I was impressed with Will Murai concept artwork, in particular, his image of the female writer pictured in a seemingly losing battle with the multi-limb-daemons of her characters, plot and, as I imagined, her self-imposed deadline. Will Mauri, is a concept artist from Sao Paulo Brazil whose work can be found online, and on his Pinterest page that is worth checking out if, like me, you are interested in learning how and what concept art can do for your writing project.

Depending on where you are in your book writing evolution, artwork may or may not be a concern. This subject was something I didn’t worry about until I was finished with my first ghostwriting manuscript; even though the idea of including black & white photographs somewhere in the book was discussed briefly during my short interview session with the person I was writing for.

So just how important is your involvement with the artwork for your writing project?  If you go the traditional route, with an established publisher and editors, you will probably have plenty of artwork help and assistance. If you take the self-publishing route you could find yourself responsible for every part of the book publishing process, up to and including providing the cover artwork and or pictures. In that case, understanding artwork resources could prove useful.

I started my search by typing in “free publishing artwork” and was taken to a page where several companies offered free publishing artwork and videos, some of there were actually free downloads, and other had small charges were way less than one dollar, that took them out of the “free” category but left them still within the for free to nearly free artwork. The only problem I found with this artwork was that somewhere in the future you might find that someone else used that same picture or video since much of the free artwork I saw was in the non-exclusive domain, meaning that unlike commissioned one-of-a-kind artwork, created exclusively for you or your project, this artwork seemed to be created non-exclusively or in other words for anyone.

Typing in paid publishing artwork also brought up several conceptual art companies willing to create original artwork for your project for a fee. Which route you choose to take will of course depends on your budget; I know established publishers have a larger artwork budget than most of us that don’t fall into the Bill Gates level of income. If you possess some line art, or drawing skills I guess you’re in luck when it comes to providing an image for your publication. I suppose even if you have a family member (as I do) who is good at artwork you come out on the lucky side too, even though I’m not sure of the legal ramifications, if any, would be for such a family related venture.

Just be aware that there are free places out there, and places that will charge you for your artwork needs; if you are willing, and able, to pay for your artwork needs. In that case you’re good to go in that area. Keep in mind that there are places out there who also offer free artwork choices with some limitations you might want to consider.