One of your best friends loves to draw and has done a mural or two around town. So, you decide to ask your friend to illustrate your book. There’s only one problem. She’s never illustrated a book before.
From your perspective, this seems like a minor detail. After all, what could go wrong?
1. Your Friend Leaves No White Space
New illustrators often go overboard with illustrations, filling every nook and cranny of every page with intricate detail. That’s fine for some books, but many books look better when the pages can breathe.
Before your friends starts on illustrations, remind him that you’re creating a book, and you need somewhere to place the text. With no white space, it gets tricky to place the text without covering up some important area of the illustration.
So, instead of wall-to-wall colored illustration, your friend should leave somewhere for the text to go. It will make your book easier to design and read.
2. Your Friend Works on the Wrong Page Size
Ideally, your friend illustrates with digital tools. It just makes the process easier. However, as long as you have access to a quality scanner, it doesn’t matter what medium your artist works in.
The problem comes when your friend draws on 8.5 x 11″ pages, and your book is supposed to be 8.5 x 8.5″.
If you don’t know what size your book is going to be, don’t ask your friend to illustrate your bookâyet. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with a bunch of illustrations that don’t fit the page. If they don’t fit the page, you can’t use them.
Research the various page sizes available, then choose one that works for your book. Tell your friend to draw all illustrations at that size, and don’t forget the bleed!
3. Your Friend Puts the Main Character in the Gutter
Two pages facing each other are a spread. In the center of the spread, where the pages meet, is the gutter. You never want anything that’s vital to your book in the gutter.
Unfortunately, many new children’s book illustrators don’t know this. So, they often put characters or other important illustration aspects in the gutter.
If your friend is going to illustrate your book, make sure nothing important winds up in the gutter of your book. Why?
Anything there gets overlooked or disappears. You don’t want that, do you?
4. Your Friend Illustrates Your Book at a Snail’s Pace
Illustrating a book should take a few weeks or months. With a friend, it can take forever.
Sure, you announced the release of your book six years ago, but your friend is still putting the finishing touches on the last couple pages. And there’s nothing you can do, because your friend is doing it all for free.
Want a better experience? Give one of these options a try.
- Hire your friend. Create a contract that lays out expectations, and pay your friend.
- Hire a stranger. There are all sorts of ways to find illustrators for your book. Use one to find a good fit for you and your book.
- Get some help. You don’t have to do it all on your own. Argyle Fox Publishing can take care of everything, including illustrations. Submit your manuscript today for consideration.