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Age ranging a step closer?

29.11.07 Caroline Horn

Including age guidance on children's book jackets has been a contentious issue for many years now and consensus has been hard to achieve. Arguments in favour of bringing children's books in line with age-ranged toys and clothes are weighed against the fact that children develop individually as readers.

Finally, however, the children's publishing industry could be on the verge of a breakthrough and a decision to back age ranging on children's books looks likely. It has taken two years of research and more debate to reach this point, but the momentum towards a system of age classification now seems unstoppable. A systematic approach to age ranging on covers could be in place as early as next spring.

The opposition has simply been overwhelmed by the loud vote in favour of age ranging by consumers themselves, says Elaine McQuade, md of Scholastic UK and chair of the Children's Group of the PA. "Many people in the industry have opposed the idea of age ranging but have had to think again once they have seen the results of this research."

The research process has included three main phases, including research among booksellers, adult buyers and children themselves, carried out over the last two years. An early study among retailing chains and independents in 2005 provided the first indication that booksellers on the shop floor were largely in favour of age ranging with 82% of 175 respondents agreeing that age ranging by publishers would be "fairly or very helpful" to them.

The next phase of research among adult consumers was carried out by Acacia Avenue in autumn 2006 and included focus groups, workshops and 500 telephone interviews. Some 86% of the adult consumers questioned, including parents, grandparents and other gift buyers, thought age ranging was a good idea, with just 8% opposed to it. Another 40% of adults questioned in the research said that they would buy more books if books were age-ranged.

Consumers say yes

The results confirmed that, while many parents are comfortable choosing books for their children, other gift buyers are less certain and that uncertainty prevents many of them from purchasing children's books. Fiction was the hardest category to buy and the groups that found most difficulty in buying children's books were the light children's book buyers (buying one to five books a year), non-working adults and low socio-economic groups.

"The feedback showed that people wanted to buy children books and felt an emotional reward in doing so that they did not feel when buying DVDs and video games as gifts," says McQuade. "But they were anxious about getting it right. They wanted more support.

This confirmed an earlier finding by Book Marketing Ltd that gift buyers were pre-disposed towards buying books for children but found the process of buying books difficult.

Publishers emphasise that age ranging children's books is not a panacea to the whole question of expanding the market. "Books are not pyjamas and are not as simple to classify," says McQuade. "Age guidance on book covers will never replace the hand-selling of children's books, nor will it replace knowledgeable retailers. It simply says that aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents, need more help."

The consumer research has also helped to define what kind of age guidance would work best. "There was a strong feeling against using age bands, which would restrict the choice of books, and in favour of open-ended age ranges," says McQuade. Rather than "six to eight years", consumers wanted a simple "6 plus". Publishers are now considering a system that would apply a specific starting age on fiction from 6 plus to 12 plus. The guidance would also be quite discreet, a small black and white number placed near the bar code on the back cover of a book.

Children's perspective

Having established that adult buyers would like to see age ranging on children's books, and how they would like it applied, publishers then turned to children themselves. How would young readers feel about seeing a recommended age on a book cover-especially if a child was much older than the recommendation given?

This next round of research was handled by Rapport and was completed online. It included 230 girls and boys aged seven to 12 years. Each age group (seven-year-olds, eight-year-olds etc) was divided into two groups. Both groups in each age band were shown the same book covers with a synopsis and were asked to pick their favourite titles in order of preference. The books in one group included age guidance on the jacket, but not in the other group.

The researchers found that 85% of the children selected the books aimed at their age group as their favourites, irrespective of whether there was any age guidance on the cover. The other 15% selected books that were aimed at slightly older or younger readers. These included untypical examples, such as a football book aimed at children aged 9 plus which was also picked by readers aged 12 plus. Clearly, children would not be put off reading a book by numbers on the back of the jacket.

Retailers respond

The findings from both surveys have been strong enough to convince publishers that they need to take the debate further. The research findings are now being shared with both groups and discussions on how best to proceed are ongoing.

McQuade says: "Retailers need to be actively involved in the process, particularly as they have already done a significant amount of work in categorising children's books themselves."

