Hiring an Illustrator (without Going Broke)
We do not recommend submitting your children’s book manuscript with illustrations unless you are an illustrator. But sometimes writers are simply convinced in their souls that they need to include illustrations with their manuscript. If you are one of those writers who wants to partner with an illustrator for submission and you don’t already have one in mind, there are two ways you can go: You can find a style you like from existing books and contact the illustrator through the publisher or artist’s rep, or you can hunt for artists you think may do a good job illustrating your book in a style you both agree on.
In this section, we tell you how to choose an existing style or choose an illustrator to create an original style that goes with your words. After you’ve found one, we talk about what you do then in terms of getting a contract and creating a dummy of the book.
Knowing what a good illustrator can offer
If your illustrator is familiar with children’s books, has done his homework, and is a seasoned children’s book illustrator, the images will not only complement the text, but will provide spark and personality as well. Some illustrations may even replace text or insert further meaning into the text. Each page or spread will come alive with an exceptional interpretation of the story. As well, the images should employ different perspectives from page to page, focus on different aspects of the main characters, and take place in different parts of the scene or context of the story.
Color and texture, shading and line, consistency and perspective — all are aspects of illustrations that an editor will consider when reviewing a submission with art. And although different illustration styles require different focal characteristics, all must have that little something that appeals to children: be it charm, personality, simplicity, sweetness, humor, quirkiness, expressiveness. Good illustrators pay attention to all of these issues as well as the little details.
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Make sure your illustrator pays attention to the little details. A main character wearing the same color shirt throughout the same day or keeping a character’s shoes tied in both pages of one scene can make a big difference. Consistency regarding characters (their hair color, eye color, skin color, clothing, and so no), backgrounds (if the house is blue on one page, should be blue on another)—these are some of the kinds of details that art directors and editors look for when evaluating the professionalism of an artist.
Finding an illustration style to match your book
There are as many ways to illustrate a book as there are to write it. How do you choose an illustrator? Well, first you have to decide what you like. And one of the best ways to do that is to look at books that have already been published and see how various illustrators realize their styles.
Go out and look at as many different picture books as you can get your hands on. When you see a style that you think would go well with your text, make a note of the book title, the author’s name, the illustrator’s name, the publisher, and any other info that can help you track down this person. Alternately, you can take this example of a style you love and use it to find other illustrators who create art in a similar style.
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Know that published illustrators are likely to charge more than their unpublished counterparts. Also, published illustrators may have a lot of projects already lined up with publishers so that the prospect of partnering up with an unpublished writer on a project not of their creation may not hold much appeal. So unless you have a big budget, it may be more realistic to aim for unpublished illustrators who will have more time and interest in a joint effort.
While looking at books and researching illustration styles, you may notice that certain publishers seem to embrace specific styles. Each large publishing house has different imprints and divisions in it, and each of those has its own personality, be it mass or trade oriented, wild or more classic (trade illustrations tend to fall into more painterly, more experimental, or more classically serious styles, while mass market illustrations appeal to a more general audience by taking fewer chances in style). That means that each editor and art director will together be creating books that fit their imprint’s personality. You can often get an idea of the in-house style parameters in illustrations by perusing the color catalogues that list the books to be published that spring or fall. Looking carefully through these, you will note if the publisher tends toward the wild and crazy, wacky and out-there, or if they prefer a more classic style, or if they create more mass market books with the art more simple and less experimental. Keep these observations in mind when submitting your finished manuscript with its art so that you can target the appropriate publishers.
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At the annual Book Expo, at local book fairs, and at library association conventions, most publishers offer free hard copy color catalogues that list all their latest or seasonal offerings. Color catalogues aren’t as easy to get your hands on as they once were, however. Many publishers only offer online versions, and often these only have titles and other information necessary for ordering. Librarians may also have catalogs that you can look at in the library. Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market by Alice Pope (Writer’s Digest Books) reveals, under each publisher’s listing, how to get a catalog (most publishers will mail you one for a 9 x 12 self-addressed stamped envelope with about three ounces of postage). If you can’t wait for a catalogue, you can still go to any bookstore and do some serious research. Check out the latest offerings in picture books and board books (just check out the copyright year to find these). And although it’s true that publishers work at least 18 months to two years ahead, meaning that the books published in the spring of any given year were probably acquired or commissioned at least two years prior, you can still get a good idea of the styles a publisher embraces.
The ABCs of finding an illustrator who can help
Another way to find an illustrator is to go to places both online and in the real world where children’s book artists hang out and promote their wares. If you cannot find anyone through the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (www.scbwi.org), there are a few options open to you for finding an artistic soul who might work with you on your book:
* Art colleges: Check your local yellow pages.
* Animé and manga sites online: There are tons of these. Find a book with illustrations you like, Google it, and go from there.
* Artist’s reps: Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Markets by Alice Pope (Writer’s Digest Books) lists a lot of them as does Literary Market Place: The Directory of the American Book Publishing Industry.
