What illustrations and diagrams cost

What illustrators and designers charge

Most published price data comes from children's books, because that is where most illustration money is spent. It still gives a fair per-image guide for a nonfiction book.

Checked October 25, 2026. The Graphic Artists Guild publishes its pricing guidelines in a paid handbook, so its figures are not shown here.

Reedsy says the exact price depends on the artwork's complexity and the illustrator's experience, and that less experienced illustrators are generally cheaper. Its own listed illustrators need five or more years of experience and at least five published works, so its figures describe established freelancers.

Diagrams and charts in a nonfiction book

A business or how-to book rarely needs painted art. It needs a handful of frameworks, process diagrams and charts that make the argument easier to follow. You have three ways to get them.

Our arithmetic: 12 x $60 = $720; 12 x $200 = $2,400; 12 x $50 = $600 for each hour spent per image.

Ask for quotes per image and per revision round, and send your rough sketches with the brief. A designer who redraws a sketch is doing a different job from an illustrator who invents an image, and should price it that way. Agree in writing that you can use the finished art in the print book, the ebook, the audiobook's PDF companion and your marketing. If a diagram will become part of your talks, say so up front.

Diagrams also affect layout. A designer setting a book with charts and tables does more work per page, which is one reason the formatting guide suggests paying a professional for illustrated interiors.

Stock images and their licenses

Stock is the cheapest route to photographs and many icons. The license, not the price, is what to read.

Checked October 25, 2026. Shutterstock's license pages would not load for our checks that day, so they are not summarized here; read them before you buy.

At $29.99 for 10 images, Adobe Stock works out to $3.00 an image if you use all 10, but the annual commitment makes it a yearly cost, not a one-month one. For a book that needs eight photographs, that matters. A 500,000-copy cap will not limit a self-published nonfiction book, but the resale rule matters for covers and merchandise: if an image is the main thing a buyer is paying for, as on a poster or a print, the standard license does not cover it.

iStock adds a rule worth knowing for sensitive topics. If an image showing a model could be read as unflattering or controversial, you must say it is "for illustrative purposes only," and indicate the person is a model, for example "Stock photo. Posed by model." A memoir chapter about addiction or illness illustrated with a stock face is exactly that case.

Images you did not make

This is a step to plan for, not legal advice. Every image in the book needs a basis: you made it, you commissioned it with the right agreement, you licensed it, or it is in the public domain or fair use. The US Copyright Office's answer to "how do I get permission" is short: "You can ask for it," by contacting the owner directly (Copyright Office FAQ). And "in cases of doubt, the Copyright Office recommends that permission be obtained."

Three points from the same page trip authors up:

• "The subject of the photograph generally has nothing to do with the ownership of the copyright in the photograph." A photo of you is usually owned by whoever took it.
• Owning a physical print does not give you the copyright.
• The Library of Congress, "with few exceptions," does not own copyright in its collections, so an image on its site still needs its own rights check.

Fair use exists, but "Courts evaluate fair use claims on a case-by-case basis" (Copyright Office, fair use index), weighing four factors including whether the use is commercial and its effect on the market for the original. A book you sell is commercial. If the book depends on images you did not make, budget for permission fees and, if you want help, a permissions researcher at the EFA's $50 an hour. If the fees are high, ask your editor which images the book can live without.

Black ink or color: the cost on every copy

Amazon KDP prices a paperback as a fixed amount plus a per-page amount, and the per-page rate is set by the ink you choose (KDP Paperback Printing Cost). For a 200-page book at a regular trim such as 6 x 9 inches:

Royalty uses KDP's formula, 60% of a list price of $9.99 or more, minus printing (KDP Paperback Royalty): 60% of $19.99 is $11.99. Standard color is available for 72 to 600 pages.

The formula multiplies the color rate by the full page count, and Vellum's guide to color printing puts it plainly: "it doesn't matter how many of them are in color" (Vellum, updated June 3, 2025). Ten color charts in a 200-page book cost the same as 200 color pages. KDP's own help says standard color suits "books with a high page count, and interiors with fewer images," premium suits image-heavy books such as cookbooks, and the ink type cannot be changed after publication (KDP Color Ink Options).

For most nonfiction, the sensible choice is diagrams designed to work in black and gray, with color kept for the ebook, where it costs nothing extra to print. Ebooks have their own image cost: at the 70% royalty, Amazon.com charges $0.15 per megabyte of file on each sale (KDP Digital Book Pricing). A 10 MB file full of large images costs $1.50 a sale; compressing images to bring it to 2 MB costs $0.30.

Try both inks in the calculator, which uses KDP's rates. The workbook guide compares color on KDP, IngramSpark and Lulu at a large trim.

File specs your designer and printer need

KDP's paperback submission guidelines set the floor:

• "Minimum resolution of 300 DPI," and a recommended maximum of 600 DPI to keep the file under 650MB.
• Images that run to the edge of the page must extend 0.125 inches beyond the trim.
• "Embed all fonts and images in your native file prior to submission."

The pixel math is simple: inches times 300. A diagram 4.5 inches wide needs 1,350 pixels across. A full-bleed image on a 6 x 9 page, with 0.125 inches of bleed on the top, bottom and outside edge, is 6.125 x 9.25 inches, or about 1,838 x 2,775 pixels. Ask your illustrator for vector files or high-resolution originals as well as print-ready ones, so the same art can be resized for a different trim, an ebook or a slide. Then check a printed proof: color art converted to black ink can lose contrast in ways a screen will not show.

Mistakes that cost money

• Choosing color for a few charts. On KDP the color rate applies to every page.
• Buying a stock plan for one book. Check whether it is an annual commitment before you sign up.
• Commissioning art without a written license. Agree on print, ebook and marketing use before work starts.
• Pulling images from the web. Being able to download an image is not permission to publish it.
• Sending low-resolution files. Anything under 300 DPI at its printed size can print soft.

Scribe Media, which makes this site, sells publishing with "professional editing and design" from $29,000, or $4,833 a month for 6 months (scribemedia.com/pricing); its pricing page does not mention illustrations or diagrams, so ask what is included if your book depends on them. For a book that needs a dozen clean diagrams, a freelance designer and black ink is a sound, affordable plan.