Including illustrations on the inside pages of a manuscript isn’t necessary for the vast majority of books. However, you may still want to hire an illustrator for your book covers, character sketches, or promotional materials, even if you don’t have any interior illustrations for your project. For those of you writing a children’s book, manga, comic book, or graphic novel, now (after your story and text are settled) is the time to start considering what kind of illustrations you’re going to use and who you’re going to hire to complete them for you.
Illustration Timing
Waiting until you are finished editing your text before ordering or creating illustrations is a smart move. That’s because changes to your storyline or content can mean changes need to be made to your images. And altering text is a lot faster, easier, and cheaper than altering illustrations. For instance, if your story is all about a toddler learning 10 colors, some of the illustrations in your book may feature houses, animals, lollipops, shoes, or even people in these various colors. If you order illustrations before you get your text copy edited, you might realize that you’ve been working with nine colors instead of the ten you wanted. This means you’ll have to ask the illustrator to fit this additional color into all the images that they have already created. That’s time, money, and effort that could have been saved.
Preparing to Contact Illustrators
Before you concern yourself with finding an illustrator, be clear on what your preferences are for the project.
The Service Trinity
Any time you plan on purchasing a product or service, either price, quality, or speed are going to be your central priority.
Price is most important to people with small budgets (less than $1,000, in most cases). They are more flexible on quality and speed, but their budget must be worked within because they don’t have any more funds to spend on a particular project.
Speed is critical to people who want illustrations completed as part of a larger project with a lot of moving parts, who have a limited time to live, or who are writing about time-sensitive materials such as a current court case or recent global incident.
Quality is the top priority to people who have a larger budget and / or don’t mind waiting for the best results. These people may have some level of celebrity and want their illustrations and book to reflect well on them / their company. They could also have some level of anxiety (such as obsessive-compulsive disorder) about things not being “just so,” so they are willing to pay more (hundreds to thousands of dollars more) or wait longer (several months instead of a few weeks) to get the precise results that they’re looking for.
What’s most important to you among these three things?
Secondary Consideration
Most professionals can provide you with two of these three service trinity components. That means they can give you finished products that can be described in one of three ways:
- High quality and low cost, but completed slowly
- High quality and fast speed, but with a hefty price tag
- Low cost and fast speed, but the quality leaves a lot to be desired
Finding an illustrator who does excellent work, is cheap, and works quickly would be like stumbling across a unicorn. So there’s no need to try to look for that. You’ll either wind up getting scammed by someone who promises all of that and doesn’t deliver, or you’ll waste a lot of time searching for this elusive professional instead of getting your project completed.
Quote Requests
Based on which of the service trinity components you prioritized, your quote request will look slightly different. But here is a general example:
I am looking for an illustrator for a 335-word children’s picture book (3 – 4 years old) about the basics of quantum physics.
I would like 10 interior images, a front cover, and a back cover created.
The book will be 8 x 8 inches.
I want the book to be similar to Quincy and the Quantumarians by Shanika D. Obo or Abaya Learns the World by Kim Cho Heung.
I have a budget of $1,200 (firm).
I don’t have a hard deadline, but the sooner you can finish, the better.
Illustrations need not look photo-realistic or highly detailed. “Cartoon-ish” illustrations are just fine.
If interested, please reply with [1] “Quantum” in your subject line, [2] a link to your portfolio, [3] an estimated completion date, and [4] how much you’d charge for the project.
Thank you!
The format of the quote request doesn’t matter all that much. What’s important is what goes into it. This is an opportunity for you to (1) let the illustrators know what they’re getting themselves into, and (2) do some early vetting of the professionals you’ve contacted.
Be sure to include the following information in your quote request:
- The type of book you’ve written (manga, graphic novel, children’s book, poetry collection, etc.).
- The service you need.
- How much of the service you need (in this case, how many images and their sizes).
- The time size of your book.
- What your budget is.
- What your desired completion timeline is.
