Including images in your book is an involved process, so you need to carefully consider when and how you do so. Our ultimate goal is to eliminate or minimize the need for costly image permissions fees so we can offer your book at the best possible price for students. Images can often be more expensive than previously published text to license, which can quickly inflate the price of your book. Therefore, it’s important to focus on using images that are content-driven, provide educational value to students, and will not incur fees.

Even when using images that don’t incur licensing fees, selecting too many images or adding extraneous images as space fillers can add to the price of the book due to design considerations and added length. This is why we feel it is important to use images to advance ideas in your book—not just to break up the text or give students something to look at.

When deciding if you should add an image, ask yourself:

• Does this image enhance the text for students in some way or offer a relevant subject for critique?
• Will the image increase students’ comprehension of the material?
• Does this image demonstrate a concept that isn’t already conveyed in the text?
• What would the caption be?

Additionally, when selecting images, consider how they’ll look when printed.

If your book will be printed in black and white, will a color image show up well in your text? Does it have enough contrast to demonstrate the same concepts? Does it convey the same message with or without color?