Kieran Davis mentioned something on an old post of mine. It was one of the Bestiary of Blatherhorn Vale poems called Keriskan Gliders. He wished me luck on finding an illustrator and I told him how my initial illustrator lost his muse. Since then, the Bestiary has sat around along with notes for other Bestiary ideas. My wife suggested I make a series of Bestiary books. Small poetry collections of creatures that I toss onto Amazon for .99 cents because of length.
The thing stopping me is that I lack illustrations. The original plan was that my friend was going to make wood carvings of each creature. We take the picture, put it with the poem and we’re done. I make money of the books and he does the merchandising of wood carving copies upon request. Then it fell apart and now I’m wondering if an illustrator is needed for eBooks. Would illustrations even look good on a Kindle? Looking at my Kindle, it wouldn’t be impressive. So, maybe all I need is cover art and I can post this as a KDP Select poetry book.
I can’t afford illustrations and I’m not sure how paying one would work. Is it a one time payment or does an illustration get a monthly percentage when it comes to self-publishing? It’s rather confusing and worrisome since I’ve run out of friends willing to do this for free. Again, that’s if illustrations even make sense for an eBook.
Maybe my wife can do a cover art that resembles a leather tome with a beast on it then we’re good to go. I wouldn’t even bother with a lot of advertising on this beyond a few free sites.
Legends of Windemere 
What about checking with a local junior or senior high art teacher to see if they have any students who would be interested in doing it for a small fee? Our daughter is an art major in college, and artists are always looking for exposure for their art. I’ve seen some pretty talented work done by kids who are still in school!
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I actually am not in a position to pay much money to anyone, which is why I’m stuck in the free zone. I’d also hate to pay for a bunch of illustrations and find that they look terrible on the Kindle. That’s why I wondering if it’s even worth it.
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Reading up on it, illustrations are really hit and miss with eBooks. I’d need professional help to get it to work, so it might be smarter to format the poetry collection and go without illustrations.
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I’d be willing to try some sketches on spec. If you want to send me a couple of poems, I’ll see what I can do.
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Thanks for the offer. I’ve been researching illustrations and eBooks today since I made the post. It sounds like it isn’t recommended. That was the main thing I was wondering about. I’d hate to have somebody work hard on sketches and pictures only to find that the Kindle destroys them.
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I don’t know about that. I have The Phantom Tollbooth on Kindle, and the illustrations look great in it.
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Odd. I saw that mentioned on a few sites this morning and half the people thought the illustrations were great and the other half thought they were terrible. Maybe it depends on the Kindle version, which brings up even more questions.
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That is an issue–things look a lot different on the fire series than on the older versions.
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That’s why I’m wondering if it’s ‘safer’ to go without illustrations. If it takes off and people want them then I can make an illustrator contest out of it.
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I like the idea of an illustrator contest! Yeah it does seem like not having it on the ebook is probably the right idea. As to contracts and the like, I am not sure.
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Glad to see I’m not the only one confused on this. 😀 I’ll play it safe and see where it goes.
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Check around DeviantART. (I practically live there), there’s THOUSANDS of illustrators and artists just sitting around waiting for people to message them with a project. look around, find one you like, and ask them about illustration commissions 🙂 There’s probably some newer artists who’d even do it for free if they knew it was going to get published. If not, I’m sure there’s some who’d do it cheaply. I don’t think the digital format will be a problem.. a lot of artists work digitally these days, or are willing to scan work to make a digital copy. If nothing else, asking around may give you a better idea of rates.
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I’m actually going to be trying for non-illustrated and see what happens. If it becomes an issue, I can try to hold an illustrator contest for the creatures. This entire project is experimental and I’m taking a laid back approach. Looking at my own Kindle, the illustrations would look pretty bad.
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