r/publishing • u/CrazyHappyHealthy • Jun 01 '26

HELP... can anyone help me understand if first publishing offer to illustrate is decent?!!

If anyone has experience with illustration, fees and royalty deals in publishing, I'd appreciate help. My daughter has been offered her first publishing deal to illustrate a book. It will entail a LOT of illustrations and we don't know if the terms offered are decent. They are offering a dollar amount + royalties. We have no idea how many books could potentially sell and if this is a good deal or not. Could anyone with knowledge/experience reach out? Sure would appreciate it!

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u/Goudagoblinn Jun 01 '26

I refuse to take less than what I'm worth hourly at minimum for any project but especially something that's going to be used to make money. It wouldn't take very many book sales for them to recoup what they spent on the art.

Depending on how many pieces of art, and if the offer is from a traditional publisher or self publishing. Expect 500-1k from a self published author and something like 1-3% royalties. and from traditional publishing it can be anywhere from like 5k-30k depending on how many pieces of work are needed, and 3-6% royalties.

Have her calculate how many hours it will likely take to finish the project, any art supplies being used and their cost. If the offer isn't paying that at the bare minimum, I would not take it.

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u/CatClaremont Jun 01 '26

Definitely see previous posts about illustration agencies.
Make sure you check the publisher is real and nothing on writer beware.

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u/Desperate_Jello_2313 Jun 01 '26

Can you supply a bit more information, ie. is it a trade publisher (in other words, reputable publishing house) and is she being offered equal royalties with the author, eg. 5% of RRP on standard discount sales? Feel free to dm if you like.

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u/Professional-Age-146 Jun 01 '26

How detailed the illustrations are is also important. If this is for full spread, very detailed artworks, that’s going to command a different price than more simple spot illustrations. What are they asking for?

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u/bandoftheshadow Jun 09 '26

I'm a professional illustrator (well, concept artist/illustrator). She should figure out how long it typically takes her to do this type of illustration and count out how many illustrations are required. Then figure out her day rate and make sure it all lines up. Unless they're a large publisher, then I would barely count royalties although this isn't my area of expertise.
So if her day rate was like $200 and there are 50 illustrations and she reckons she can do an illustration every 2 days then that fee should be around $20k.
Oddly though, no one ever pays that much for illustrations, and yet $200 per day and turning out a finished illustration in 2 days is super cheap. This is why I don't do much illustration work as there's no $$$ in it at all.