Working with an Illustrator: A Guide for First-Time Children's Books Authors

When it comes to being a writer many of us are all about the words. We love tinkering with them, filling them up with our favourite memories, things, or ideas, even imbuing a message into them. But as children’s picture book authors there is one thing we have to keep in mind. Picture books are 50% illustration. And while it is your narrative that directs the vision and the creation of them, illustrations still make your work a 50/50 partnership for presentation. 

Children learn by all their five senses, especially sight, as they grow up. So having good illustrations are a must for pictures. But if you’re new to publishing, it can be very overwhelming. 

How do I find an illustrator? 

How much should they be paid? 

What is a reasonable schedule for illustrations? 

How do I draft up a contract for them?

It’s always beneficial to start with our mindset. How should we think about illustrators? An illustrator visualizes your story. So while they may not have as much narrative control as you, it’s critical to remember they’re not just drawing you pictures. They are bringing your hard work to life with a second narrative layer.

As to the rest, I never want you to be lost at sea when it comes to technicalities such as I listed. So in this blog I will breakdown:

1. What an illustrator does

2. Types of illustrations 

3. Appropriate timelines 

4. Basic contracts 

I want to help make sure you understand all the crucial steps that go into creating a successful collaboration from contracts to appropriate timelines. 

What Does an Illustrator Do?

It seems obvious: an illustrator illustrates our books, no? They do indeed! However, there are also book designers who will work to create the best layout for such illustrations. Knowing the difference and the specifics of illustrators themselves is important. An illustrator will do a number of things for your story including: storyboards, character sheets, and front covers .

Storyboards

What are they? Simply put, storyboards are rough sequential sketches that help with planning the “spreads”. Usually a children’s picture book has 32 pages and each set of 2 pages is considered a spread. It’s important to note, however, that though there may be 32 pages in a book you don’t usually receive 16 spreads. Anywhere from 4-6 pages may be taken up with the copyright material, cover page, dedication etc. All that extra front matter. 

When you get the Storyboard, it’s the best time to request any structural changes you might decide you want. You’ll want to make comments before they start on actual drawings. You have to ensure the text and visuals align and it's always better to ask earlier than later. 

Character Sheets

What are they? These are multi-view references for your created main characters so that the illustrator can reference them as they work on their illustrations. They want to make sure that your character will look the exact same on page 1 as they do on page 20. 

Book Cover & Dust Jacket

What are they? Much more than you might think! A cover is split up into three different illustrations - a front cover, the spine, and a back cover. They all have different dimensions and aspects that have to be accounted for. Meanwhile a dust cover is all three of these things on one long specially printed paper (so illustrators must be even more aware of dimensions) that wraps around hard cover books.

This is the most critical of the illustrations. It’s a key marketing tool to attract your buyers. So they’ll want to make it bold, attractive, and readable at a small size. And that’s not just for elderly eyes, but because the front cover is used as a tiny thumbnail on websites and selling platforms, and it still needs to convey genre, age range, and mood at that small size. 

Types of Illustrations  

When you go to the library and visit the kids section to check out a book for your child, your grandchild, maybe your classroom - what draws you in? (We know it may be the front cover, even as we say we don’t judge a book based on its cover!) But what draws you in? What designs do you like? Do you know what these visuals are called? 

Having a pulse on what’s popular, what you like, and what any particular type of illustration is called is critical so that you can research and direct your illustrator appropriately. 

Understanding illustration styles

Here are some common ones to familiarize yourself with:

• Line art Design: sparse, whimsical, highly textured visuals.

• Digital or Vector Design: clean, crisp, vibrant illustrations. They’re often commercial or cartoon style.

• Traditional Design: can be watercolor or mixed media (paint, pencil crayon etc) pictures. They are often textured, classic, and richly styled. 

Design Elements That Attract Readers

As I  mentioned before, we know the front cover is the key marketing tool to sell your work. You need your cover to have a great design so it catches your readers’ eyes and they pull yours off the shelf, and not the one next to it. But what actually helps make that happen? 

Well, we know it needs to be bold, attractive, and readable at a small size. You’ll also want to look at the color palette and the overall composition. 

The Color Palette should be one that fits the emotional tone, but is still striking. There are also certain palettes that promise different story types. For example, bright primaries convey playful and happy stories, meanwhile, muted colors may imply something more reflective. Working with your illustrators to choose what works best for you message can carry your work a long way without saying a word.

Composition + flow is also important. These aspects are all about how the eye is guided across the page. If things are too chaotic the point or character of your story can be lost in the busyness; if too sparse it can feel boring. However, both can still be used to your advantage: do you want everything empty to highlight emptiness or a strong emotion with a pop of color like Bear in Where is My Hat? Maybe your character is just trying to get to their destination like Lowly Worm in Busy, Busy Town, so it shows their overwhelm. Choosing composition with intent to further add the message and emotion is a good thing to think about.

Timelines

When it comes to illustrators, the truth is there is no hard and fast set deadline. Most of the time there is just a general rule of thumb. That includes waiting anywhere from 4 to 9 months for good illustrations. I know this may seem like a long time but it is a realistic schedule for quality delivery.

Why so long? Well, the answer can be broken down into a timeline. Each stage and piece of illustration needs its own time. So it might look something like this: 

1. Storyboards: 1-3 weeks 
2. Draft color palettes and sketches: 4-8 weeks 
3. Final art: 8-16 weeks 

It’s also always a good idea to expect or offer a one month buffer for the final delivery date. There are often things we don’t expect with revisions or delays - sometimes even from our own requests!  

Contracts

Of course the final and most important part of working with an illustrator is the terms on which we hire them. Every contract may look a little different depending on what you may be looking for or the certain requirements specific to your project. But there are a couple basic items you should always make sure to include: 

1. Clearly defined technicalities: list the required number of spreads, cover design, trim size and what specific parts they are responsible for.
2. Payment schedule: list how, when, and how much they should be paid. And a small tip: do so in installments for achievable milestones. 
3. Rights: define whether there are exclusive rights or non-exclusive rights. 
4. Revisions: mention the number of free revisions allowed at each stage.

Phew! That’s a lot! But, now that you have all that information, looking for your own illustrator doesn’t have to be as intimidating as you might have thought. With the right understanding of what they do and how to go about it, you can find your own illustrator and expand your story into the bright and vibrant story it is. 

Curious about how to start looking for an illustrator of your own, right now? Grab our illustrator guide below to get started.