What to know before having your Children’s book illustrated

This article explains what you should know before you have your Children’s book illustrated. One of the most common problems for a Children’s book designer is receiving a manuscript and illustrations that don’t seem to have any planning for how to make them into an actual book, and, sure enough, there were none on the part of the author or the illustrator. An illustrator should have a full understanding of what the final book will look like and how the illustrations will fit into a page layout.

Here are some of the items you should discuss with your illustrator before beginning any illustrations for your Children’s book.

• Book Trim Size (Children’s Book sizes available at IngramSpark)
• Page Count of the final book and any minimum page count for the type of book you want to produce
• Number of illustrations they will need to create a complete book
• Text Placement in relation to the illustration. Will the text be part of the illustration or on the page next to the illustration?
• Illustration Distribution. Decide which parts of the story need illustration for consistent distribution in the book layout.
• Plan and include Page Bleeds in any illustrations that print beyond the edge of the book page.
• Discuss Scanning and Image File Type to assure you receive professionally scanned images in the correct resolution, file type, and color profile.

What we can do if you have illustrations that do not fit the book page layout