About once a month I get a message from a member of the public who’s written a children’s book and wants to commission me to illustrate it. And almost always I turn it down. Here’s why:
If you want to sell your book to a big publisher, they will want to commission their own illustrator. They are highly unlikely to buy a pre-illustrated book. The exception to this is if you have illustrated it yourself, like Maurice Sendak. But if you’re thinking of getting in touch with me, I’m guessing that isn’t the case.
People looking to self-publish, who are not familiar with the publishing industry, usually vastly underestimate the work – and cost – involved in illustration. It might help to know that the going fee for the illustration of a 32-page picture book is £8,000.
And then I get asked “could you do it for free/cheap and then I’ll give you a cut of the profits?” And if you were thinking of asking this yourself I’d like you to pause for a moment and consider whether you would ask the same of a builder. “If you do this renovation for free I’ll give you a cut of the value increase when I sell my property.” Now imagine the builder’s response. We all have bills to pay and very few of us can afford to commit time to speculative work.
However, if you’ve read through all this and you’ve money in the bank and a determination to get your story out into the world, and are prepared to pay the going rate with 50% in advance, please do get in touch – I’ll be delighted to work with you.