How to find the right illustrator for your self published book.

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By Aronna
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www.aronna.com

Finding the right artist to illustrate your self published book doesn't have to be chaos.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Step 1

Establish how many images you want for your book. Include front, back and spine art and the general size for the book.
Step 2

Work out the budget for the illustrations.
Many artists will work with payments to allow a larger budget for the work.
Step 3

Find out what style of art appeals to both you and your story.
Styles include: water color, oil, colored pencil, digital inking, charcoal and pen and inking.
Search sites such as Amazon for different book styles.
Step 4

Find your artist. Searching sites such as ifreelance.com can give you a huge selection of artists. Visiting your local art school could yeild a promising artist. Causiously posting on craigs list could be helpful.

Tips & Warnings

Once you find a few potential artists, do a google search on them to see how much of their past work appears.
A professional artist will have a service agreement already in place.
Check with your publisher to see if they include cover art in their package.
Create a good dialogue with the artist and get their creative process established.
You get what you pay for.
Do not pay the entire balance upfront. Many artists work with payments for completed works and a deposit amount for good faith.
find out the artists policy for revising images.

Comments

AbbyNormal said

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on 7/29/2008 My nephew has done illustrations for books, cds, etc. I believe the best way to reach him is by the email address on his site. And you can see some of the work he has done.
http://www.twobirdsonestonedesign.com/

wildflowr said

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on 7/29/2008 ...or you could just call me!
- if you are reading this article I would venture a guess that you have written a book that needs illustrating and you might be interested in my services. I am an artist & I illustrate, my rates are reasonable and I have studied many different styles of art (used to teach highschool). You can pretty much show me anything you like and I can create the images from your story in that style. Send me a message for more information.