Contributed by Karen Cioffi, Children's Writer
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 of the book:
1. The illustrations were colorful and fun.
Now onto the negatives:
1. Children’s writers have a responsibility.
While the book was written to help children overcome emotional issues, it was very misleading. The 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, though some of the rhymes felt forced. And notice I said, “mainly rhyme.” A couple of paragraphs weren’t rhymed. I’m guessing the author couldn’t come up with a rhyme for those paragraphs, so they were simply left 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 it through action, dialogue, senses, and details.
5. The formatting was off.
In a couple of spots, I had to reread the page 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 'putting down' an author’s book; it’s just that it was too easy to quickly know that this was self-published... and it was unprofessional.
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 the sake of speed in publication or the cost of having it professionally edited and formatted.
What I find especially disappointing is that this author, a professional in her field, has a series of children’s books.
While many authors may slack off on 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, pay to have it professionally edited and properly formatted.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author, ghostwriter, editor, and self-publisher. If you’d like to learn more about writing for children or need help with your story, visit Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi.
You can check out Karen’s books HERE.
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