I encourage you to add a mini-vetting step for the pros such as putting a particular word in an email subject line or only submitting quotes via the contact form on your website. Keep it simple! You don’t want people to think you’re a difficult client and not want to work with you for that reason. When you’re working with someone virtually, it is critical that they be able to carefully read and follow written instructions because this will make up most, if not all, of your communication with them. So, giving them a tiny, simple direction to pay attention to and follow is a great way to weed out the people who don’t follow instructions. Not receiving a quote request from them would be like dodging a bullet, so there’s no loss there. They just eliminated themselves from your list of prospects so that you wouldn’t have to!
Take a few minutes to write out your quote request. This is what you’ll be using to contact illustrators.
Finding Illustrators
Illustrators can be found all over the internet. But it can be difficult to find someone to work with who is talented, communicative, and professional. To help narrow down the search, I recommend skipping open forum sites like Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, Upwork, or Craigslist and shooting straight for professional organization sites and sites set up specifically for illustrators. At this point, you’re not actually reaching out to your potential professionals, you’re just making note of their contact information so you can dig deeper in the next step.
I recommend finding five illustrators that you like and noting their name and website to use in the next step.
Here are some options for you:
Just complete the request form and you’ll be contacted with a free quote and guidance customized for where you are in your project.
The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Check out their illustrator gallery and when you see a sample you like, make note of that pro’s name and website.
This site is for contacting the more famous illustrators in the industry. You’ll find people here who have worked for brands like McDonald’s and Dior. When you see samples your like, take down the information for that artist.
Vetting Illustrators
Illustrators are a little easier to vet because you can instantly see what they’re capable of based on their portfolio. You either like it or you don’t. Pretty simple!
My recommendation is to find five illustrators that you would love to use for your book. From that list of five, you can start narrowing down to the one you’re going to hire. Even though their talent is the top issue for most authors searching for a pro, their ability to behave in a professional manner is important as well.
First Cull
The first round of elimination takes place by contacting each one of your prospects by email or direct message with your quote request. See who gets back to you, how soon, and whether they follow instructions.
As I stated, some people are going to eliminate themselves for you because they won’t follow whatever instruction you left for them at the bottom of your email / message.
Others will eliminate themselves because they won’t respond to you at all for whatever reason (swamped with current clients, aren’t interested in your project, etc.).
So, at this point, you’ll probably be able to cut your list by at least one person and only have 4 left.
If after two business days (not calendar days) of waiting, you’ve only heard from a single illustrator, it looks like you’ve found your pro!
But for those who still have 2 or more left, you’ll need to do a second round of eliminations.
Second Cull
Of the pros who remain, you may already be able to see a clear winner based on the quote they responded with. If someone stands out head and shoulders above the rest, you’ve found your illustrator and you’re ready to hire them.
If not, you move into the next round of elimination. You do this by applying the service trinity characteristic you thought was most important. So, if you have noted that price is the most important thing for you, anyone who isn’t within your budget can be eliminated. If speed is most important for you, eliminate people who give you a timeline for completion that is the slowest. If you’re focused on quality above all else, eliminate people who don’t have popular credits, contest wins, or other accolades that you’re looking for in an illustrator.
At this point, you should only have one person left on your list, OR you see a clear winner based on them following your mini-vet instruction, responding to your quote request in a reasonable time frame, and generally treating you with respect when interacting with them (especially if you got the opportunity to speak to them via phone or video chat).
Now, it’s time to hire!
The One
At this point, you’ve singled out the person who fits you and your project best. Now it’s time to deliver the good news!
Please note that you want to contact the pro that you’ve chosen BEFORE you contact the people you didn’t select. This is because, during the time you were making your decision, the pro you wanted could have been hired for other projects. This could change their projected timeline or even their ability to take on your project at all. So, before you tell everyone else that they weren’t chosen, be sure that the person you want is able to accept your project.
