Sofia Goodsoul Talks about Frog Todd

Today we welcome Sofia Goodsoul to Promote Me Please to talk about her new picture book, Frog Todd. As usual, we presented our guest with some curious questions.

Frog Todd is a brilliantly-coloured picture book. What inspired you to produce it?

In recent years, the problem of bullying in schools has become widely recognised, especially by teachers. But this issue in preschools and kindergartens, in my opinion, has been overlooked. I have been working as an emergency kindergarten teacher over 10 years, and have observed hundreds of cases of this behaviour when relieving in early childhood settings. As a teacher, I recognise our important educational role in guiding a child’s social and emotional development and wellbeing. Calling or twisting other students’ or teachers’ names is one of the forms of bullying, which has to be addressed as early as possible to avoid further complications in children’s lives. I was searching for acceptable literature for young children on this issue with a little success, when came to a decision to create FROG TODD.

Some publishers discourage rhyming texts.  texts. What has been the reaction to this one?

You are absolutely right Sally. The problem with rhyming books for publishers is a complication in selling copyrights to foreign publishers. It’s not easy to translate rhyming texts into other languages, and as a result the publishers don’t want to deal with rhyming books. I faced this problem with FROG TODD as well. It’s when I decided to become a self-publisher. 

Will you tell us something about the illustrating process?

With my pleasure Sally. As a self-publisher, I incorporate multiple roles. One is finding the right illustrator for the book. I went through hundreds of portfolios and test designs before finding a talented and very experiences children’s book illustrator Marina Kite. Together with Marina, we designed the book’s illustrations. I developed the very explicit instructions for Marina describing what I see on each page of the book. She came up with lots of great ideas, and as a result: “Frog Todd is a brilliantly-coloured picture book.”J

Are you planning more outings for Todd?

You are not the first person to be asking about my plans on Todd’s further adventures. I am considering to team up Todd with his new friend Lily and sending them on their new adventures around Australia. Todd will be carrying his tricky sticks, which assisted him in the story.

How long did the process of producing Frog Todd last?

Writing FROG TODD was the fastest part of the whole publishing process, which is very complex, taking into account my first experience in this industry. The most interesting and time consuming part was illustrating and designing the book. All up has taken around nine months from writing to printing. It’s interesting to notice that some people compare publishing a book to the childbirth process.

Thanks, Sofia, for this look at the genesis of a picture book. The tinyurl for this interview is http://tinyurl.com/frogtodd. If you have enjoyed it, feel free to comment.

Promote Me Please blog is associated with Affordable Manuscript Assessments but is open for anyone who has a creative project to promote. To ask about an interview, click the AffMssAss link above. Contact information is on the landing page.