Why most publishers prefer non-rhyming texts, and what Julia Donaldson tells us about when rhyme is worth the risk
Ask any literary agent or children’s book editor what they dread seeing in their submissions inbox and rhyming picture books will appear on almost every list. “Please, no rhyme” appears in submission guidelines so frequently it has become a cliché of the industry. And yet the bestselling picture book author in the UK (possibly in the world) writes almost exclusively in rhyme. The answer to whether your picture book should rhyme is: it’s complicated.
Why publishers are wary of rhyme
Bad rhyme is very bad. Forced rhyme, where the natural word order is contorted to make a line scan, and where the rhyme word is chosen for sound rather than meaning, is painful to read aloud and immediately signals an inexperienced writer. It is far more common than good rhyme. Editors see it constantly. The instinct to avoid rhyming submissions is a rational response to the overwhelming volume of poor rhyme they encounter.
Good rhyme is genuinely difficult. Writing a picture book in tight, consistent metre with natural-sounding language, satisfying rhymes, and a story that doesn’t sacrifice meaning for sound is a distinct and demanding skill. It is closer to writing poetry than to writing prose.
Rhyme is hard to translate. Children’s books with international potential present a particular problem when they rhyme – and most publishers are thinking about subsidiary rights from the start. A rhyming text in English becomes a prose text in translation unless the translator is also a skilled poet in the target language. This limits the book’s commercial potential in ways that publishers factor into acquisition decisions.
The case for rhyme
And yet. Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo has sold over thirteen million copies worldwide. Most of her other books, like Zog, Room on the Broom, Monkey Puzzle, The Snail and the Whale share the same commitment to tight, musical rhyme, and the same extraordinary commercial and critical success. The Gruffalo has been translated into over seventy languages. The translation clearly problem did not stop it. And Donaldson is not the only example. Dr Seuss built an entire publishing legacy on rhyme. Hairy Maclary by Lynley Dodd has been in print since 1983. Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
What these books have in common is not just that they rhyme, but that the rhyme is doing essential work. It creates momentum, it makes the text irresistible to read aloud, it lodges in the memory, and it makes re-reading pleasurable rather than tedious. The rhyme is core to the magic of those stories.
The question to ask yourself
Before deciding whether to write in rhyme, there is a more important question than “do I want to?” The question is: can I actually do this well? Honest self-assessment here is more useful than encouragement. Read your rhyming text aloud. Does it scan naturally, or are you stressing syllables in unnatural places to make the metre work? Are your rhymes exact, or are they near-rhymes that only work if you say them in a particular accent? Is every rhyme word the right word for the meaning, or did you choose it because it rhymed?
A useful test: take your rhyming text and rewrite it in prose. Now compare the two. Does the rhyming version say the same thing more beautifully, more memorably, more musically? Or does the prose version say it more clearly and naturally? If the prose version is better, the rhyme is not serving the story.
Another test: have someone else read it out loud to you. Do they read it aloud fluently, naturally, without stumbling? Or do they slow down or hesitate in places? A rhyming picture book should practically read itself. If it doesn’t, it needs more work.
What good rhyme looks like
- The metre should be consistent throughout. If you are writing in anapestic tetrameter (Donaldson’s primary metre), every line should scan in anapestic tetrameter. Mixed metres that shift without intention are the most common rhyme error in picture book submissions and the hardest to self-edit because you can hear what you meant to write rather than what you actually wrote.
- The rhymes should be exact or very close. Near-rhymes are often invisible to the writer and immediately audible to the reader. Read your rhymes in an accent different from your own, or ask others to read them to filter out near-rhymes.
- The natural word order should be preserved. The most obvious sign of forced rhyme is inverted syntax, which is confusing and reads as archaic. If you are inverting word order to make a line scan, the line doesn’t scan.
- The rhyme should never override the meaning. Every word in a picture book needs to earn its place. A rhyme word that is the right sound but the wrong meaning is a failure of craft, not a necessary compromise. If the right rhyme word doesn’t exist, reconsider the preceding line.
The practical advice
If you are a skilled poet with a strong ear for metre, rhyme may be the right choice for a particular story. And if you can execute it at the level the form demands, don’t let the conventional wisdom put you off. If you are not confident in your ability to sustain tight, consistent metre across a complete picture book manuscript, write in prose. A brilliant non-rhyming picture book will always beat a mediocre rhyming one.