First off, let's get this out of the way. This is NOT a tutorial on how to draw. I'm not an artist. In fact, one could say I have almost no artistic talent at all. I'm a decent enough writer though, which is why a lot of my art needs to be purchased by hiring illustrators and photoshoppers. One could say I have a LOT of experience hiring illustrators. To date, I have hired over $10,000 worth of images. Yeah. That's how much experience I have. So, in step with the rest of this book, I wanted to offer some advice on the things I've learned. While I've hired art for all manners of reasons, this chapter is mostly going to assume you're looking for a book cover. Since I haven't done a listicle in a while, here are five things you need to know about hiring art.

In an ideal world, only people who would like your story would then be attracted to read your story. One aspect of obtaining this dream comes in the book cover. It's the first thing people see, and it fundamentally tells people what they can expect when they read your book. A bad book cover can really hurt your book and keep it from doing well. Just look at my book cover for Hawtness. That's an example of a bad book cover.

The bold red lettering, the black background, and the muscular guy... well, it looks like an erotica. That's... part of the joke... but plenty of people don't even reach the summary to catch that it is a joke. I've thought about getting a better book cover for years, but it's kind of a catch twenty-two. The cover I would want is expensive, and I've never gotten a dime from that novel. So, the novel isn't successful enough to get a cover, and because I don't have a decent cover, it may not be as successful. Maybe, one of these days, I'll splurge and it will become unexpectantly popular, but I'm not holding my breath.

Your book will influence who your audience is, and it's the first thing most people see. Thus, it's something worth investing in.

Now... on Wattpad, just about everyone has made some kind of cover for their book. Maybe you've used some kind of generator online. Maybe you have asked someone in our help section to make it for you. Maybe, you just slapped something together. If you don't have a cover, chances are your book is going to be overlooked by a lot of people. Many won't even look in your direction unless you have a cover at least. Not having one just shows a lack of concern. If you can't even be bothered to put out a cover, then why would they be bothered to read your story?

That said, the likelihood that you have any right to your book cover is extremely suspect. It is likely composed of copyrighted material that you do not own. This is because...

Most people on Wattpad that create book covers are book cover creators/designers, not illustrators. There is a distinct difference between the two, and if you want to create a book cover that is distinctly yours, you're going to need to use the talents of both.

A book cover creator takes preexisting assets and puts them together in an interesting way. The simplest term for it is photoshopping. They take images from the internet and then they will compile them into an image you can use. Here's the problem. You don't own those images. You also don't own that font. In many cases, neither can be used by you legally to sell your story.

Now, the book covers on Wattpad can be protected a bit since you're not making any money off of it, the image is on the internet is freely available, and you can even argue it's a transformative piece since you rarely just take the image wholesale. The problem comes when you try to sell the book with that cover or use that image for any kind of marketing or advertising purposes.

Now, a responsible, good illustrator will provide you the stock images as well as where they got them. With luck, they got those images from free places rather than ripping them from Google's image search page. However, knowing what I know about most Wattpad artists, they probably stole all of that content.

Here's the kicker. Even if you download free fonts and free stock images online..., they still have clauses explaining when you can use them, and almost every free font and free images say they are not to be used commercially for free! They might be free to use for your presentation at school, but they aren't free for you to sell. So, even if you are careful, there is a good chance you weren't careful enough.

So, what do you do? Well, you can buy the rights to stock images you like. Many sites are available that do nothing but sell image rights. However, let's assume you want something distinctly yours. You'll hire an illustrator. Illustrators are the ones who will draw an image. Although some illustrators will do the text and design for you, it's just as often you'd probably need to hire two people, one to draw the image, and one to add all of the effects and text for the cover.

The illustrator will draw you a picture that you envision. I also suppose you could hire a photographer and a model instead, but probably not. So, you hire someone and they draw your image for you. Congratulations, that image is yours! EVEN THEN, you must make sure he offers commercial use, something many illustrators will charge you as much as double for to have the privilege of being able to sell the image you just paid to have drawn!

