Vanessa on the Fidra blog alerted me to this a week or two ago, quoting an extract from Philip Pullman’s email message to all who signed the “no to age banding” appeal. Philip and Celia Rees were due to meet with publishers’ representatives to discuss this new and seemingly unpopular idea, one day last week.
On Monday Philip sent out a new, long email to the protesters, informally reporting back on what had happened in the meeting. I understand he doesn’t want his email quoted, so I won’t. His suggestion if you want to know what he wrote, is that you sign up at notoagebanding.org.
I’m assuming that there will be a more public report soon, but it seems as if the meeting didn’t solve much, and that both sides just listened to what their opponents thoughts were, yet again. Both sides said the other side were wrong. So, a typical disagreement.
I gathered from the email that Philip had just returned from a conference in Sweden. Wonder which one, and where?
3 responses so far ↓
adele geras // July 9, 2008 at 9:01 |
That’s not quite right,Bookwitch. It seems the publishers are now going to allow authors to have complete consultation. I reckon it’s a victory (with holdouts, there’s no doubt!) for the anti-agebanders, I’m glad to say. I will send you the Bookseller article privately and you can put it up if you think it worth while.
bookwitch // July 9, 2008 at 9:06 |
Yes, the email said something like that, but Philip didn’t seem convinced that it meant anything useful. As I’m avoiding quoting, it’s hard to say more.
I would guess the Bookseller article you refer to is different, but would love to see it.
bookwitch // July 9, 2008 at 9:12 |
Here is the promised article via Adele:
‘The Publishers Association has confirmed that authors will be consulted individually about the inclusion of age guidance on their covers. The PA met with the Society of Authors at a meeting last week, following author opposition to age guidance on children’s books. In a joint statement, the associations said “publishers were happy to confirm that there has been, and remains, no question of age guidance being added to a book without full consultation with the author”.
However, publishers and authors remain opposed over who should have the final say as to whether or not age guidance is included on a cover, “those speaking for authors feel[ing] strongly that authors should have the right to refuse to have age guidance on their books”.
Further information about the consultation process is expected later today.
The statement in full read as follows: “At a meeting involving the Publishers Association, the Society of Authors, and Philip Pullman (on behalf of the signatories of the online statement), the publishers were happy to confirm that there has been, and remains, no question of age guidance being added to a book without full consultation with the author. The remaining point of difference, which is to be considered further, was that those speaking for authors feel strongly that authors should have the right to refuse to have age guidance on their books.”‘
It was the term “full consultation” that Philip reckoned meant something rather different than you might otherwise expect.