black and white book illustration by book illustrator Duncan Long

Recently a few publishers have started adding black and white illustrations to their novels and short story collections. In the past when type was still being set for printing, the use of such illustrations was generally saved for key points within a book, such as the title page. Otherwise, fictional books were pretty much free of illustrations. (About the only exception to this were children’s books that sometimes had beautiful color “plates” bound into the text pages.)

With modern printing techniques and digital layout of pages, there’s no longer any reason to avoid sprinkling pictures throughout a novel.

And with today’s reader being pulled between movies on one side of the entertainment arena and graphic novels on the other, it isn’t surprising that publishers are trying to add a little visual interest to their novels with the insertion of illustrations.

This is a logical next step; a few years ago (and totally unaware that other publishers might be considering doing the same), I started adding black and white illustrations to the text of several of my self-published novels and a short story collection.

Later I did much the same thing (in large part as a “layout exercise”) creating an illustrated version of Poe’s The Raven (which is still available as a free download). Of course this latter example may not count since Poe’s story has drawn publishers and editors to create illustrated versions of it almost from the time Poe penned it.

So with all this going on, it came as no big surprise to me when TOR started sprinkling black and white illustrations in some of its titles. Nor was I taken of guard when two of own my customers wanted some black and white illustrations for their books (Richard Thieme’s Mind Games and Victor Thorn’s upcoming Reality Bomb.

Where will this trend end?

For me at least, half the fun is finding out, creating black and white illustrations of my own along the way.

If this practice catches on, it may be that the novel 20 years from now will be something like a cross between a graphic novel and a novel.

The question is whether it will catch on. Because those extra illustrations cost a publisher money, and too often presses are forced to cut down on their expenses to make their books more competitive. If black and white illustrations aren’t drawing readers and increasing sales, you can bet they’ll be the first thing to go when pennies start getting pinched.

Interesting times.

=====================
Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
=====================