Most of you probably don't have to worry about this. You're not trying to sell your book. Even if you did sell your book, no one will probably challenge you because you're using a random picture from a free site and didn't read the fine print. At worst, if someone did challenge it, you'd just have to drag down your book cover until you could make a new one. The more popular your story though, the more likely you'll get the interest of people. Even then, it'd be difficult to prove that their image contributed to any profit you gained, so you're pretty safe, and if you're popular enough to get caught, you're probably wealthy enough to hire a professional who will do it right.

Are you looking for someone to draw for you? The first thing you need to realize is the price. Art is expensive. The cheapest artists might work at $15 an image, while the best artists might go up to $300. This is just one character being drawn in a simple environment I'm talking about. Every additional person adds just as much. If you want a ten-person portrait, you could very well be expecting to pay $1000s for an image. There is a reason giant compilation images are done so rarely.

Typically, I've found there to be a lot of flexibility when it comes to art based on style. There are no hard and fast rules, but in general a full person in a simple background, you're looking at $50. Meanwhile, a portrait style with only their face might be $25. Adding backgrounds of any decent quality explodes the cost accordingly. That's assuming color with some competent (but not great) shading.

Realistic, cell shading, black and white, commercial use, use of complicated armor, NSFW content, all of that can potentially adjust the price for an illustrator. All images were not created equal...

As for designers, they can be cheaper, and they can be more expensive. Ultimately, what you're buying is their eye for design and skill with photoshop. Personally, I have no eye for art. Even when it comes to the illustrators, I buy images from... I literally can't tell when images are good. I've had images I thought were fine that my fans hated, and images I thought were awful that my fans applauded. So, when you hire a designer, you have to trust that they know what makes a good book cover.

Then again, maybe you already know the design you want, and you're literally just there to tell them exactly what you want. I suppose that is the difference between a book cover designer and a book cover creator, although I didn't make a distinction earlier for simplicity's sake. Thus, that might be one more layer you have to go through. Some book cover artists are just there to realize your design, while others expect to have a bit of creative freedom. When it comes to it, the designers, especially the good ones, are usually worth more.

As for where you can find these artists, Wattpad's own illustration sections in the forums is a good place to start checking, but you'll find a lot of other places you may need to check too. You can hire illustrators on Fiverr, or also find them in Deviantart, Pixiv, or one of the many other places where illustrators congregate. There are also places on Reddit, like /starvingartist and /hungryartist that you could also post ads. This is where I'm going to change gears and give you a bit of warning.

I do warn you though, some "book cover creators" price themselves at the rate of a "book cover designer", trying to use your doubt to shuffle their way in to some free money. The same can be said with illustrators, some who are less qualified than they lead on. That's why...

On the /hungryartist Reddit thread, there is a post that tells illustrators what they are worth. They offer rules to keep artists from being underpaid, not allowing anyone to ask for an offer

You see... a qualified artist IS worth around $35 an hour. The problem is, the vast majority of artists you'll come across pedaling online are beginners. Many think they are a lot better than they actually are, and will even get offended if they encounter anyone who faces them with even basic amounts of criticism.

"It takes me X amount of time to complete this gig, so with the amount of money we agreed upon, I'm only making X amount."

You might hear this or something like it. However, here's the problem. It takes YOU x amount of time to complete this gig. It might take a skilled and knowledgeable artist half or a third of that time. Just by being better at their job, another artist makes three times that amount an hour without me, the user, paying them more (and likely I'd get a better product too).

There lies the conundrum of artists referring to their work on a per-hour basis. In general, you ask for a specific work to be finished, agree on a price, and then the artist completes the work based on the price agreed. How long they take to do it is entirely up to them. However, just because my second-grade kid took six hours to draw a crayon tree does not mean they're worth six hours at $35 an hour, and just because at an artist's skill level, it takes them about 8 hours to finish a gig does not mean they're entitled to... well... even minimum wage.

I'm not sure how many artists will ever read this thing, but if I had any advice for you, the thing you should work on the most isn't the quality of your work, but it's the speed. It should naturally reach a competent level, but once you're at a good enough level, most people who hire you will know what they are getting, especially if you have a large portfolio. You need to be able to finish work quickly. The quicker you can get it done, the more you'll make. After you get your speed up, then you can work on improving quality. Ultimately, a skilled illustrator is one who is both fast and good, because that's what would be needed from ANY artistic field.

