Get the insider view on the book illustration market!
Imagine holding your very own stunning art-driven non-fiction book in your hands, written and illustrated by YOU! Arty books can be travel guides, heavily illustrated guided journals, graphic novels, craft how-tos, social/emotional and neurodiverse art-driven memoirs, and tons more. They are a brilliant way to derive income and expand your creative career.
I Just Like to Make Things, written and illustrated by Lilla Rogers.
To learn more about this amazing art market, be sure to check out art agent and author Lilla’s one-of-a-kind course, My Arty Book Pitch, plus her FREE video mini-series, How to Write and Illustrate Non-fiction Books – sign up to our fabulous Freebie Library for immediate access to this and tons more fantastic content to support your creative career.
To bring you the inside scoop on the book illustration market, we caught up with industry insider Mary Ann Hall of Quarry Books. She tells us what she’s looking for, the one thing she wishes artists would change when pitching to her, and how the book illustration market can be lucrative for artists.
About Mary Ann
Mary Ann is an experienced publishing professional specializing in innovative, illustrated art and technique books. For 12 years, she led the art and crafts publishing program for Quarry Books and is currently editorial director for Quarry Books and Rockport Publishers developing books on art, crafts, design, artisan food and lifestyle topics.
Currently based in Shaker Heights, Ohio, she is a Midwesterner who has lived the largest part of her life elsewhere and an urbanite who loves to hang out in woods. As a serial enthusiast, she enjoys many creative pursuits, including Burmese cooking, zydeco dancing, hiking, hot yoga, painting, reading, and having adventures with her children. Mary Ann has also been one of the esteemed judges on the Global Talent Search judging panel.
Primary Market: The illustrated book market.
How can the book illustration market be lucrative for an artist?
Doing regular freelance work as a designer or illustrator, or if you are a really accomplished artist, perhaps you can author a book.
What is going to be hot in the book illustration market in 2015, such as subject matter, colors, products?
Beautiful art and creativity books that offer something really unique.
What kinds of products/offerings are a growth sector for your company?
Illustration practice and technique books have been our strongest category.
Beautiful arty books for the book illustration market, agented by Lilla Rogers and illustrated by some of the artists she represents.
What do you look for when buying new art?
A unique vision, total beauty, accessibility for a wide market.
Is there any rhyme or reason to why some products sell well and why others don’t?
Not always. I am sometimes surprised!
What is the one thing you wish artists would do differently when pitching art to you? Or what do you love that they do when they pitch to you?
I like a concise message, a clear pitch and an overview that really gives the pitch at a glance, with enough supporting material that I see that the artist has done their homework. And tell me WHY it will sell, and how your network will support that.
What one piece of advice do you have for artists trying to sell their first piece of art in the book illustration market?
Don’t give up!
Thanks Mary Ann! Do you want to make a living writing and illustrating your own gorgeous arty books? Don’t miss Lilla’s unique My Arty Book Pitch course!
Explore this and all of art agent Lilla’s raved-about online courses here.
