J.K. Rowling has joined along side several other famous authors against publisher's plans to label children's books with "appropriate" age bands. Jo, along with authors Anthony Horowitz, Terry Pratchett and Alan Garner, have signed the online petition No to Age Banding. The petition argues that age banding books is "ill-conceived, damaging to the interests of young readers and highly unlikely to make the slightest difference to sales."
The initiative comes after research commissioned by the Children's Book Group of the Publishers' Association two years ago suggested that 86% of consumers were in favour of age guidance. While some have questioned the research, the scheme has attracted the support of major children's imprints including Random House, Penguin and Scholastic. From this autumn, book covers of participating publishers will bear a logo indicating they are suitable for readers aged 5+, 7+, 9+, 11+ and 13+/teen.
Market leaders such as Philip Pullman, who launched the notoagebanding.com site, have secured exemption from these plans, and Macmillan books is promising to consult all their authors. But some lesser known names, such as Keith Gray, whose Ostrich Boys has just been published by Random House, are already seeing the brand introduced on their books against their wishes.
Rowling's publisher Bloomsbury currently has no plans to introduce the label for any of its authors, although it has not ruled out the idea. Opposition from Rowling may make them - and other publishers - think again.
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