Why are we told not to use illustrations?

[Richard]

I read quite a lot of advice about writing when I started out (over a year ago, now!) and ignored a lot of it. But one I did take on was to not use illustrations in fiction. In my latest novella (not yet out) I ignored this, and started including in-line illustrations, in the way I always had when writing technical articles in my previous life. Suddenly, it made writing a lot easier, and I'm thinking I'll continue with it, at least for the novella series where the MC is an engineer. Thinking back to Conan Doyle and others of his time, it was accepted that illustrations were part of fiction, at least genre fiction. I wonder where this advice comes from? Is it just the desire to make one's writing appear 'literary,' or is it based on the cost or the fact that most people who can write can't draw? Thoughts?

[Hákon]

I have no idea where this advice comes from, and I'm not sure if it is a good one or not. Maybe the reason for this advice is that it adds cost to the book, but I'm really not sure. I read this novel a earlier this year: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
and that one has got illustrations. So you're not alone in using them at the moment, and to be honest I think they can be a good addition to the story. In Dragonfly they didn't add much to the narrative, but I thought they were a nice way to show the ideas behind the novel.

[Jeno]

Honestly, that's a weird advice. I suspect it is valid for some portion of e-readers, for not all illustrations will be properly displayed on all devices. If you care about someone who still reads from such a device, then you might give putting illustrations into your book a second thought. And that's a case of technology getting in the way of art/expression. What matters to you personally? Your illustration, or some 0.0000001% of readers who wouldn't be able to view them properly?

If you want to illustrate your story, by all means do so.

[Richard]

It's true they look less good on a basic e-reader, but not to the point of being illegible. Your point on cost is good, Hákon but I don't think it's true in the present world. My POD and eBook versions are unaffected by the pictures.

[Christina]

Odd. I've never heard that. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least three books with illustrations that were quite popular. Vonnegut used doodles of questionable nature and no one complained, least to my knowledge.

[Richard]

Well, you get a lot of advice in various forms when you first start out. Two great bits of advice I got from a rejection letter from one of the agents I sent MS to. 1) just keep writing, and 2) check out Goodreads.

[[deleted user]]

I've never heard that you shouldn't use illustrations, but my only traditional publishing experience is from selling a few short stories to magazines, and for every story of mine they published they provided illustrations.

[Micah]

I think it's different if we're talking print or digital.

In print I don't think there's a huge taboo anymore. It used to be that printers had to cut dies for the illustrations. Newer technology made printing illustrations cheaper.

The only reasons against using illustrations in print books now would be the quality of the artwork (if you're illustrations aren't pro-quality, then they can really detract from the presentation), and the fact that some readers really dislike having someone destroy their mental image of what's described in the text. There are people out there who absolutely detest anyone showing them what a character looks like, for example.

In digital books, however, (aside from the above, which obviously apply here as well) there are a couple other issues. As Jelena pointed out, eBooks are prone to all kinds of formatting and presentation problems. Since they can be read on anything from tiny smartphone to huge-monitored desktops, you have very little control over how the end product looks on any given reader. Illustrations can be problematic.

Secondly, there are handling costs deducted from your sales pre-royalty calculation (at least from amazon) for the size of your eBook file. And illustrations rapidly increase the size of that file.

Oh...AND, if you're inserting them inside the main body text, the DO interrupt the flow of reading, which can be kind of annoying. It's less annoying in print where it's easier to ignore them, but in an eReader, you HAVE to scroll or page past them on-screen and this can get annoying. I mean, I even get annoyed having to scroll past pictures and imbedded videos on web pages.

[Richard]

In my own book I included sketches, diagrams, maps, extra boxes of info and even one graph! Hardback and paperback were fine, and the only problem I've had is (inevitably) with the eBook where captions can become separated from their illustrations (i.e. appearing at the top of the following page). Incorporating any captions as fully part of their illustrations would avoid that.

[Richard]

Thanks, Richard. Yes, I've noticed WP programs in general are tough on captions. I just place the picture strategically in the flow of the text. I've not had a lot of flow problems, as long as they are inline and there is no text beside them. To answer the question about ruining readers visualisation of the characters, these are renderings of space vehicles and the odd station interior, no people in them.

[Richard]

Well, it's done, so I guess I'll see how much trouble I'm in. Uploaded to all platforms today illustrations and all!