Writing a Children's Book Is Not Easier Than Writing an Adult Book

Many people assume that writing a children's book is easier than writing for adults. The books are shorter, the vocabulary is simpler and the stories look straightforward. In practice, the opposite is often true. A short book gives the writer very few places to hide a dull opening, a confusing story or a sentence that reads well on paper but stumbles when spoken aloud.

A children's book also has two audiences at once. There is the child who listens or reads, and there is the adult who chooses the book, pays for it and may read it aloud many times. The book has to hold the child's attention and survive the adult's tenth reading.

At Sotrane Publishers, we take children's books seriously because they are often a child's first experience of reading for pleasure. A book that works can make a young reader ask for another. One that does not can quietly teach a child that books are for lessons rather than enjoyment. The guidance below is for anyone writing for young readers, whether they are parents, teachers or experienced writers trying the form for the first time.

Decide who will actually use the book

"Children" is not a single readership. A child listening to a story, a new independent reader and an older child reading chapter books all meet words in different ways. They may all enjoy a brave main character, but the amount of text, the page design and the help they need from pictures differ considerably.

Begin with a concrete description. Is this a picture book to be shared at bedtime, a story a confident young reader can manage alone or a book for classroom discussion? Each answer changes what belongs on the page. An adult may buy a book because its theme sounds useful, but the child still needs a reason to turn the page.

Consider a book about handwashing for young children. A first draft might explain germs through a long conversation between a teacher and a class. The information may be correct, but the child has little to watch, wonder about or anticipate. A stronger draft might follow a character rushing towards a favourite snack with muddy hands, meeting a small obstacle and making a decision. The lesson is still there, but it now has a story to carry it.

Age bands and school grades help describe an audience, but they do not replace testing the pages with real readers. Children develop at different rates and read in different languages, and no category can describe every child.

Read the manuscript aloud, then listen to children

A sentence can look smooth on a screen and still be awkward to say. Repetition can be delightful when it builds expectation and tiresome when it simply fills space. A rhyme that almost works will trip up the adult reading it every night.

Read the whole draft aloud without stopping to fix it. Mark the places where you run out of breath, where it becomes unclear who is speaking and where you have to explain a joke. Then ask another adult to read it aloud while you listen. You will hear exactly where the text depends on the author to supply missing meaning.

If you can share the draft with children appropriately, and with their parents' or teachers' permission, watch rather than test. Notice when they point, laugh, predict what happens next or ask to see the picture. Notice too when their attention drifts. One child may simply be tired, so look for patterns across several readings before rebuilding the book.

Avoid asking only whether they liked it, because children are often kind and adults can steer the answer. Questions such as "What do you think happens next?" or "Which part would you tell a friend about?" reveal much more. If a listener cannot say what the main character wants, that problem matters far more than any choice of adjective.

Children are more likely to love reading when a book gives them something to enjoy, not just something to learn.

Simple words do not automatically make a better story

Writers sometimes strip out every unfamiliar word, local expression and interesting sound until the language is flat. The goal is clarity in context. Children learn new words when the action, the conversation or the picture helps explain them. The question is whether the unfamiliar word rewards their effort.

A Zambian story does not need to make everyday life sound foreign or explain ordinary local details as though no Zambian child will read it. A child can recognise the pressure of being sent to buy something before the rain, the walk home from school or the expectations of a busy household. Those details should belong to the character's life, not sit in a paragraph of cultural explanation.

At the same time, do not assume every reader knows what you know. If an object or custom matters to the plot, let the action make its role clear, perhaps by having one child show another how something works. This also gives readers elsewhere a way into the story without the book apologising for its setting.

If you are writing in a Zambian language, or moving between languages, read the text with people who speak that language naturally. A line that sounds acceptable in direct translation can lose its humour and rhythm. The listener's ear is a better guide than a literal rendering of English.

Pictures must do their share of the work

A picture book is planned in spreads, not written as a block of prose with drawings added afterwards. If the text says "The goat hid behind the market stall", the picture can simply repeat it, or it can show the goat's ears sticking out while the character confidently searches in the wrong place. The second gives the child something to discover.

You do not need to be an illustrator to plan the pages roughly. Divide the draft into possible spreads, note what the words reveal on each and what the picture might add, and look for page turns that create curiosity. Check which characters, objects and settings must look the same throughout. If the story depends on a visual joke that the words do not mention, explain it in a short note for the illustrator.

Discuss illustration early. Who will create the artwork? What does the work include? May it be used for the cover, the inside pages and promotion? What happens if a scene changes after it has been drawn? Agree these terms in writing, and never assume that pictures found online can simply be printed. Full-colour illustration, layout and printing affect the budget considerably, and that cost has to fit a price parents and schools will pay. Our book pricing guide explains why production decisions cannot be separated from what readers can afford.

Sotrane's graphic design team prepares original illustration, full-colour page design and picture-book layout, including books in Zambian languages, and full-colour children's titles can be printed on suitable coated paper with saddle stitching or perfect binding depending on the page count.

A message is not yet a story

Many first drafts begin with a worthy aim: to teach kindness, encourage reading, address bullying or explain saving money. The difficulty arises when every character exists to deliver the lesson. The bully changes after one speech. The child saves money because an adult says saving is good. Nobody faces a choice with a real cost.

Give the main character a desire that matters to them, even if it seems small to an adult. A girl wants to keep the football she borrowed when her friend comes to collect it. What does she do, and what might she lose? Kindness becomes meaningful when she has to give up something she wants, not when the word appears on the final page.

This does not require a complicated plot. It requires an honest sequence in which someone wants something, something makes it difficult and their actions change the situation. A quiet book can do this without a villain or a chase. Let the child in the story think, make mistakes and occasionally surprise the adults.

Before you pay for printing

Put the manuscript through a short practical review:

• Can you name the kind of child and the reading situation the book is designed for?
• Does the opening give a reason to continue before it starts explaining a lesson?
• Can someone else read it aloud without stumbling or needing extra explanation?
• Do the page turns and pictures add meaning rather than repeat each sentence?
• Have you planned for language, illustration rights, production cost and the likely buyer?
• Have children, or the adults who read with them, shown you where the draft loses them?

Revise while changes are still cheap. Proofreading is valuable later, but it cannot make a lifeless story interesting or rescue a book designed for the wrong reader. If you are approaching a publisher, describe the intended readers and whether the artwork is finished, planned or still to be commissioned. Our publishing process begins with exactly those questions at the consultation and proposal stages.

A good children's book respects the child enough to be clear without being dull, and the adult enough to be worth reading again tomorrow. Which children's book have you seen a child ask for twice, and what made them ask again?