Looking for an artist for cover of my book?

What kind of artwork is it? A scene? Something basic?

How about having an art contest in a school, high school or college for your cover? You will be able to pick a variety....and then offer a gift certificate or cash for the winner. Send letters or fax to the art teachers of schools.

Some newer non established artists may be interested in the exposure but you should probably purchase the supplies for them which could cost you $50 by themselves.

I have brushes that cost $100...that is why they call us starving artists because we would rather buy art supplies than eat! LOL Good Luck!

Are you trying to self publish your book? I'm assuming you are, since publishing houses are the ones who are responsible for jacket design and the like.

What kind of look are you going for on your jacket, and are you willing to compromise on who you go with as an illustrator (professional versus amateur). If at all possible, I would try to do the work myself. Take a photograph of something that relates to your story and play around with it in Photoshop. To go to a professional illustrator of books is, or can be, quite expensive. I work for a large publishing house, and we have agencies we go to when trying to figure out who we would like to work with. The lowest I have ever heard an illustrator was paid for a jacket painting was $1500 (it may be less, though; I'm NOT privy to the costs of all of the jacket art done for our publishing house), and you also have to consider the illustrator's contract and copyright. They will probably have to be credited on your jacket, and if you go with a professional, you'll have to worry about drawing up a contract. It's for your protection as much as it is for them. You don't want them selling the art for your book for someone else to use!

I suggest you try going to a nearby liberal arts college and posting up an ad in the art department. I do, however, feel $50 is not enough money, especially when you think about how much supplies, paper, et cetera cost. If you don't feel comfortable asking them for what their fee is, do a random search online to see how much supplies would cost, think about how long you think the work could take to draw (depending on how complex your illustration is; it could probably go for as few as 6 to 20 hours), and then times those hours by, say, $20-$30 an hour. It'll give you a rough idea of total costs.

If you don't feel confident enough with your photography work, perhaps try places like Corbis or Getty Images to buy stock photo. I don't know how much they cost, but it will be considerably cheaper than hiring an illustrator.

And be careful about just pulling images off of the Internet, like doing an image search on Google. Those images are most likely copyrighted, and use of them will only cause you headaches later on if you intend for public (and wide) distribution of your book.

Good luck!

Your cheapest bet would be to do it yourself, or try a photo stock company, and lastly, try hiring someone from an art school (don't discount high schoolers, either!).

Unless you are self-publishing, this is not really a problem. Publishers will find the artist for your book. Very rarely do authors have much to say about who does the cover art for the book.

50 is way too little, unless it's a givee, which u shouldn't count out. More reasonable would be a minumum of 300.00. SYou might try approaching the local art class and find someone talented and willing to help you out..