -- 1/10/2009

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Program Note: Dani Greer of Blogbooktours will appear next weekend on FWA Radio. Stay tunes for schedule information.

CPSIA: Major issue for Childrens' Publishing
Before a week ago, I'd never heard of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This week, its presence has become big news. Although doomsaying usually occurs before new regulations take effect, this time the hand-wringing could be valid. The CPSIA includes provisions aimed at protecting children from lead paint in toys, a laudatory goal. But the CPSIA required testing for each unit produced of any item that might be aimed at children, even if all the components were certified as lead-free. The penalties are stiff, a $100,000 for each individual item put on shelves, and five years in prison. Also, the law is retroactive. At the very least, this act will drive the price of childrens' books up and reduce reading by those who need to do it most.

Here are some relevant links:

Save the Children's Books: The CPSIA is a Road to Hell, Paved with Good Intentions --Publishers and authors are being wrongly targetted by this law which requires each print run to be tested.

Industry Scrambling to Comply with Child Safety Act -- The CPSIA is intended to protect children from lead in toys. But its application to books could be misguided and publishers promise it will be devastating.

Book burning on Feb. 10 Because of CPSIA? -- The new rules require testing on each unit, even when all the component products are certified as lead-free. The penalty? Up to $100,000 per item and five years in prison.

Marketing Your Work
How to Get Involved in Online Book Promotion -- Finding blogs that apply to your work is a magnificent first step.

Ghost Queries: Friend or Foe -- Nathan Bransford, an agent at Curtis Brown, isn't heavily against them, but says the query should capture the author's voice.

#88 (Another query letter critique) -- Critique from blog that takes and critiques query letters.

Publishing and the Economy
B&N Reports Decline in Holiday Sales -- Megabookstore reports 5.2% drop from last year. More troubling, website sales dropped 11%.

Pantheon Book Publisher Released -- Janice Goldklang, publisher at Pantheon was laid off in Random House restructuring after 25 years at the company.

AJC Drops Books from Arts Section Title -- The paper promises no significant content changes, but readers aren't so sure.

Self-Publishing
Author Solutions Acquires Xlibris -- Union of self-publishers accounted for 19,000 titles in 2008.

Digital Publishing
Digital Download Skyrocket at Libraries -- Online book source reports 76% increase in traffic over last year.