PRICING AND PAYMENTS
I must warn you, that this section might be shocking to you.
PRICING
Illustrating a children's book is a full time endeavor. It's not just hours, days, or weeks. It's months. It is a full time job just as much as a teacher or a construction worker. It can take several months of full time work for an illustrator to complete your manuscript. And so you will have to pay several months of full time income to the illustrator so they can do their job. This can be a lot when you have to pay it all at once.
So.....how much is it?
There is no way to answer how much the entire process will cost from development to final illustration. There can only be a tentative estimate on what the final cost will be because of not knowing how long it take.
I price each book individually because each book is unique. there are many factors when it comes to pricing:
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How much developing is needed
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How many pages and in what size
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How many spots, half pages, full pages, and spreads (picture spans from one page over to the next)
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How many characters and how detailed you want their faces
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How intricate the artistic detail is to be
I use the above information to do the beginning estimate of how big your project will be.
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I try to keep book projects within a time frame of 1 to 4 months
and within a price range of $2500 to $10,000.
I prefer to use a rubric in order to project part of the estimate. Below is a simple form of the rubric for the final illustrations cost. It will also help you to narrow down the style/mood for your book.
This might help bring all this into perspective: Imagine the shortest and the most simply drawn book that you know. This will be the cheapest=quality that you would achieve. Now imagine the most detailed and longest book that you know. This will be the most expensive =quality book. Now you have imagine what you want your book to look like--where does it fall in the scale of more simple lines to more detailed pages?
PAYMENTS
When working with self-publishing authors, I only accept flat fees. Unless you are established and have a well thought out business and marketing plan. I might then consider working for royalties.
THE STANDARD MEANS OF PAYMENT FOR ILLUSTRATORS IS 50% UP FRONT OF THE ESTIMATED FINAL COST
AND 50% UPON COMPLETION
**However the final amount of the 50% is subject to change
if any of the above factors take longer than originally estimated or shorter.**
For example: if the developmental stage takes longer or you as the author decide to make changes to the script that require substantial changes to the final illustrations.
Visualize this scenario: if I estimate your book will take me six months to complete, I realize it could potentially be really hard to pay me three months of salary up front. A payment plan can be set up, if needed. So long as I have something to survive on, we should be able to work together.
THAT'S THE PROCESS! IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE QUESTIONS PLEASE CONTACT ME DIRECTLY.
I look forward to talk with you!
Tentative
PRICING RUBRIC
for Final Illustrations
This can change due to the medium chosen and the amount of detail desired.
Prices below are for following dimensions:
full spread painting as 11" x 18"
PLEASE READ THROUGH CONTRACTS BEFORE YOU PURCHASE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR A BOOK, UNLESS YOU ONLY WANT 2 OR 3 ILLUSTRATIONS.
THANK YOU
Prices are for both Traditional-- Done by Hand Paintings/Drawings -- and Digital Illustrations.
Please specify which you would prefer. I will convert the hand-drawn illustrations to Digital format anyway to send to you.
Digital Illustrations are the same price. Materials cost money, but learning the digital software also takes time = $
Highly Detailed
Water-based
Oils
Oil Paint.
It is time consuming, but is the highest quality in color. The texture is smooth, almost luminous.
Mid Detailed--Oil or highly detailed Acrylic
Less detailed but because it is oil is still time consuming. Acrylic is less time consuming so more detail can be done for equivalent price. The texture is smooth
High-Mid Detail
Color Pastel
With this medium, I can do a high amount of detail very quickly, the texture is grainy.
High Detail
Black and White
Charcoal
In charcoal I can do a high amount of detail. It just has no color layer. The texture is grainy.
Low Background Detail
Black and Gray
Line Drawing
This is traditional comic book style illustration. Adding color is possible but increases the cost to somewhere between the Black and White Charcoal and the Color Pastel/ Digital Level.
$50 spot
$100 half page
$150 per full page
$300 two pg spread
$40 spot
$ 80 half page
$140 full page
$250 two pg spread
$25 spot
$40 half page
$80 per full page
$160 two pg spread
$20 spot
$35 half page
$65 per full page
$130 spread
$15 spot
$30 half page
$60 per full page
$120 spread
+Color--
$20 spot
$40 half page
$70 per full page
$140 spread