The age-banding debate continues across the Pond. A report in The Guardian yesterday says that the Publishers' Association issued a statement indicating that there is "no question of age guidance being added to a book without full consultation with the author." Banding critic Philip Pullman says that's insufficient: "Our point of view remains that consultation is not enough. We could consult and consult to the point of nausea and publishers could still turn around and insist that a book be banded."
Opponents point to one book (Keith Gray's Ostrich Boys) which was already released with a "13+/teen" logo on it against Gray's wishes. Publishers' Association secretary Kate Bostock called that "a dreadful in-house mistake," and said that Gray has been the only author thus affected. She told the paper that consultations are continuing.
I agree with Pullman; scrap the whole business.
