Grading a book-understanding the role of market

Let us be very clear! Books are made at publishing houses. The teacher may want a specific book for his/her students or a reader may like a particular book that can satisfy his/her curiosity. But the fact remains that books are made at publishing houses. They may follow certain rules and specifications (this may be different for different publishing houses), which have to be followed before making a book. They may take into account a teacher's need or a reader's curiosity into account while making a book, but they make books for market. Their editors use their brains to utilize the demands of market. All in all, books are made by publishing houses for the market.

My assessment may appear very simplistic or crude or economy dominated. But the force of the market is clearly very dominant in making a book. Each step, each process and everyone involved in making a book works under the influence of market. Even those who grade a book work for market. Their grading may affect the sell of a book, and in turn they are working as a force of the market.

Let me simplify. The publisher makes a book that he or she thinks will the bestseller. He/she does not want to take any chances. So the book is sent to the grading agencies. The publisher has made the book for a particular group of readers. But the grading agency thinks otherwise. It allocates a grade that is different from what was originally planned. What happens? The grade has actually changed the character of the book. This is the top-down view.

Let us consider the down-top view. The publisher knows the parameters on which a particular agency grades a book. He/she makes a book that follows all those parameters. What happens? The grading agency and its parameters have acted as the force of the market and changed the character of the entire process of book-making.

So, for me, in order to understand the grading systems and their parameters, we will have to understand what goes behind the scene while making a book. Any grading system that ignores the forces of market while grading a book undermines the book itself.

Am I ignoring a teacher's requirements or a reader's curiosity? Certainly not. They play a very fundamental role in creating a market. In fact, they provide the very basis on which the foundation of book market is created. They provide the demand for a book, and in turn create a market for the book. They start the very process of making a book. They can never be ignored.

One of the basic flaws of the parameters of the grading agencies is that they assume the reader and the teacher as a homogeneous category. They assume that every 5 year old kid thinks and demands in a similar way. They take it for granted that every primary teacher has the same requirements. This assumption is far from truth. Each kid is different from other. Each teacher thinks and acts differently from his or her counterpart. So a particular grade may restrict the role of a book. We need a grading system that removes all the restrictions on a book and allows it to be different for different readers.

Let us have a grading system that does not limit a book within the boundaries of its parameters. A book can not be limited within boundaries for the simple reason that it assumes different character for different readers. Let us have a grading system that first remains true to the book itself and then forces the book to transcend its boundaries, if it has any. Let us create a boundary-less grading system.

Cheers
Kundan