Grading a book-Where to start?

To arrive at a grading system that takes into account every aspects of a book-from conceptualization to its final reading- is easier said than done. The final product that a reader has in hand goes through a long gestation period. It passes through several stages that somehow affect its character. Each stage plays an important role in shaping the final outcome.

In this article, I would briefly point out each step that has a role in making a book. In the subsequent articles, I would explore each of them in great detail in order to find out their real importance and how they affect a book-positively or negatively. I would also try to arrive at a grading system that takes into account each of them and in turn remains true to the book.

Let us start the journey.
The book that you read travels a lot through different stages. What are these stages?

1. Demand for a book in the market
2. Editor(s) visualize a book or a goes ahead by visualizing a full series (more true in the case of children's books)
3. Hunt for an author
4. Editor meets an author
5. Author writes the manuscript
6. Manuscript goes through intense scrutiny
7. Manuscript is corrected
8. Manuscript is send back to the author
9. Manuscript again goes through intense scrutiny
10. The final correction
11. Layout is decided
12. Images are hunted
13. Text and images are placed
14. Spreads are sent to the author
15. He gives his final remark
16. Copyediting of the manuscript
17. Final crosschecking of the facts and text
18. Proofreading done
19. Final correction
20. Book is published
21. Book is graded
22. Book is marketed
23. Readers buy and read
24. They make their final comment

These steps more or less suffice the entire book making process. I may have left one or two steps here and there, but all in all these are the major steps through which a book passes and becomes a book. We will talk about them in great detail in my subsequent articles.

Cheers
Kundan

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

Grading a book-why and how- II

The difficulty with a single line of text, the things that it states and hides and the effects that it can have on reader were discussed in the previous post. In this part we will talk, in brief, about the use of an image.

It is believed that use of image or images are vital in children's books. They collaborate with the text and make the reading interesting and understanding easy. However, using an image(s) creates several problems.

Let us take an example:
To collaborate with the text 'Butterfly is an insect', we need an image. Remember, the age group of our book is 3 to 5. Now we have to think on several issues before finalizing an image:

1. nature of the image, i.e. whether it would be a photograph, or illustration, drawing or a cartoon
2. If it is a photograph then whether it should be a cutout or include surroundings. Which butterfly will be used in the photograph? Whether the background should be the natural habitat or something else?
3. If we are using the drawing, what should be the color of the butterfly, what should be the angle of projection, which part of the life should the drawing depict?
4. If we are using cartoons then how true cartoons should be with the reality?

These are some of the problems that we face while using a single image. The problem can continue. How many images do we use in a single spread? What will be the main image and why? How other images should be different from the main image? Should we remain consistent in our layout-throughout the book or throughout the series?

Book making is not an easy job. Problems are many. The article Grading a book-why and how has tried to outline some of the basic problems that we face with two of the fundamentals of a book-text and image. The following articles would deal in detail with each book making process. I would try to find out how these process can and do affect the parameters on which we grade a book.

Cheers
Kundan

Grading a book-why and how-I

Creating books for children is a catch-22 situation. You are forced to restrict the flow of your creativity to match with that of your target group. However, your creativity can't be too chaotic or closed. It has to give the sense of being open and fluid.

In USA, there are several institutions and agencies involved in grading a book. The entire book is throughly studied in terms of the total number of words used, images, illustrations, page layout, page size, use of complex and simple sentences and many other parameters. For example, Fountas and Pinell, the leading book grading agency of USA has developed several similar parameters to grade a book. A book can be graded between Grade A to Z. Grade A being the book for children that are learning to read, while Grade Z being the book for children who are reading to learn.

I have been an editor working on children books for many years. I have been involved in almost every procedure and aspect of making or creating a children book. And I can safely talk on almost every aspect of book making processes. What is the importance of book making processes in grading a book? Are they more important than a book itself? Why do we need to grade a book? What is more fundamental in grading a book-" the teaching experience or the reading experience"? In other words, who should be considered while grading a book-a teacher or a reader? Does grading restricts and limits the entire purpose of making a book? Who can grade a book-those who make or create it, those who read it, those who use it to teach or those who are independent to all aspects of a book?

I would, in several articles, try to answer and find answers of these and many other queries that are important in understanding a book itself. In this article, I would limit myself on understanding the difficulties of grading a book.

One day my managing editor called me and our entire department in the confrence room. He was serious and that indicated that he meant business. He asked all of us to be ready to make a series of books on animals for the children between age group of 3 to 5. I was shocked, 'how can a 3 years old kid read and understand the complex world of animals'. Atleast I never did that. I asked and he replied that books for this age group are made as a refernce book for parents. They read aloud these books to their kids. The idea sound great. Wow! we are involving parents in the reading business.

But what if parents themselves have little idea about the animal world. Lets take an example.
The chapter on butterfly says- "Butterfly is an insect".
The above sentence assumes that the reader (read the parents) knows:

• what an insect is
• that there are the other insects, and
  
• insects are animals.
  

There are many other things that the above sentence assumes:

• that the reader knows that we use an before any word that starts with a vowel
• that the reader knows what the vowel is

There are many things that the above sentence hides:

1. It does not say that there are other butterflies
2. It does not say that insects are animals

to be continues...................

Cheers
Kundan