A while ago, I started a new children’s ghostwriting project, and the client recommended that I read a book she wanted her book to be based on.
The client raved about the picture book. So, I bought the Kindle version and read it.
I’ll start with the positives:
1. The illustrations were colorful and fun.
Now onto the negatives:
1. While the book was written to help children overcome emotional issues, it was misleading. The main character was miraculously healed in one day.
I’ve written for enough child psychologists and therapists to know that overcoming emotional issues takes time and work. It's essential that the child and parents are aware of this.
How it should basically work: There’s a struggle. The child moves forward, then there are setbacks. The child moves further along with more setbacks, then there is forward movement, possibly with more minor setbacks, until he is finally able to handle his symptoms.
It’s not wise or professional to give children and parents false expectations.
2. There were grammatical errors, including missing periods at the end of sentences and missing quotation marks. And there were some poor word choices used.
3. The book is described as ‘lightly rhyming’.
I’ve never heard that phrase before, and I don't know what it’s supposed to mean.
The book was mainly rhymed, although some of the rhymes was forced. And, notice I said “mainly rhymed.” A couple of paragraphs weren’t rhymed. I’m guessing the author couldn’t come up with a rhyme for those paragraphs, so left them as they were.
Important tip: Either you rhyme right or you shouldn’t rhyme.
4. There was a lot of telling.
Telling is when the author 'tells' the reader what's going on rather than showing him through action, dialogue, senses, and details.
5. The formatting was off.
In one or two spots, I had to read the page over a couple of times to make sense of it and figure out who was speaking. And page-wise, it was much shorter than a standard picture book.
There are industry standards for a reason - children’s writers should adhere to them.
6. The back cover copy wasn’t professionally written, and the sales page author info wasn’t professionally written.
Summing it up.
This isn’t about slamming an author’s book, it’s just that it was too easy to quickly know that this was self-published.
That’s never a good thing. It’s these types of books that perpetuate the stigma of self-publishing.
While it’s easy to send a book out into the world, the quality of the book should never be sacrificed for speed of publishing or the money to have the book professionally edited and formatted.
While many authors may slack off when it comes to quality, we shouldn't let that happen when writing for children. As children’s authors, we should set the standard high… and keep it there.
The takeaway of this article is that if you’re going to self-publish a book, please take the time to do it right. Put in the time and effort, and spend the money to, at the very least, have it professionally edited and properly formatted.
I’m a working children’s ghostwriter, rewriter, and coach. I can help turn your story into a book you’ll be proud to be the author of, one that’s publishable and marketable.
