12.1 Introduction to Illustration

Illustrations are pictures or designs that combine with words to convey a message to the reader or viewer.

Good illustrations can transform a humdrum text into a marvellous wonderland for children to enjoy, and poor illustrations can ruin the best of writing. With this in mind, you should take the matter of illustrating your book very seriously.

Whether your book will contain illustrations, and to what extent, depends on the format and target age range that you have chosen.

• Toddler books - will be almost entirely illustration, with few words.


• Picture books - will of course be rich in illustration, with a varying number of words.


• Early levelled readers - will also have many illustrations.


• First chapter books - will usually, but not always, have some illustrations, but these tend to be in black and white and fairly infrequent.


• Middle grade books - are less likely to be illustrated, but sometimes are.


• Young adult books - sometimes have a small illustration or two, but not often.

All of these formats will have an illustration on the cover.

12.3 Illustrating a Self-Published Book

If you choose to self-publish your book, the most pressing and primary concern is cost.

This is especially relevant if you are producing a picture book, early levelled reader book, or toddler book, because all of these are likely to need to be printed in colour, and printing a colour book rich in illustration is very expensive. Factor this in to your estimations of whether this path is viable for you when you commit to it.
You have two options regarding illustrating a self-published book. You may illustrate it yourself, or work with a freelance illustrator. As we said earlier, the illustrations can make or break a book, especially one which relies on the pictures to tell the story. A lot of the advice in this section is directed towards picture-book, early levelled reader, and toddler book authors, as it is these writers who will have to factor in the subject of illustration to the greatest extent.

Here are the steps you would undertake to plan and execute your illustrated self-published book.

1. Create your text first, perfecting it before you move on to the pictures.

Remember, that in order for a book to be heavily illustrated, there must be something new happening on each page that can be depicted with an image. Divide your proposed text into pages, remembering that you only have 24 to 28 of these to work with in a standard 32 page picture book. Think of whether you could create a picture for the text on each page. If not, rewrite until you can. This is also good for the writing itself, as in picture books, the action to words ratio should be high.

2. Create a storyboard for your book.

You can print out templates for these from the internet. It should look like a bird's eye view of all the pages in your book, side by side. Arrange the text on the pages, along with a proposed idea for the illustration. Think carefully about the layout. Do you want the text in one block on one page, with the illustration on the other? Do you want the entire double page spread as an illustration, with the words transposed on top? More complex layouts like this are likely to be more expensive when you get to the printing stage, and the larger and more numerous your illustrations, the more you will have to pay the illustrator, if you are going to employ one.

If you are, provide them with a rough idea of what you want on each page. This could be a rough sketch of an idea, a description in words, or just a word or two. Many illustrators prefer that you give them as little guidance as you can bear to, and don't like being micromanaged. It is their job, after all, to take the written word and make it into something visual that complements your work.

3. Insert the beginning and end matter into your storyboard and text.

This will include copyright information, a title and possibly half title page, possibly a dedication page, and maybe a page with an illustrated bubble and the words: 'This book belongs to:' If you would like small illustrations on any of these pages, do not forget to include them too.

4. Choose a printer company

Research online for a printer company that will provide you with a good quality product at a low price. There are several considerations here: do you want a print-on-demand service that only prints a book when it is ordered? You'll be looking at a high unit price but low initial outlay. You may struggle to get some services with some of these, like the thick, glossy paper that many picture books have. Decide whether you want to pay extra for features like paper quality, colour resolution, hardback covers, and others. If you are producing a first chapter book, consider having black and white illustrations to keep the costs down,  and print on standard, matt paper.

You may decide to go with a vanity press, who will charge you a set amount for a certain number of copies. Increase this number and your unit cost goes down. If you have a lot of capital and are fairly confident that you book will be received well (or simply willing to take the risk), get a large number printed at the outset.

5. Make a full size mock-up of your book, on paper cut to size.

Insert notes for illustrations if you are employing an illustrator, or rough sketches of what you might put in if you are doing the illustrations yourself. This is the stage to check whether the layout is working. Every page of a picture book should cause the child to want to turn to the next. Each should have plenty to discuss, learn from, or laugh about.

6. If you are employing an illustrator, now is the time to do it.

You may have been researching your options previously or in communication with one or more individuals in preparation for this point. Visit online sites, like the Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators and childrensillustrators.com, to start searching for someone who you think will give your book an extra sparkle.

Review portfolios of illustrators' work to see whether their style will meet the subject matter and tone of your book. Once you have chosen one, try to trust them. Send them your storyboard and mock up and ask them to create a rough storyboard of what they think would be good on each page. Have a look over this, approve it or make any changes that you feel strongly about, and then let them get on with their work.

Proven, working illustrators do not come cheap. Expect to pay in excess of a £1,000 for an experienced illustrator, and the sky's the limit.

7. If you are illustrating the book yourself, chances are you have a fairly good idea of what you want to include.

Remember to make the illustrations engaging and relevant to the text, enhancing it.

8. Once you have the illustrations you need to do a final format of the book.

You can get a professional to do this for you, or do it yourself. You can find formatters on online freelancing sites, or on their own company websites. Consider paying a professional to do this for you; a professional layout will make all the difference to the final product.

9. Submit your formatted book to the printer.

The methods for this differ depending on which company you go for, but it is generally online and quite self-explanatory.

See the next chapter for more general advice about self-publishing your book.