Anna Branford

writing Sophie’s Salon

There’s a part of the story that I’ve left out so far so as not to clutter things up too much, but its important for the next stage of my writing journey so I’ll tell you about it now. Right back when I was looking for an agent for Violet I also thought I’d take a little non-agented gamble and try writing an Aussie Bite.

Aussie Bites are a series by Puffin in Australia and they are one of three different kinds of books: Aussie Nibbles, Aussie Bites and Aussie Chomps, each for a different age range. They are not a series in the sense that they involve the same characters, just in that they are published in the same kind of format – with a distinctive nibble, bite or chomp taken out of the corner of the book. At the same time as trying to publish Violet through an agent I thought it might be worth trying an Aussie Bite, since this is one of the few ways I could find for an Australian author to  submit unsolicited work without an agent.

The Aussie Bite I wrote was Sophie’s Salon and there were two main ideas that inspired it.

One was my friend Sunny who was doing ballet at the time and is an absolute natural at anything artistic and looked amazing in her exquisite tutus and dresses. Seeing her success and watching how she was completely transformed on stage was something I couldn’t help filing away in my mind as an idea that could find its way into a story some day.

The other was my friend Jewel who, as you’ve seen, is also very artistic and gifted and is very good at doing her hair in different ways and experimenting with new styles. She and I have had a lot of fun with this over the years!

Somehow the the ideas merged together and formed a little story almost without me noticing! So I sent Sophie’s Salon to Puffin, ‘just in case’.

During the meetings that I wrote about in the lucky undies post, I was able to talk with some of the people at Penguin/Puffin and it was through that meeting that my Aussie Bite was taken up. Even though I’d submitted the work without the help of my agent, she was able to handle all that side of things anyway, which was wonderful.

I was given a very clear and useful page of ideas for how the story could be improved which I started working on as soon as I got home.

Next, the process involved lots of emails back and forth with my truly lovely editor at Puffin, Penny Matthews, who helped me clarify and draw out a little more of what was important in the story. Having read all those how-to books and also lots of online forums for children’s writers, I had dreaded this part of the process, thinking it would be frustrating, fraught and self-compromising. But my experience was the very opposite. It was 100% clear every step of the way that Penny’s hopes for my little story were as high as my own and this was reflected in every one of her suggestions (which would all have been negotiable anyway – it just happened that I always thought she was spot on!) I think it really helped that among her other wonderful books, she has written a beautiful Aussie Bite which is also about ballet, Fairy Four-Eyes.

The other brilliant thing was the illustrator Puffin found for my book, Cheryl Orsini. I think her pictures were just perfect for the story. Seeing the scans coming in and spotting the gorgeous details she had included was one of the loveliest parts of the whole experience – things like Madam Tulip’s beautiful dresses and jewelry and the ‘Swan Lake’ posters in the background of the cover.

It was like magic, seeing such a talented artist bring my little story to life like that! It would be very difficult to pick a favourite illustration from the book, but I do especially love this one of the girls in their art class:

Sophie’s Salon came out earlier this year in August and the first time I spotted it in a book shop (which was a day or so after it was released) -my friend D and I took pictures of it until the shop owner got cross with us!

Even though I don’t take photos of Sophie’s Salon anymore I still can’t help, whenever I go into a new bookshop, checking the children’s shelves to see if it is there and grinning stupidly for about an hour if it is.