Images & Permissions For Your Self-Published Book

This is the third article in my self-publishing series. The first covered the drafting & editing process while last week’s talked about creating your cover. At this point you’ve got a nearly finished draft and an awesome cover for your book. Are you ready to hit publish now? Well, no. There are a few more things to think about, including book images & permissions. This part doesn’t apply to all authors. If you are writing a novel that you dreamed up and don’t need any images, you can skip ahead to the next article. But, especially if you are writing non-fiction, you’ll need to spend a reasonable amount of time on this step.

Book Images

Will your book have pictures, tables, drawings, figures, or any other types of illustrations? Now is the time to sort those out. You’ll either have to find or create any graphics you’d like to include in your book and get permissions for anything you didn’t create.

What Images Will You Include?

I started by going through my manuscript and making a list of all of the visuals I wanted to create or use in my book. My book was written after a series of lectures I’d already given, so I had a good idea of where visuals would be helpful. If you’re not sure, ask your beta readers or editor which parts of your book could use a picture or which were confusing without one. If you have an important message and want your readers to remember it, an image is a good way to underscore your point.

Once I had my list, I went through the entries with a fine-tooth comb and decided whether I absolutely needed to use that graphic or not. Did it help clarify a point I was making? Would a picture help the reader remember my point? Did the picture help support an anecdote? I knew I would either have to track down the permissions for each and every visual I used or pay a graphic designer to create it. So, this part – reducing my images – was really important. Visuals take time and/or money to produce so make sure the ones you pick count.

Black & White or Color?

At this point, it’s also a good idea to decide whether your pictures will appear in black and white or color. Printing a book in color is a lot more expensive. Sure, you can charge more, but if you don’t really need the color, then it’s much better to make all of your graphics black and white. Your profit margin will thank you!

Creating Your Own Images

If you have some talent as a graphic designer, then you’re in luck! You might be able to create your graphics yourself. I am not a graphic designer, so I had to go out and find one. If you are creating your own graphics, make sure you adhere to your publishing platform’s guidelines (Amazon’s KDP guidelines are here). At the very least, you will need flattened images that are 300 DPI (dots per inch) to ensure your images are clear once they are printed.

Finding a Graphic Designer

Just like the editing professionals, you can source a good graphic designer for your book almost anywhere. I see them on a lot of freelance platforms like Fivrr and you may have connections already who have graphic design experience. Mine was recommended to me by a colleague in my writing group and she worked out amazingly well. She ended up charging me $50/hour and created seven images for me for a total of around $500. I feel like she was probably on the more inexpensive side. She was working as a graphic designer for a major retailer in New York, so she had a good portfolio to show me.

I had her start with two images for me, just to make sure I liked her work. Once they came back and looked fabulous, I unleashed her on the other images.

Working With a Graphic Designer

Each Graphic Designer will have their own preferences. With mine, I sent her a few details of what I wanted that usually included a hand-drawn version of it, color considerations, and perhaps a few examples that I found online that were similar to what I wanted. I tried to be as clear as possible. She would ask questions, then let me know when I could expect the first draft. We might go back and forth with tweaks a few times, but I usually had my images in a week or two. She’d invoice me at the end.

I absolutely loved outsourcing this part of the book. Not only did I get a high-quality image that didn’t appear anywhere else, but I was then able to focus on other parts of my book while the pictures got done.

Asking for Permissions

You’ll need to get explicit permission to use an image that you didn’t create. You’ll also need permission to paraphrase a decent chunk of someone else’s work. This section may not apply to you if you are, for instance, writing a novel of your own creation. For those of us in the non-fiction space, however, permissions are an important consideration.

When Do You Need Permission?

You don’t need permission if the work is in the public domain or has a creative commons license that states you can publish the image or work for your specific purposes. Read the license carefully. Some licenses allow you to use the image except if you intend to make money from it. You also don’t need to get permission if you are simply quoting another’s work. Quote it and put an entry in your bibliography. The best rule of thumb I found was that if you paraphrase more than a paragraph’s worth of information, get permission. Then, of course, cite the work both in your text and in your bibliography.

Getting Permission

If you’re paraphrasing a book, many times there will be contact information for the publisher on the copyright page. You can reach out to them for permissions. If there isn’t contact information or you’re paraphrasing something else like a blog post, you can reach out directly to the author. If they have a website, they generally will have contact information on the website. Maybe they own a company and you can reach out to their communications department. Finally, I found a lot of my contacts via LinkedIn. LinkedIn will often give away a free month of their Premium membership. That membership level allows you to reach out to anyone, not just those in your network. I always save those offers for a time where I need to use them. It worked really well for reaching out to authors to get permissions for my book. Sometimes you’ll have a mutual connection already and can leverage them for an introduction.

How to Ask Permission

I would always reach out with a little context and why I was hoping to use the creator’s work. For example, this was one of my inquiries:

“Hi Jake – I teach an agile-focused Computer Science Capstone course at UW-Madison and am writing a book that mirrors the course. In it, I have a short section on google design sprints and I mention your book and the methodology. (We actually run a Google Design Sprint in the class!) I was wondering if it would be OK to publish one or more of the following graphics along with the book. I will, of course, give full credit to you. Please let me know if it’s ok to do so or if you’d like me to inquire elsewhere! Here’s a bit more about the project: https://amberrfield.com/books/.”

In this case, I’m writing to Jake Knapp who wrote the book, Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. With a tiny bit of googling, I’d found his direct email address. Not only did he respond quickly, he mentioned that his co-author, John Zeratzsky, now lives in Milwaukee and urged me to reach out. One of my favorite things about the permissions process was connecting with some of my heroes who I’d been following for years (like Jake and Henrik Kniberg).

One of my favorite things about the permissions process was connecting with some of my heroes who I’d been following for years (like Jake and Henrik Kniberg).

This was an unexpected, yet amazing side-effect of finally writing my book!

Illustration Credits & Bibliography

Once you have permission, you should cite that in your bibliography (more on that in a future post). I also have an Image Credits page at the back of my book. There, I listed the creators of all of my images and who gave me permission to use them. For example:

“Chapter 2: The Self-Selection Process was crated by Nomad8 & Sandy Mamoli, 2016. Permission granted for use by David Mole. https://nomad8.com/articles/self-selection-on-a-page.”

What If You Don’t Get Permission?

It is such a relief when you finally hear back from everyone you need permission from. However, there were a few people who I didn’t hear back from. For those images, I either reasoned that I could take them out or created something that turned out to be better. I had one major section on Lean Start-up that I was really hoping to use. I was lucky enough to get Eric Ries’ company to grant me permission. Even if I hadn’t, there were still ways to make the book work (i.e. mention the book quickly and then focus on other methodologies like Design Thinking).

The process of getting permission can take quite a bit of time. You have to find contact information for everyone, reach out, then wait. It’s best to start this a few months before you publish as well. Perhaps even during the editing process if you can spare the time. In the end, I found the image & permissions part of writing the book to be a fun and fulfilling one. I hope you do too!