Suggestions for B&W and Colour printing

[YadhavaKrishnan Ranjani S]

Debut Author – Need Advice on Images: Color, B&W, or None?

Hi everyone,
I’m excited to share that my debut book will be published this coming October!

Right now, I’m facing a dilemma: should I publish the book with color illustrations, keep them in black-and-white, or even remove them altogether?
A bit of context:

• The story blends slice-of-life with fantasy elements.
• I’ve included one illustration per chapter.
• If I choose color, the MRP becomes nearly three times higher compared to black-and-white.

As a debut author, I’m not sure what would serve the book best—both in terms of reader expectations and affordability. Would color feel essential for this genre? Would black-and-white be more fitting and budget-friendly? Or should I remove the images entirely and let the story stand on its own?

I’d really appreciate your thoughts and experiences. What would you suggest?

 

[Naomasa298]

Self-pub or trad pub?

 

[YadhavaKrishnan Ranjani S]

Self publishing

 

[Naomasa298]

Debut book? Keep it as cheap as possible, because the sad reality is, you will almost certainly lose money on it.

 

[YadhavaKrishnan Ranjani S]

In that case, I have to go to black and white only
So having images in black and white is fine or shall I remove the images all together?

 

[Naomasa298]

That's a choice you have to make for yourself, I can't see your manuscript. Ask yourself what the illustrations are adding for the reader.

 

[JT Woody]

I would say how many illustrations?
The author and painter, BROM, has a ton of paintings that also tell the story (he is a dark horror artist and writer).
All of his paintings are in color. But he alsonpublishes like once every few years. I think it was like 5 or 6 years for his most recent to come out?
Color pages equal more money.

HOWEVER, if you have, lets say, a map in the opening and closing pages... is it worth it to spend the extra money to have those printed in color? (Just thoughts....)

 

[YadhavaKrishnan Ranjani S]

I would say how many illustrations?
The author and painter, BROM, has a ton of paintings that also tell the story (he is a dark horror artist and writer).
All of his paintings are in color. But he alsonpublishes like once every few years. I think it was like 5 or 6 years for his most recent to come out?
Color pages equal more money.

HOWEVER, if you have, lets say, a map in the opening and closing pages... is it worth it to spend the extra money to have those printed in color? (Just thoughts....)

There are 30 chapters in my story, Each chapter has an image of a scene representing the whole chapter or start or end of a chapter.
I am not thinking to spend more, but eventually price of the book will raise to meet the production cost, which may make the reader think "is it worth to spend?" right

 

[big soft moose]

most self pub sales willbe ebook, so unless the ilustrations are critcial i'd remove them to keep memory size down

 

[Catrin Lewis]

We live in a time when readers (certain kinds of readers) love fancy special editions. So don't give up on your concept all together. But you might test the waters first by going with black and white, then issuing your deluxe version in color when its time has come.

Whatever you do, make sure the writing is good and strong. You do not want to repeat the errors of the young author whose badly-written but highly-illustrated novel is currently providing BookTokkers and BookTubers with an endless supply of content.