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.