Shutterstock books vs artist books!

When I first started purchasing colouring books I soon discovered that some publications were made up of compliations of Shutterstock images rather than displaying just one artist. In this post I am going to do a review of Shutterstock books, tell you about what to look for and avoid and also some of the pros and cons of this type of publications.

Shutterstock is a huge online stock image bank where anyone can upload their images (drawings or photographs) for sale. Shutterstock takes a large piece of the revenue and the rest is transferred to the artist. The upside is of course that you get a platform to sell your images where buyers can search based on theme or keywords. This gives a potential to be found on a gigantic market and there is a chance for huge sales. Many photographers make a living off stock sites; they take pictures that have the potential to sell to different publications. You know those illustrations in brochures of piles of coins or people shaking hands or someone smiling into a headset? Typical stock photography. 

Earnings breakdown of Shutterstock.

Anyhow, Shutterstock is also home to many colouring pages and some of the largest publishing houses have jumped on the bandwagon and are churning out dozens and hundreds of books based on Shutterstock compilations. This is a quite different form of publishing compared to "single artist" books where the publisher works directly with an artist to make a book containing images from that particular illustrator. Johanna Basford is perhaps the best known such artist but there are a bunch out there such as Hanna Karlzon or another favourite of mine, Jenean Morrison.
You typically recognize Shutterstock books from the fact that they lack the name of any one artist on the cover. They could be a part of a series such as the Art Therapy books (although there are named artists featured in series of books too). Most of the time the image sources are displayed as Shutterstock and sometimes the name of the Shutterstock artists are displayed as well.

The Cons

One of the main problems with Shutterstock books is that you may encounter dupes or duplicates of images you already have in another such book. Occasionally the same image can appear multiple times within the same book! One of the stock books I have has double spreads where one image is full size and the other is a slightly enlarged version. I find this a lazy editing at best and bordering on a ripoff at worst. I mean, just look at these two pages:

The first page the left side is simple an inverted version of the right one. And the second page is just an enlarged and a zoomed out version of the exact same image. Like I said, this is really sloppy in my opinion and a cheap way to fill a bunch of pages that you then sell for 8 euros. Compared to how much more work must have gone into Johanna Basford's books that sell for 10-12 euros, I find these books very expensive in comparison.

Another con with these books is the paper quality. Very rarely is the paper good enough to hold even water-based markers or fineliners. The same fineliners that work perfectly in Secret Garden bleed through in many stock books. 

My third problem with these books is I don't know how much the artist gets paid for usage of their images. Probably not that much. I imagine if a publisher strikes a deal with an artist, the artist gets a chance to negotiate the contract so that everyone gets a fair share of the profits. Stock images are often purchased royalty-free, that is the buyer pays a fixed price for the image regardless how many times that image is then sold on. 

The Pros

Shutterstock books aren't all that bad though, and for all the con points there is a pro counterpart:

- Dupes can be a great way to practice and make different versions of an image without the need to make copies. If you like your books the way they are and don't care much for loose colouring pages, this is actually a great pro.

- Stock books give you a chance to explore the work of perhaps dozens of artists within the same book. This gives great variety and ensures you never tire of the patterns, and also gives you a chance to try new styles of pages. You may not love every page but most pages turn out beautiful when coloured, even if at first you're not thrilled with the lineart.

- The paper is not a problem with colouring pencils which is perhaps the most used medium anyways. Every limitation is also a challenge at the same time.

- The artists who upload to Shutterstock are in no way forced to sign the terms and agreements. I sell my photos through Getty Images who sells them for up to 700 euros a piece of which I receive perhaps 10%. But without Getty the photo would never have been sold at all because I hate selling stuff. So it's a great way to have someone else take care of everything for me and all I do is upload images I took just as a hobby (so no extra work) and receive some money to my paypal from time to time. 

- Ultimately, both stock books and single artist books contribute to the vast selection of books out there, so that everyone can find their favourites - For example, in this book I really love the square size and that each page is neatly framed in a small pattern. I love, love, love framed pages! 

Having stock books as well as single artist books on the market also enables more people than just the most noted artists to benefit from this huge new market of adult colouring. 

Here is a page from the above book. The book itself is one I picked up while vacationing in Rome. It's called I Libri Antistress Fiori from publisher EdiCart.

In the next post I will present and review my personal favourite from Shutterstock books which is also one of my absolute favourite colouring books!