Finally, a bit of good news for the publishing industry!
Remember my post from two weeks ago detailing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and its potential impact on publishers?
On Friday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a one-year delay to the testing requirements that threatened to render warehouses of books useless.
According to a PW article announcing the delay, all items on store shelves will need to be "safe" as of the February 10 deadline, but proof of third-party testing will not be required until next year and, at that time, may or may not include all books.
The question of requirement has still not been answered for publishing companies, but at least pallets of books will not be tossed to the dumpster come February 10. It's a small victory, and an uncertain one, but it's one that the publishing industry desperately needed amidst news of slow sales, layoffs, and closures.
Now I just hope the CPSC gets their act together sooner rather than later so we aren't faced with the same questions and dilemmas next January, and so that publishers can get forget thinking about potential testing costs and can get back to doing what they do best: publishing safe books for kids.
About Me
- Carole Studebaker
- I'm a grad student pursuing an MS in Publishing at Portland State University. I'm also the co-Marketing Manager for Ooligan Press, the nation's only fully student run publishing company.
2 comments:
I was definitely relieved to hear this news too. While I understand parental concern, these testing requirements clearly didn't apply to the book industry.
I'm surprised there isn't more discussion about this. It could be potentially disastrous but seems like some kind of regulatory typo when it comes to publishing. Does anyone really expect to find dangerous levels of lead in books?
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