What's your opinion on illustrations in novels?
I personally really love them. I consume lots of visual media, but also love books, but I love seeing some well crafted illustrations in them. It's just adds a little something. It also seems lots of people agree, but some think it's childish and publishers don't seem to be a big fan.
I'm also a writer and artist myself and I think it would be so cool to add some illustrations in my books, because I want to share not only my stories but my art too. Especially when writing fantasy like me, I feel like it can really enhance the aesthetics.
by Neko1666
3 Comments
I love illustrations in novels, though I would add, tasteful ones. And what is tasteful is personal, so that’s neither here nor there. But yeah, I love illustrations and writer-illustrator remains my dream profession. 😊
I think they can be really cool, especially for books with strange concepts in them that need to be explored visually, but I don’t trust debut novels with illustrations. A book that is bad is one thing, a book that is bad and also beautiful is another entirely.
I almost always enjoy illustrations in novels, if only to get an idea what the mental image the author has of the scene in question. With that said, I don’t really feel that they are necessary. People who read fantasy usually have pretty evolved mental imaging capabilities to imagine the worlds they read about. Like I said though, it’s nice to see how the author sees things.