Don't Hire an Illustrator (Yet)! The Costly Mistake New Authors Often Make

Take a look at this timeline of the self-publishing process.  Specifically, notice where editing and illustration fall on the timeline. 

Many new picture book authors get these two steps of the process reversed.  

After all, picture books are all about the pictures!  That’s the fun and exciting part!  Most authors are itching to find and hire the perfect illustrator, and assume that they can get the illustrator started and worry about spelling and punctuation while the illustrator is working.  

Here’s why they’re wrong and why you should ALWAYS have your manuscript fully edited BEFORE your illustrator begins:

Editing - even for a children’s book - is MUCH MORE than just correcting a few spelling and punctuation mistakes.  

Many authors are shocked to discover that there are actually four different stages of editing that every manuscript needs to go through:  self-editing, developmental editing, line editing, and proofreading.  Watch this video to learn more.  

During the developmental editing process some pretty MAJOR things about a story are likely to change.  For example, here are some actual changes that my author clients have made during developmental editing:

• One author realized there was no conflict in the story and had to start from the beginning and come up with an actual problem for the main character to deal with.

• One author changed their main character from a human child to an animal.

• One author who thought her story was about one girl, ended up realizing it was really about three friends, and changed the beginning to reflect that.   

• One author decided a treehouse was a better setting than the basement of a house.  

Now, imagine that those authors had already paid thousands of dollars for illustrations that matched their original draft. They would have to go back and pay to have the illustrations redone, wasting time and money.  (It happens ALL THE TIME.)

If you’re thinking, “Well, I already love my story as it is.  I’m not going to make any major changes,” let me just beg you to reconsider.  Every author in the examples I mentioned above came to me saying something like, “I think this manuscript is pretty much ready to publish, but thought I’d get a quick edit.”  And yet, all of them agreed that their story was BETTER after making those big changes.   

If this is your first picture book, you simply don’t know what you don’t know.  And a professional developmental editor who’s an expert in children’s books is likely to suggest some changes.  So, put that illustrator on hold and find yourself an editor.  Click here to get our FREE list of recommended editors, formatters, and illustrators!

Pagination choices can lead to big changes in your storyboard.

It's not just big structural changes that can impact your illustrations. During line editing - when the focus is on smaller details like sentence structure, word choice, etc. - authors often start thinking about pagination. Pagination is when you storyboard the manuscript, planning out which words go on which page, and where page turns will occur.

While this stage of editing often feels minor, decisions made here can often impact what type of illustrations you need (spot, spread, etc.) and how they are laid out on each page.

For example, let's say your story is developmentally solid, and you're working on line level edits.  You're trying to build tension in the leadup to the climax of the story.  Eventually, you decide to add a scene where the main character counts down…three….two…one…. And the next spread will be a two-page illustration of the main character pulling open the curtain for the big reveal with the word “Surprise!” across the spread. This small change (you only added 3 words!) not only impacts those two spreads, but now, you'll have to combine pages later in the story to stay under 32 pages.  

If you had already completed the illustrations, those two spreads, and possibly others, would have to be redone, costing you time…and money. 

Last, fully editing your manuscript before you hire an illustrator ensures you have the best possible layout and design.

Pagination and storyboarding aren't just about dividing up the words. They're also about making sure there is enough positive and negative space on each page so that the design is balanced and visually attractive. How you divide the words up over the pages will determine how much space needs to be left on each page for the text to be inserted.  

If your illustrator begins without this information, you run the risk of having to squeeze your text into too small of a space, or of having too much empty space on an illustration. 

And, if you want to use any creative text treatments…like curving the lines, or having certain words be bold or graphic…it’s important that your illustrator know that up front so they can work it into the design. 

One More Thing...

And one more BIG note. All of the above applies to authors who plan to SELF-PUBLISH their children's book. If you want to submit your story to a traditional publisher in hopes of a book deal...then guess what? You don't hire an illustrator at all! The publisher will do that. You just submit a fully edited manuscript. More about that here.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is, having your manuscript illustrated before it’s fully edited is probably the number one mistake I see new authors make.  If you slow down and hire an editor first, you won’t be one of them! 

Want to learn everything you need to know about writing and publishing for kids? Tired of being overwhelmed by all the information on the internet? Come join our Profitable Picture Books Program, and skip the overwhelm!