You see, the finest work an artist makes and puts on display in their portfolio is NEVER going to be the art they make for you. Unless you're lucky enough to find a skilled artist who is also a major fan of your work, which is unlikely unless you're already extremely successful, which is kind of a catch-22 that by the time you're big enough to get people freely doing art for you, you can easily afford the best art you can pay for, you're unlikely to get an artist who will go all out for you.

Why would they? They aren't passionate about your project. They don't care about you. You're just a small paycheck for them. Any artist you hire is going to do your art as quickly and for as minimum effort as they can. Don't get me wrong. Many of them have a basic level of standard, but if it's a $50 image they just want to finish and move on, they're not going to be spending oodles of time reflecting on your art, repositioning, fixing, and trying to maximize it so it's the best thing.

Some artists... and I try to avoid these, will say "what's your budget". If an artist asks what your budget is without having a basic quote scheme... I'd run. Believe me, their image will cost exactly as much as your budget is, and the quality won't be any better for it.

I'd also say I'd try to avoid anyone who charges differently for different quality levels. Drawing more complicated things, sure. Drawing more things, sure. A head versus a whole body, a simple versus complex background... all fair game. I'd even say color versus black and white. However, if they're claiming their art will be better and have more detail the more you pay... that is a slippery slope and a hard gauge to make, and I'd back away, because you'll never know what they truly offer until it's too late and you've already paid.

Ultimately, you'll probably want to spend the least you need to for the best work they're willing to do, while they simultaneously will want to make the most money they can. If you actually want an artist long term... like you want the same artist for an image of every character in your book, that grows even more difficult. Because they might be willing to do a picture for you, but if they feel they're being undercharged, then they'll be less willing to do pictures with you than with someone they negotiated at a higher price. At that point, you can either raise your price or lose your artist... and if you're halfway through a set of images, losing the artist and being forced to change to a new one can really mess things up.

I have hundreds of dollars of art that are virtually unusable because they were one-offs by an artist that I chose not to rehire or who chose not to work with me. It really messes up your flow, especially when you're trying to create unifying art.

The best I can say is to always be clear. Don't allow yourself to be taken advantage of, but don't be rigid either. Decide the quality you want, and then look at images that people have gotten with that quality. That's ultimately the price point you should give for it. And if you hire an artist, and they ultimately do not deliver that quality, you have every right to request they improve on it. In other words, you need to both be flexible with what you get, but also be willing to walk away if the deal leaves you unsatisfied.

While looking for artists, I've had many unique experiences. I mentioned earlier that artists will approach you who don't even draw in the style you ask for. If you ask them for examples of their work, they literally don't have them and won't even make them unless you pay them. It is... absolutely ridiculous.

Some pull the quote I mentioned above, claiming their work is worth far more than I value their work. The good ones communicate with you, but some won't say a thing to you until they send you the finished product. Was it even what you envisioned? Too bad. You're stuck with it.

A good artist will always show you sketches first and will be flexible and willing to work with you. One of the biggest problems when getting what you want is that it's really hard to judge what something looks like just by the sketch. However, most artists aren't willing to do much after the image is already finished. Once they color it, they're pretty much done. I've only known a handful of artists that, if you're not happy, will go back to the drawing board and redo it until you are.

I guess the main point of it is that artists are content creators just like you. Imagine every single issue you've ever had in your pursuit of writing. Mean comments. Reluctance to throw away completed work and restart when it doesn't work out. A desire to be validated. They go through the same stuff we do.

Then again, most of you aren't requesting money either, so that adds another layer of expectation. If you want to get paid for your art, it better be at a level that people feel they are getting their money's worth.

Ultimately, it's up to you what you want to invest in art. I've invested HEAVILY in art, obviously, and I feel that it's a lot of the reason my brand has built to the success that it has. Then again, I've seen authors who do freemium for everything. Cheap auto-generated clipart covers, google-lifted images for characters, and even cropped wallpapers for site banners, and many of them have been perfectly successful. They've made a decent living, and have spent little of their own money into it.

Hopefully, this guide has prepared you a little bit for when you start seeking out art as well.