Illustrate this!

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by Tim Burdick on 10 February, 2019

The Greatest Fear: Your publisher has sent the new artwork for your book. The first glimpse is the hardest. You don't know what to expect. You are nervous. Did they capture the essence of your characters?

My story: The artwork arrived on Dec 24th. Seriously, I skipped Christmas and New Year's Eve before I opened the file. To be honest, I did provide detailed backgrounds on both of my main characters and luckily, they looked awesome!

The Second peek: Okay, now you are calm. You are examining your characters' faces and clothes, actions, etc. You accept the illustrator's creativity, he or she did a great job, but a few of the pictures bother you.

Advice: Re-read your story paragraph by paragraph and you can find slips--the wrong color or a missing item in the background. Is there a direct reference in the story? Or did you expect the readers to infer setting details and actions from your writing?

The Final look: My publisher provided a draft with highlighted passages, indicting the location of illustrations. I matched each passage with a picture and commented on mistakes, which stood out. Also, I found an extra picture and realized that I had misinterpreted a final picture in the story.

Finally, I wrote the publisher about my discoveries. Now I must wait and see.

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