Hello there!
I'm a freelance illustrator working with both self publishing authors and publishers for print and kindle.....My main focus is children's books but i also work on poetry books, fiction and non fiction titles and cover design...I've written a little piece here on working with illustrators for your story...http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/47_452554.asp

Thanks!
Joanna
www.joanna-scott.com

Hi Joanna and welcome to WriteWords- do you usually work with writers as they're creating the book/story or do they present you with a draft and you then respond with some artwork?

Hi there!
Normally the writer would have their story ready to go. Sometimes there is a bit of tweaking of the book during the line drawing phase of the illustration as you fit into a work flow with the writer.

Once you are painting up its more of a challenge to change the work without it being a complete redraw, so I encourage good communication during the line drawing phase. If the budget allows there would be colour roughs of cover and layout illustrations to talk about before doing the line drawings. 

Great question, thanks for asking!
J