What Clients Expect Members  

What are the general expectations from commissioners? Here is some advice on different types of illustration clients.

Book publishers

Publishers commission a wide range of illustration, from 32 page children's picture books, to adult fiction book jackets. For picture books you may be offered a royalty agreement with an advance payment or sometimes a flat fee. Book jackets will be a flat fee. Contracts will be offered for these projects, and vary between publishers. Picture book contracts will be substantial, and if you don't understand all of it you should ask the client questions and have it checked. AOI Members can take advantage of our contract review service. Alternatively, become your own expert by reading the royalty section in the AOI's The Illustrator's Guide To Law And Business Practice. So far as the money offered is concerned, there's often room for improvement on picture book or heavily illustrated non-fiction advance and on the royalty and rights percentages. Look out particularly for translation rights and the USA edition, both of which are potential big earners. The larger, well-established publishers usually pay better advances and royalties than smaller ones. As mentioned, publishing agreements are normally long and invariably makes for slow reading, but do read them. You should read all clauses carefully. Make sure you're being offered a licence for the work as a book and not an assignment of copyright. Contracts will include warranties and indemnities. The main warranty is a promise that the work is original. Also, watch out for a clause which restricts you from publishing work with similar subject matter for other publishers. You may be denying yourself the right to work! See the resource Negotiating contracts with Publishers Children's book publishers also commission illustrations for novels - typically black and white line drawings. Payment for these is usually made on a flat fee basis, but try to negotiate an extra fee for foreign editions, (for more details about this read The Illustrator's Guide To Law And Business Practice). Also see the resource Negotiating Contracts with Publishers. Annual book fairs attended by the publishing world take place across the year, and before and after these events editors and art directors will be busy with preparation and then working on any deals that have been struck at the fair. So, avoid getting in touch around the periods when fairs like the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Bologna Children's Book Fair are taking place.

Educational publishing

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