Castle Tower Consulting
Literary & Artistic Consultancy . Agency . Editing . Marketing
Illustrating
If you have written a children's book, maybe in verse - for example, but can't draw to save your life, you will need a professional illustrator to create fun and beautiful pictures to go along with your story.
We have an established network of talented illustrators from which we can choose one who is likely to be the most appropriate for your genre and target age range. Alternatively, we can do a zoom meeting with you and show you a number (20+) of different illustrating styles to find the one you like best for your book.
We have set out below two examples from books we have worked on and contracted the illustrators for. These will give you some idea of what we can do for your book.
You can also see how book characters (or thematic images) are developed from an idea. You will have complete oversight of this process.
If you can't afford an illustrator, we also have access to contractors who can find you suitable stock images (and arrange the licensing for you to use them) which you can purchase to make up the illustrations in your book. Obviously, this is a compromise option, but for authors on a tight budget, it's better than having no images at all. The cost of using stock images versus bespoke, created images will typically save 60% to 70% of the cost.
Outline Ideas
Initial Development
Further Development
Published Book
Instruction to illustrator
Create picture for following text & base it around a well known renaissance artwork if possible :
"Forms of Adam made in malice,
Marble of a princely palace,
Holy blood from sacred chalice,
And eyes of darkest coal."
Concept flow back from illustrator
Marble Statue ?
Is this how you see the background?
OK for the Chalice?
Finished Plate for the Book chosen by the Author
"Forms of Adam made in malice,
Marble of a princely palace,
Holy blood from sacred chalice,
And eyes of darkest coal."
So, as you can see from the two examples above, great images for books don't just appear by magic (or quickly!) - a lot of consultation with the author takes place, and then a lot of work has to be done by the illustrator or illustrators (sometimes to get the absolute best composite picture, more than one illustrator might be needed) and whoever the graphics editor is at Castle Tower Consulting (he/she will manage the whole process) to end up with something that is truly beautiful and does the author's work justice.
What does it cost and how long will it take to do?
As you would expect, these are extremely difficult questions to answer because it depends on a lot of factors. In order for us to give you a reasonable estimate of both cost and timeframe, you will need to supply us with the following:
1. Your complete manuscript in Microsoft Word with the proposed image locations shown - you can use placeholder images which can be of anything you like or just use a box. The important thing is that we need to be able to see where you want the images to appear. If you are not sure, or you don't know how to format your manuscript to put placeholder images in, then just book a zoom meeting with us and we'll do it for you while you watch.
2. Tell us what size and quality of images you want - small pencil sketches will obviously be less costly than full-colour page size plates, and stock images will be even cheaper.
3. How soon do you want your book illustrating? This matters because a lot of the best illustrators might have a waiting list of weeks or in some cases months. Would you accept a less experienced illustrator if they could do it sooner, for example?
4. Lastly, but most importantly, we need to know what your budget is. It is highly unlikely that you are going to get a book illustrated by anyone for less than £500, but costs can go up to several thousand depending on what you want - for us to get you the right fit we need to know what is realistically affordable.
Please contact us without obligation to discuss.