Wayne Winstone, Waterstone's children's category manager, says: "We already classify books into age ranges so, from our point of view, systematic age ranging is less of a value to specialist booksellers than to non-specialists like supermarkets." The store would continue to use its own shelf categorisation, with or without the publishers' system, but Winstone believes it could still help the stores to sell more books. "Some people find bookshops intimidating and need more assistance, especially when they are buying for other people's children."

Many independent specialists remain vehemently opposed to age ranging, arguing that it would stigmatise children with lower reading abilities and dissuade adults from buying books that they might otherwise have done. Sonia Benster of the Children's Bookshop (Huddersfield) says: "I can see how age ranging would support non-specialists and the chains and may help publishers drive sales. But you also run the risk of putting children off picking up books because the age range is too young, and of aspirational parents buying books that are too old for their child."

The introduction of age ranging on books is not yet an open and shut case argues Mike Richards, head of marketing and publicity at Egmont Press. "It is a consensus issue and we have yet to speak properly to authors and retailers. Publishers are on the whole pretty closely aligned with the findings although there are still many different shades of opinion."

A publishers' working party has been established to discuss the main issues involved in creating a standardised system, including how books are classified for specific age ranges, how that definition is applied consistently, and how to encourage smaller publishing houses to adopt any agreed system.

Sales not lost

Many of these questions are still being debated. One of the main concerns is whether books are defined by interest level or reading level. The research among gift buyers showed that consumers wanted to know whether or not a child would be able to read a book. However, for companies like Barrington Stoke that create books aimed at older readers with lower reading abilities, assigning a reading level would simply not work.

Jane Walker, marketing director at Barrington Stoke, says: "The cover and subject matter [of our books] can be sophisticated but the length of the story and the font may imply, to the uninitiated, that the books might be for younger children." An interest level, rather than reading ability, would be more appropriate in here. For general publishers, too, interest level guidance would ensure that the market for sharing books with children was also addressed. Stephanie Barton, publishing director for Ladybird, says that the working party is exploring another term, "suitability', for that age range which fuses interest level and reading ability.

Other book categories may also raise difficulties, including picture books, character books and non-fiction says Winstone. "Picture books can be appropriate for children from 18 months to seven years and non-fiction and homework help books can also appeal to a broad spread." The working party is still exploring these areas. Barton says: "We have discussed picture books and the general feeling was that the age guidance could be extended downwards to 3 plus, 4 plus, and 5 plus."

Since the consumer research indicated that adults found it easier to buy books for younger children, the issue of age guidance is less contentious for preschool titles. In the recent Richard & Judy Children's Book Club programme, Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort was categorised as 5 plus. Its publisher, Simon & Schuster, would normally target the title at a much younger age range but the older classification hasn't dented sales says marketing and publicity director Elisa Offord. "The book has sold more than any other in the show-4,000 copies a week."

Once a system and definitions are agreed, the next difficulty would be in applying it consistently. Winstone says: "One of my main concerns is that books are classified correctly. We already get information from Nielsen Book Data that is not properly classified." This would require more involvement from editorial departments, both in applying appropriate age guidance ensuring that the synopsis of a title properly explains its content and age-appropriateness to the buyer.

While issues like these continue to be debated, the research makes it much harder to oppose age ranging on covers. As McQuade says: "If a consumer picks up a book for a seven year old and it says eight years plus on the cover, the consumer might put the book down-but they will probably look for another that is appropriate for a seven year old. Age ranging won't cost the industry sales."


ADULT BUYERS OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS

  • 50% buy fewer than five children's books a year
  • 45% are parents
  • 71% were friends or close relatives, including granparents and aunts and uncles
  • 88% find it easy to buy books as gifts, compared to 59% for computer games
  • 86% think a book is a great present for children
  • 81% feel pleasure when buying books for children
  • 31% find buying books for children a "bewildering experience"
  • 66% are concerned about buying a book as a present that is unsuitable for the child's age
  • 39% are put off buying books if they can't decide what age the book is for
  • 49% are more likely to buy books if they carry "suitability of content" guidance

Research by Acacia Avenue

Flagship Feature Caroline Horn children's age ranging

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