Hiring Freelance Illustrators, Narrators and Editors

When? Where? What? How?

If you’re an indie kids books publisher, you know this one thing: you can’t do everything yourself. This means you must hire people to do tasks that need to be done. Let’s talk about when to hire help, where to find personnel, what tasks are commonly hired out, and finally, how to contract with them.

When to Hire a Freelancer

First, when should you hire help? When it makes financial sense.

Let’s say that you are the author of the books you publish. That task, writing the stories and manuscripts, is the basis for everything your business does and has the most dollar value per hour of effort. But do you have to format the book for an epub? Do you have to create the audio files? Are there tasks that you can assign to others?

There are formulas for assigning a dollar value to tasks so that you can prioritize your time. But I think you already know this. And everything depends on your situation. Early in your career, you may be doing more tasks because you literally can’t afford to hire help. Later, you may be able to hire it done, but by then, you may have a simple process in place and it’s easier to just do it yourself. You’ll need to sift through the tasks and decide which to hire out. Here are some typical tasks for which publishers hire help.

Hiring Freelancers for Publishing Tasks

Illustrator. Most authors are not illustrators. I dabble in art, but it’s not professional level and would be embarrassing if I tried to illustrate a picture book. I always hire an illustrator and have written extensively about the process.

Layout/Design. On the other hand, I’ve become comfortable with the layout and design of a book after the art is delivered. I play with fonts, move images around and design covers (around the illustrator’s art). This has come at a high price! The professional program for layout and design is Adobe’s InDesign and it’s a difficult program with a steep learning curve. I put in the time to learn it and I’m reaping the benefits now. For example, if I sell foreign rights, I can easily send the files they need without having to go back to a freelancer for additional fees.

Hiring a graphic designer for layout and design means looking through portfolios to find covers, design elements (perhaps a combo of large and small fonts to enhance the text), and pricing. Behance.net is a great place to look for illustrators and graphic designers. Or use Reedsy’s listing of professionals.

Technical Files. For print ready files, you’ll need someone with InDesign experience. Yes, you can use any number of programs to create your book: Canva, Powerpoint, Microsoft Word, or other programs. But they are not designed to produce print ready files and your print files will be inferior. Either learn InDesign or hire someone to create your book in Indesign. (Affinity is the only substitute that works.)

Narrator. I don’t do audio. When I decide to create audiobooks, I knew this would be a freelancer! My first books were created through ACX, Amazon’s portal for audiobooks for indies. These days, I hire a narrator and upload files to Findaway for distribution. To find a narrator, you’ll listen to many audition files to find the right match for your work. Findaway Voices will help you find the right narrator. Or google audition or sample files from narrators. You’ll find a variety of companies representing narrators, across a wide range of prices. For example, try Audiofile’s list of talent.

Editorial. Your process may include a developmental editor, a copy editor, or proofreader. Your books will always benefit from an editor looking it over and helping you envision your book. I’ve used a developmental editor from Reedsy.com and will use her again for certain projects. My copy editor was introduced to me by a friend, and I think word-of-mouth is a great way to find freelancers. You’ll be able to check your friends’ experience with the freelancer. When you need a freelancers, talk about it, and often a friend will have a suggestion.

The Freelance Contract

It’s my policy to ALWAYS use a contract with freelance help. My business is built upon my intellectual property and a contract protects that foundation of my business. Terms of the employment are clearly stated in the contract so there’s no confusion, no arguing, and the rights are clearly stated. Here’s some ways that I’ve set up contracts with freelancers.

All Rights. For this type of contract, the freelancer agrees to do the work for a set fee and all rights are retained by my company. One argument against this type contract is that it’s not fair to acquire all rights. But there are many reasons why a freelancer would do this. First, there’s a reasonable payment that the freelancer wants/needs. Early in a freelancer’s career, it’s more common to sign an all rights contract because they need money to live on while they build their reputation and portfolios. An illustrator may be willing to sign an all rights contract that will produce their first published book. They need that credit on their resume, the experience of walking through such a project, and the thrill of seeing a book in the hands of kids. It’s a judgment call on the freelancer’s part; on the indie publisher’s part, it’s a wise move because the rights are clear to understand, and you may acquire assets such as art that could be used for a coloring book or perhaps a calendar.

Advance/Royalty. The advance/royalty contract is more typical of legacy publisher, who has the backing of a larger corporation. For this contract, a freelancer receives an advance against royalties. That means they receive a certain sum, let’s say $5000, and an agreement that they will receive 5% of royalties. When the book is produced and selling they must earn back the $5000 advance before they start to receive any additional money.

That’s a simplistic explanation! The royalty rates can be based on retail price, wholesale price, or the publisher’s net income, each carrying a different level of distribution of funds. The best, retail price, will earn the most money and is favored when possible. Royalty on net is typical from small publishers and shares the risk of marketing: you only earn when books sell and your royalty depends on how well it sells.

Indie publishers are often reluctant to use this type of contract because 1) the accounting burden), and 2) usually the freelancer keeps copyright which means any future projects would require further negotiations and profit-sharing. But it’s a payment model that remains popular from mid-list freelancers and up. When their skills are developed, they rightly deserve a higher share of profit.

Partners. One method of payment that considers the publisher and the freelancers needs equally is to become partners for this project. That means the expenses are totaled, and subtracted from profits. If anything remains, it is split equally (or as agreed upon in the contract.) The upfront costs are shared equally, and profits are usually in the second and subsequent years.

Some freelancers hesitate to do this because profit will depend on the success of the book! Yes. Sharing the risks will sometimes mean no profit; but for a successful project, it can bring considerably more rewards as the book becomes a classic and enjoys a long life.

As a publisher, I make decisions differently for each book. The needed freelancers, their skills and reputations, and my excitement for a project all factor into the decision of which contract is best.

I use SignNow.com to send digital contracts to freelancers, while others prefer Docusign.com. Either way, a signature on a digital contract is legally binding and much easier than trying to mail contracts.

How do YOU handle contracts?