Pippa Goodhart - Editor
Pippa began her children’s book career as a bookseller and advisor to publishers before beginning to write books herself. She’s had over a hundred titles published, some of them award-winning.
From Saturday girl to manager of Heffers Children’s Bookshop, Pippa went on to work with top children’s book editors before beginning her own writing career. For the last quarter century, Pippa has combined writing her own books with teaching and critiquing to develop writing for children skills in others.
To date, Pippa has had over 140 picture books, early readers, and MG novels published. Best known is picture book You Choose, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, with sales well over a million copies, and awards from York Libraries and Mumsnet. The well-known Winnie the Witch storybooks are all written by Pippa under the name of ‘Laura Owen’. Pippa has had novels shortlisted for the Kathleen Fidler Award, the Smarties Prize, and The Young Telegraph Book of the Year. New novel, The Great Sea Dragon Discovery, has won the Young Quills Award for best children’s historical novel, 2019.
Pippa worked for OUP on novels by Jacqueline Wilson, Tim Bowler, Helena Pielichaty and Geraldine McCaughrean. Through Jericho Writers she has worked with writers such as Pip Jones and Catherine Emmett.
Find Pippa on Twitter here: @pippagoodhart
Testimonials
- Lyn S
- Alison L.
- Jason B.
– Sarah P.
- Ben S.
WHY WE LOVE PIPPA
Pippa is a fountain of knowledge on all things children’s books. However, picture-books, in particular, are her forte. She has worked with us for over a decade and is one of our most trusted editors. We love working with Pippa. Her reports are methodical, comprehensive and packed full of market-centred advice. Experienced with all routes to publishing, she perfectly caters her advice to your publishing aims and dons her ‘creative writing tutor’ hat to help hone your writing skills further. Indeed, sufficiently prepared for any picture-book project that comes her way, Pippa’s reports are always expertly executed.
WHAT PIPPA SAYS ABOUT EDITING
Children’s books are important. They can turn children into lifelong readers, they open children’s eyes to the lives of others, developing empathy, they comfort, the inform, they entertain. And they are very hard indeed to write well. It’s a privilege to help writers develop the skills.
I have many years of experience as a writer for children, and I’m still very much an active writer now. I’ve also got experience in the worlds of publishing and bookselling. And I enjoy teaching!
Working on picture books is a particular passion. The results can look so simple, and yet the business of using few words to interact with a series of images can be very tricky to get right. It isn’t just a matter of telling a story, it is bringing the visual story to audible life. And it’s also a matter of suiting your story to the current market.
What Pippa works on
Manuscript assessment
Developmental Editing
Agent Submission Pack assessment
Line-editing
Genres Pippa specialises in
Pippa's published books
The Great Sea Dragon Discovery
Set in a Cambridgeshire village in 1860, this is the story of a boy who discovers an important fossil just when ideas about evolution are developing fast.
Winner of the 2019 Young Quills Award for best children’s historical novel for 10-13 year olds.
You Choose
A catalogue of a picture book, offering a mass of choices of possible places to live, characters to live with, clothes to wear, food to eat, and so on. Illustrated by Nick Sharratt.
Best Picture Book awards from York Libraries and Mumsnet. A huge loyal following, with over 400 five star reviews on Amazon.
