BookPeople CEO Charley Rejsek said she has time to read about 30 books a year — but doesn’t have the time to read and rate the thousands of books she might sell to a school, nor does she have the money to pay someone else to.

But a new Texas law might require her to.

Book vendors selling to Texas public schools, ranging from national sellers like Amazon to local bookstores with eight employees, must now rate all the books they sell based on sexual content, according to new legislation signed into law on June 12.

If the book vendor fails to comply with state library standards that will be in place by January 1, 2024, they’d be barred from selling to Texas public schools.

“We’re losing all school business forever. That’s how it’s going to hurt us,” Rejsek said.

The law’s primary author, Republican Texas State Rep. Jared Patterson, said its aim is simple: Get sexually explicit content out of schools.

But the burden of rating these books falls on book vendors. Vendors told CNN this makes complying impossible.

“We’ve never rated books ever,” Rejsek said. “We have no training.”

Patterson said he disagrees: Ultimately, it’s the vendor’s job to rate the books appropriately, he said.

“I don’t care if you’re a small business or a big business; If you’re selling something that’s going to be in the hands of children, you should know whether or not it’s safe for that child to consume,” Patterson said. “The book vendor is the one with the financial relationship with the school district and, so they’re the ones that can most easily be held accountable for this.”

What is the READER Act?

Under the ‘Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Educational Resources’ Act, or the READER Act, vendors that sell books to Texas public schools must assign every title that describes or portrays sexual conduct one of two labels: sexually explicit or sexually relevant.

The law defines sexually explicit books as those containing sexual content that is “patently offensive,” explained in state law as anything that affronts “current community standards of decency.” These books will be banned from school campuses.

The law says that sexually relevant books depict sexual conduct but not necessarily in a way that is “patently offensive.” Students will need a parent’s written consent to check one out.

Shirley Robinson is the executive director of the Texas Library Association, with more than 5,000 members across the state. She called the definitions “very vague.”