What-to-choose-freelance-illustrators-or-illustration-agency

If you’re currently working on your children’s book and seeking an illustrator, you might be wondering if you should select a freelance illustrator or work with an illustration agency or an illustrator provided by your self-publishing company.

There are so many freelance job portals, that as an author you might want to try posting your job for the search of an illustrator for your book. Don’t be surprised if you get overwhelming responses from illustrators across the globe and that too at very competitive prices. But you need to exercise extreme caution as there are so many aspects about book illustration which you must consider before finalizing one.

 First and foremost is the copyright of your manuscript. You cannot hand over your manuscript to anyone without knowing and risk yourself of leaking it to others as until your book is not published and/or not copyrighted, your story, characters and ideas can be used by anybody. Any legitimate and experienced illustration agency will always sign a contract before asking about your book details. This is where its easy to trust an illustration agency rather than working with a freelance illustrator.

You may get talented freelance illustrators at quite an economical price unlike Illustration agencies. Although some good illustration agencies have a range of prices to choose from too. Experience in illustrating children’s book do matter. Illustration agencies have experienced Art Directors, who understand the children’s book industry standard norms and are there to guide the author and in house illustrators throughout the process ensuring the delivered product looks professional. One cannot get this expertise of direction when working with a freelance illustrator. 

There are various steps in publishing a children’s book. After the manuscript is ready, the first thing to get done are the illustrations. Once the illustrations are done, there is a whole set of processes which needs to be followed before you can actually have your book in hand and ready for sale. This is another advantage of working with an illustration agency. These agencies usually provide all the services involved in self-publishing a book. If the author is very experienced and thoroughly understands and is able to self-publish the book, it doesn’t matter if one works with a freelance illustrator or an illustrator agency. But if you do need assistance at every step of self-publishing, there are chances of more technical errors and misinformation when working with freelancers. So, it’s the best thing to get all the services from one place only rather than getting involved with various companies and freelancers. 

Make sure you check the reviews and testimonials of your freelance illustrator or illustration agency before you make a choice. It’s easy to check out various published works by the illustration agency on Amazon to have a real time check.