How much does a childrens book illustrator cost?

Whenever anyone asks me how much does a childrens book illustrator cost, I want to reply, how much is a car. The answer is not a dollar figure, but another question, what is it that you are looking for specifically?

The most expensive illustrators are well known and established best sellers. Cost is effected by experience, cost of materials, time it takes to create and how well known an illustrator is.

I have seen illustrations range from $25 per page to $25,000. The average being $240 to $540 per page. As in most cases, you get what you pay for. The cheapest rates are from students or recent college graduates are the least expensive, but their style is most likely still developing and your first page will most likely look a lot different than the last page of your book. Also, the artist may not have the printing experience to create your artwork and you really could have something that is unusable by printers because they were created at the wrong size or resolution.

My rate for illustration was $240 per page but I have recently reduced it to $120 per page because of the bad economy. I start with a hand drawn sketch based on your input then send it to you for any revision, then I illustrate in Vector (Illustrator) which allows for easy revisions and high quality printing.