Reading Grade Level of Children’s Books, Part I

In class, we often discover that participants have written a children’s book and are ready to market it. However, they are unsure of the book’s classification and age range. Following is a frequently used scheme:


Picture book: under 6 years of age
Early reader: 6-7 years of age
Chapter book: 7-8 years of age
Middle grade: 8-11 years of age
Young adult: 12 + years of age


Although a handy guide, it is a bit broad. A more precise identifier focuses on the book’s reading grade level, i.e. the level of complexity and difficulty a student in a particular grade should be able to read comfortably. If your manuscript is a Microsoft Word document, simply pressing a key will give you the manuscript’s reading grade level.


Part II of this thread is a discussion of the function and its use.

Multnomah Publishers

According to today's Publishers Lunch, Random House had a total sales increase in 2006 of 6.5%. The company attributes some of the increase to their acquisition of Multnomah Publishers, located in Sisters.

Way to go, Sisters!!!

More Harry Potter and the End of the Cash Cow

The publisher of the latest Harry Potter book just said that the first printing will be 12 million copies. The announcement suggests two things: the pre-publication sale was successful and the 12 million copies establishes a new world record for first printing. All of that should help keep the buzz going.

Curiously, Barnes and Noble indicated last week that they would probably not make much/any money on the book because of their deep discounting of its price(presumably all editions are being discounted).

So, the question is: who is making money on this deal?

The New Look

One of the interesting things about providing a blog is the need to not only offer interesting content but also to keep the blog "fresh." Keeping it fresh often involves changing the color scheme, new photos and links, etc.

This blog has used the same colors and layout for over a year and I thought it was time for a bit of "freshing," to include the addition of labels. Let me know what you think about the changes.