How much time do you need for a 32 page picture book illustration?

eriberart

I think it is more common for educational books to have very short timelines, smaller budgets, and (I think - not sure!) they like to retain copyright. However they are probably not as concerned about the quality compared to picture books etc. Of course us artists don't like putting work into the world that we aren't proud of! So we still want to put time and effort equally into all our work

Coley

@NessIllustration very helpful input, as usual, thanks! But I’m just wanting to make sure I understand, if I was working on a book project, and I had rights to the images later, I could do prints etc? I’m just wondering how useful that is with a lot of book illustrations that are more specific To the situation in a book. I don’t know if I am explaining myself very well.

eriberart

@Coley If you retain the rights to a illustration/characters, you licence the publisher to use it. So you might licence the publisher to use the images for 2 years in the UK for example. After 2 years, or if the publisher wants to sell the book elsewhere for example, they have to come back to you and ask for another licence which they will pay more money for. If they own all the rights then you will not get any more money if they decide to do reprints/sell rights in other countries etc. Also if they wanted to do a second book in the series they could use your characters without paying you (as technically they aren't your characters anymore!) So not really about selling prints, but about how long the publisher can use your work for/what they can use your work for!

Coley

@eriberart oh wow, thanks for that! I think this came up in Lee’s class on making money in illustration, but I forgot about it. Thanks so much. I need to watch that class again. And I know they’re coming out with the business side of things here at svs as part of the curriculum at some point but that seems far down the road!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@eriberart i agree with everything you said. I got into a bit of trouble when I was working on an educational book. I only had around 1.5 months to complete an 8 illustration piece book but the work I made during that span was really shoddy. I had to request for a few more days for me to make it better. I wasn’t going to put out sub par work into the world.

NessIllustration

@Coley Yep what @eriberart said! But sometimes it is possible to re-use illustrations in other ways as well. Yes sometimes prints, but sometimes part of the illustration can be isolated or slightly reworked to be sold for other things like packaging, editorial, advertising, etc. Sometimes, I have to draw something and think to myself "wait... Didn't I draw this exact same thing 2 years ago?" Of course it doesn't always work, sometimes the context or angle or pose is wrong, but it's happened to me at least 4-5 times where I was able to rip a character or object from an old illustration to re-use. One time, a whole hippo. Sometimes, I take out objects or characters out of my illustrations and re-package them as digital stickers for my Etsy shop. I wouldn't be able to do any of this if I sold the exclusive rights.

Also @Neha-Rawat , the way I see it you don't need a ton of experience to demand respect and a place to speak for your own rights during the contract signing phase. They are contacting you because they like your art, aren't they? You absolutely should try to negotiate whenever they ask you for exclusive rights. And maybe they don't budge,and if they don't, you can decide whether or not you want to go forward with the project from there. But there's no harm in asking, and those who don't ask don't receive I've gotten exclusive rights clauses overturned many times. Sometimes I distinctly got the feeling they didn't really care all that much, but were just shooting their shot. Many artists are so happy to get a contract, they won't contest it... Which is really too bad! Sometimes they really do want them and aren't willing to change their minds, and yes especially in the beginning sometimes we might have to take those sorts of contracts anyway (I know I have). But at least if we try, we have no regrets And we know we spoke up for ourselves.

Usually how I go about it is like this, step by step:
1- "You may not know, but it is not standard practice in the industry to ask exclusive rights for such a project." (subtle undertone: are you really a professional? Cause you should know this. This makes them feel like if they push the point, they are showing themselves to not be an experienced professional who really knows how the industry works)
2- "Exclusive rights are extremely expensive, because I would be selling all the potential revenue, present and future, of the illustrations. For this project, the exclusive rights are worth -Insert huge intimidating amount-"
3- "For the price you have already agreed to pay, I can grant you a non-exclusive license for -amount of years- in -country-" (This gives them the impression of a simple choice: either pay the stupid high amount for the exclusive rights or agree to the non-exclusive license that fits their budget.)

Most of the time, the pick the non-exclusive license It's happened to me a few times that they said "no, we want the exclusive rights and we're not paying more for them" But it doesn't happen as often as you'd think because responding like that sounds like a really... unreasonable thing to say. Even they realize that!

Mara Price

@xin-li I took a class with art director Lauren Rille. She starts by placing
the text on the storyboard, then the illustrations. She gives the
emphasis to the characters. Lots of spot illustrations. Hope this
can help you speed up your process.

These books are very popular:

Crafty Chloe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTAIKVOURm4

Crafty Chloe Dress Up Mess Up by Kelly Dipucchio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIcu5nqNnus

Olivia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWNXmelCpjQ

Good luck with your book!

Mara

Neha Rawat

@xin-li Unfortunately, no. I won't retain the copyrights for these 2 projects.
Like I mentioned, I didn't try asking them if they would consider otherwise because I just really wanted to get the ball rolling. It sounds hasty but I wasn't ready to risk losing the project (which I may not have at all). I think more than experience, I'm waiting for the confidence to kick in

The UK one is a small imprint of a big publisher. They mostly do educational and learning books. This is a chapter book with 36 illustrations in <2 months. The book is due to be published in January 2021 so the whole process is going to be super fast!

The US one is a picture book with 28 illustrations and a 3 month deadline.

These are definitely tight timelines but I'm able to accept them because I have free time right now but I can imagine how difficult it must be with so many other commitments.

Neha Rawat

@NessIllustration said in How much time do you need for a 32 page picture book illustration?:

For the price you have already agreed to pay, I can grant you a non-exclusive license for -amount of years- in -country-

Sorry, this is a little confusing for me. I understand limiting usage in terms of time and region. But could you explain the "exclusive" vs "non-exclusive" part?
If I license an illustration to a client for say 2 yrs, worldwide - how would the exclusive and non-exclusivity make it different?
From what I understand, exclusive means only the client can use it during the term of the contract.
And non-exclusive means the client can use it, but I can also sell it or license it to someone else at the same time? Is that right? Wouldn't everyone want an exclusive license especially publishers?

NessIllustration

@Neha-Rawat Exclusive means that only they, and none others, are allowed to use the illustrations during the time established You cannot sell it to other companies or even make your own products. You've basically relinquished all your rights for the duration of the license. A non-exclusive license means you can sell it as many times as you like to other companies at the same time.

So yes most publishers would prefer it if they can, but this exclusivity prevents the artist from making money off their work which means an exclusive license should be a LOT more expensive. Most of the time the publisher can't afford exclusive rights. Sometimes they buy a non-exclusive license, but include some non-competition clauses in the contract. For instance, a clause saying the artist can't use the illustrations for a picture book while their own license is active (so the book doesn't compete with theirs) or a clause that says the artist cannot resell the rights in the same country. Not all usage of the illustrations will actually interfere with the publisher's project. For instance, what does a Canadian publisher care if in 10 years I re-sell a book illustration in Germany for the packaging of a local product?