Steps for Hiring Me to Illustrate a Book

1. Complete your manuscript

Have you finished your manuscript? It can be exciting to start the process of creating a book, but an illustrator can’t work on a book that is not written yet. In fact, the illustrator should likely be the last person you contact before you begin production. Before you begin the process of reaching out to illustrators make sure that you have a completed manuscript, and that you are at least in the final stages of editing it, either by yourself or with an editor (recommended). Major changes to scenes and characters after the illustration work has already begun can be arduous and time consuming, and will end up costing more in the long run, so make sure that you have a completely fleshed out manuscript before moving forward.

2. Research Production

The production of a children’s book has a lot of moving pieces. After you have written your manuscript, research how much it costs to have a children’s book printed, and look for potential printers. Research how much it costs to hire an illustrator for this specific job, and have that in mind as you are budgeting for the production process. If you are working with a publisher, they will take care of most of this process, but will still expect that you choose the illustrator yourself. It can’t hurt to know the costs involved just the same.

3. Research Artists

There is a chance that the artist that you have your heart set on might have extenuation circumstances. It can help to have several artists in mind when shopping for someone to work on you book. Research artists and designers that you find appealing, and have a roster ready when you begin the process of shopping for talent.

4. Read my service Contract

If you have decided that you would like to work with me as your illustrator, please read my service contract here. In my service contract I lay out allocation of rights and royalties for my services. If you are working with a publisher, show this service contract with them, and talk over the specifics. If it feels like a good fit for you, we can move forward.

5. Prepare For Large Files

Unlike with individual illustrations, books have a series of illustrations that will create some fairly dense files. The typical email server is not equipped to deal with several of these larger images passing through emails on a regular basis. Before you start the production process of your book, make sure that you have invested in an online storage space like the Cloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox to hold these large files when they are ready for review. For a typical storybook, expect that these files will exceed 2 GB.

6. Contact me

If you have done all of these steps and are interested in working together go to the contact page here, and send me an email letting me know of your interest. I look forward to hearing from you!