How to Get Good Cheap Illustrations for Children's Books
by Amanda Greenslade
Publishing a full colour children's picture book can be expensive. Most authors and small publishers will have a sharp focus on how to obtain good quality illustrations for the lowest possible price. Outsourcing illustration to an overseas provider is often the first thing they will think of when money is tight.
I have experience using suppliers in India, China, Singapore, Brazil and the Philippines, including via freelancing websites that help you ensure you get what you pay for. I also have a number of fantastic Australian and US illustrators who have worked on my books and those of my customers.
A recent experience is a good example of the differences that can occur from illustrator to illustrator. You can give the same brief to two different people and get a very different result. In this case the price tag was directly related to the quality of the output.
Cheap offshore illustration sample
Fairly priced Australian illustration
Illustration by Glen Holman
These are just drafts, not finalised illustrations, but you can clearly see the difference between these two images. The Australian image is far superior to the offshore one in many ways, including the:
I have had some good experiences with overseas illustrators. For example a lady in South America created this image for my juvenile fiction novel about a bobcat Wild White:
A very important thing to consider when choosing any illustrator, whether from a western country or not, is how well they can communicate with you and understand your book. Illustration is like any aspect of book design, the act of creating the illustrations is only half of the work. The other half is all to do with project management, which in the case of illustration services includes:
Critical in the project management of an illustrated juvenile fiction book is knowing the page size and the relation of the images to the text. For example, if you have not yet decided how you're going to handle the printing and ebook design of your project it is too soon to involve an illustrator. There are many reasons for this, including:
For an illustrated juvenile fiction book to work well, the illustrations must be created exactly and perfectly for the intended page layout. This means allowing for things like:
As you can see, there's a fair bit to managing the layout of a children's book with excellence, and your illustrator needs a project manager who knows what they're doing.
If you would like a quote from Australian eBook Publisher to manage this for you, we have all the services in-house. Please let us know your needs. We can use a combination of local and offshore service providers to bring you the best of both worlds when it comes to picture book project management and illustration.
Please check out our title, Myra and the Magic Motorcycle, which achieved the amazing goal of working perfectly for both ebook (tablets) and print!
"I have really appreciated your support with my book, Amanda. I'm sure your other clients are of the same opinion. Quality professionalism is never in over supply, neither is generosity of spirit. You have both."—Henry Grossek, radio announcer and author of Game On: Building the Education Revolution
"Thank you, Australian eBook Publisher. I am delighted with the quality of the print edition of my novel, Beast-speaker. The service that Amanda and her team provide is exceptional: friendly, helpful and everything is delivered within the promised time-frame. The print on demand package is easy and affordable, and I highly recommend it to anyone considering publishing with Australian eBook Publisher."—W. A. Noble, author of Beast-speaker