Lila Jade – Rapid Kids Books

Features

• I wanted illustrations made for a mindfulness picture book for kids. The niche was hot and the text was ready to go. I thought I could draw it myself. Guys, it was a hot mess. And a waste of a week. A WEEK!
• I posted an illustration job on a freelance site to get someone else to illustrate it. Most of the bids were for $1k+.
• I knew I’d make my money back, but still. $1k? I wanted to be able to create a whole picture book series with 10+ books. That would mean $10,000. I tried a different approach.
• I went on stock photo websites and looked for illustrations of kids. Some of them really were good, but how am I supposed to tell a story about a kid when I have ONE drawing of him? His face never changes. His body never changes position. I’ve made picture books using stock photos before and it works for a very specific kind of book, but not one in which you have a main character, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to be able to make a character that I could use in books again and again. One who could move around and show different emotions.
• So back to the $1k option? Nope. I developed a super cool, super fast, and super easy way to illustrate my own picture books WITHOUT drawing them myself. It only takes me about an hour or two per book and the quality is amazing. The tool I use to do it is only about $13 a month (I used the free 30-day trial!) and it’s 100% licensed to use commercially. I don’t have to pay any royalties or per-image fees. And the options are virtually limitless.
• Just to prove a point, I went back to that freelance site and got a $500 job for picture book illustrations using my own method.