When you contact the person, be sure to repeat and clarify the details of the project. While they may be defined in the contract or service terms, interpretations of words can vary, so you want to make sure that you directly address each of the following:
- The price and how payment will be submitted. This includes their willingness to let you make payments over time instead of making a single advance payment. Many professionals have accounts on various platforms such as Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp so that they don’t miss out on sales simply because of not accepting a payment processor you like to use, but always be sure to ask just to be safe.
- The projected timeline for completion and update frequency. Things can change throughout the project duration, so this will only be an estimate. However, it’s helpful to have some idea of how long it will take for the sake of professional clarity and to help reduce your anxiety. Some professionals only contact clients when a project begins, if there is a problem, and when the project is completed. If you’d prefer more frequent contact, such as a monthly or bi-weekly update email, let them know you’ll be reaching out for updates every couple of weeks / month. I highly recommend avoiding weekly or daily updates for most projects. If a project will be completed in less than a week, there’s no real need for updates anyhow since you’re going to be getting your final product soon. If the set of illustrations you ordered will take a few months to complete, then a monthly or bi-weekly update makes more sense. You don’t want your pro spending more time updating you than they spend working on your project! Step back and let them do their job.
- How many / if rounds of revisions are included. You may have gotten a cheaper price because you’re working with someone who doesn’t offer included revision requests. That means that whatever they create is what you have to accept and pay for, without you getting any say in the matter besides your original notes on what you want. If there was any sort of miscommunication or misunderstanding on their part or on your part, you’ll have to pay to have them make adjustments. Most pros do offer at least one round of revision requests, but it’s always better to be sure by asking directly.
- What their deliverables look like. When the project is completed, you should be receiving at least two kinds of files: Display files and source files. Display files are the images as they will appear to your reader. These files will most likely have the extension .jpg or .png. Source files are from the software that the artist used to create the file, such as Adobe Photoshop (.psd) or Adobe Illustrator (.ai). You want to have the source files on hand so that, should something happen to your illustrator, you can go to another person if you need adjustments made to the images. For example, if you ordered an illustration of a lime sitting in a small pool of blood, the artist might create that image in Illustrator and save it as a .png file when they’re done. They would then send you the Illustrator file in addition to the .png file. You could upload the .png file to your website or share it on your social media profiles. You would put the .ai file away for safe keeping. If a few years go by and you decide that you want that lime to be changed to a green apple while everything else remains the same, and your illustrator has retired or passed away, then you can take the .ai file to another professional and have them make the changes for you. You’ll then get another set of files for the green apple version of the image (.ai and .png).
Delivering the Bad News
For the last two people to get cut from your list, I strongly suggest that you reach out to them and let them know that they weren’t chosen. By behaving professionally yourself, you set yourself up for success in the future. As noted in the example above, you never know when you may need to call on one of these people instead of the illustrator you originally wanted to hire. If that illustrator falls ill, dies, retires, had their hands amputated, or otherwise is no longer able to continue your project, you’ll want to have people available that you can turn to. Since you already like these pros enough to put them on your list, hold on to their contact information and do them the courtesy of letting them know that you made a decision.
You may not get responses from them, and that’s okay. They’re busy running a business, so they may not see the need to invest any more time or energy into a project that they didn’t get selected for. But they will likely appreciate knowing for certain instead that they didn’t win the project instead of wondering what happened or having to take the time to reach out to you about where you landed.
Seeing how well you behaved, they are more likely to be willing to help you if you need it. You come off as reasonable, courteous, and professional. You’ve presented yourself as someone they wouldn’t mind working with in the future.
The contact doesn’t have to be anything lengthy. A simple message will do the trick. Here’s an example:
Good morning, Jennifer!
I’m just writing to let you know I have selected an illustrator for Scarlet Cloak.
Even though I won’t be working with you on this project, I’ll hold on to your contact info in case I need your services in the future.
I appreciate your time and consideration and hope you have a great rest of the week!
Moving Forward
Now that you have your files, it’s time to move on to bringing your text and images together in a way that’s pleasing for the reader. It’s time to move into book design!