A professionally illustrated Halloween picture book for kids?

Maybe next year...

One of the covers for Jon Lymon's Halloween picture book for kids

I’ve been wanting to get my rhyming Halloween picture book for kids Is It Halloween Yet? professionally illustrated for years. I think it’s the strongest rhyming story I’ve written, and I’ve consistently managed to shift copies of the book even when there were no illustrations at all, just the words.

Currently, I’m providing the illustrations, which haven’t offended anyone yet, but aren’t how I envisage the final book looking. That will require the skills of a professional illustrator and I’m willing to pay for the best when I can afford it.

And I’d rather wait until I’ve got the money to pay for a pro than take the sloppy shortcut and use AI. As a writer whose livelihood has been ravaged by tech that relies on stealing copyrighted work to exist, I refuse to use AI anywhere in any of my books. It’s an international disgrace that the work of artists all over the world has been hoovered up by tech bods and used to generate slop machines so that talentless, creative voids who can’t be bothered to learn to design or pay a designer can get book covers and illustrations on the cheap.

AI illustrations are so easy to spot. Overcrowded, plastic-looking, devoid of originality (AI can only copy) with a sheen that can only be described as the colour of piss by this author. No thanks. I’d rather illustrate the book myself and take the bad reviews on the chin.

I sincerely hope readers the world over scroll on by any and every book that uses AI, especially this Halloween. Support real writers who use their own imagination, skill and talent.

As well as Is It Halloween Yet, there are some other Halloween picture books for kids that come highly recommended.