Sophie Kittredge shares 10 lessons from the writing road

I recently heard of an expat author, publisher and illustrator of children’s books. Her name is Sophie Kittredge and her books about dogs are quite beautiful. I asked Sophie to share some of what she has learned from her experience with you here. Over to you, Sophie:

I work as a freelance illustrator. It has, therefore, been a natural progression for me to write and illustrate my own children’s books. I use my childhood travels and family pets as inspiration.
I was born in France, and I grew up in Europe, Southeast Asia, the Far East, and the Middle East. I graduated from Art College in England with a BA in Illustration, then moved to New York City where I worked in the publishing and animation businesses. I now live in coastal South Carolina with my family.

My book series is called ‘Tails around the World’. I have two self-published books in this series and I’m working on the third. The ten lessons I’ve learned along the writing road are: 

1. Writing children’s books is harder than I thought.
2. It’s important to make every word and sentence count when you’re limited to 1000 words.
3. Read your children’s story out loud, because that’s the way it will often be read.
4. Rewrite and get many pairs of eyes to proof your text.
5. Don’t use text to describe an illustration, that’s been done, presumably by the picture.
6. When incorporating foreign words be sure to get a native speaker to proof read. This can avoid embarrassing mistakes!!
7. Although I’ve set my books in the past, I have not attempted to be slavishly historically accurate. That has given me more creative freedom, and fewer headaches!
8. I will probably get a professional picture book editor to look at my next manuscript before I publish it.
9. I did not research the market before making my books, they were made purely for fun and creative pleasure. Next time, I might attempt a more commercial idea.
10. Next time, I will spend more time on the plot. I tend to be very focused on the illustrations, and assume they will carry the weight of the story.