* Book conferences: Book Expo, American Library Association.
* Comic Con: This comic book convention takes place in San Diego, California, every year.
* Comic book store owners: Check your Yellow Pages.
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Before contacting the illustrator, decide up front whether you want to pay the illustrator a flat fee or partner with him, sharing in the proceeds after you find a publisher who wants you. Don’t take this point lightly; if your book hits it big, this seemingly minor issue can make a huge difference in your personal financial outcome. Therefore, discussing all these issues up front is paramount. And to get all those details ironed out, you may need some help formalizing the agreement. You can use a contract found online or in a book, or you can go to an attorney specializing in these matters. As well, make sure both of you are clear about how you proceed should you submit art and text and the unexpected happens: both of you are hired or only one of you is. For how to cope in those instances, see “Putting together written agreements” in this chapter.
Putting together written agreements
Glenn Murray, the co-author of Walter the Farting Dog (North Atlantic), mentions that it is in every writer’s best interests to lay out who gets what under what circumstances — and to do it up front. The only way to make sure you have covered all the bases is to create a contract that you both sign and date. And that usually involves getting an entertainment or publishing attorney involved who knows about all those issues and who can guide you to making the right decisions. (Hiring a cheaper attorney who doesn’t know all the ins and outs of publishing isn’t a good idea. If it’s your only option, at least make sure your attorney can get hold of a typical publishing agreement to work from.)
“But we love and trust one another!” you protest. “We don’t need a contract!” Believe us, you couldn’t be more wrong. What happens if you, the writer, gets accepted, but only on the condition that you ditch your illustrator buddy — and your illustrator buddy insists that it was the images that got you in there in the first place and he wants a piece of the action regardless? Or what if the art director falls in love with your illustrator’s work and tosses you out on your head, hiring another writer to write a new story altogether? Then who gets what? Get it in writing or else! Here are some of the issues that you should consider addressing in a contract with an illustrator:
* Scope and quantity of illustrations to be produced
* Formatting instructions including size, black and white versus color, and so forth
* Amount to be paid (for example, a flat fee or a portion of the book’s royalties) and schedule for payment
* Whether the illustrator will transfer or retain rights to the illustrations (this is particularly important; copyright law grants ownership rights to the creator of the work unless these rights are expressly transferred to another party)
* Schedule for delivery of the pencil illustrations and the final color art
How to make sure the road is smooth
How can you make sure that you’ve chosen a good illustrator? Choosing someone with a lot of experience is a good way, but is not always in the budget or in the stars. So if the two of you are novices to children’s publishing, but at this point you are the one in the partnership who is having to pay someone, you get to take the lead in getting what you pay for. How do you make sure the illustrations come out the way you envisioned them?
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Open communication between the two of you about what you both expect in terms of your involvement in the illustration process and its details will ensure that you start off on the right foot and stay there.
Well, as we said earlier, the best illustrations take the words and complete them by adding another dimension to the story; and most artists will want to take the words and within the parameters of a certain general style of illustration, interpret the text as they see fit. But the best partnerships allow feedback from both sides. A compromise would be to make sure you are both absolutely on the same page, and then to proceed to a written agreement before delving into the majority of the illustrations.
One way to make sure you are on the same page is to create a sample page together. You can do that two ways: by getting a color art sample that you are involved in creating or by getting a color at sample that the artist does on his own without your feedback.
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Sometimes artists are new enough to children’s publishing that they will create a color art sample to go with the text on spec. On spec translates to on speculation, meaning that they put the time and effort into the piece in the hopes that it will pay off later with them getting the job. Getting a piece of spec art that interprets a page of your text is really one of the best ways of determining if the artist is going to move in a direction that pleases you. While an excellent piece of spec art cannot guarantee that you will love every other page the illustrator creates, it does demonstrate good faith on the part of the illustrator — a willingness to do what it takes to get the job, and get the job done. And that’s always a good sign. Alternatively, before you leap into a contract situation, you could always pay for a sample piece of art.
If you choose to work together this is what the process might look like. Once the two of you choose the general style, which the illustrations are to follow, you should allow the illustrator to create some sketches which the two of you review to make sure you are on the same page. If you are, then the illustrator might do a few pencil illustrations so you can review in more detail what you saw only roughly in the sketches. Then if you are both in accord, the illustrator can proceed to a color art sample—all to make sure you are both in agreement that the images are going to work. If you are, then all you need to submit with your manuscript to the publisher are a few pieces of color art (never send the originals, just color copies). All this might happen prior to a written agreement, or if the illustrator will not do any work without a contract, then you have to go to the next section.
If you find as you proceed from sketches to pencils to color art, that you are not getting exactly what you envisioned from the illustrator, you have a choice: Either you allow the illustrator to proceed, trusting him interpret your words in a way that will help sell the book — even if his art is not exactly what you saw in your mind — or you stop working together and move on. All these possible issues and more should be spelled out in a written agreement once you decide to work together.