A to Z Challenge: B is for (Adult Coloring) Books

When it comes to buying adult coloring books, you need to be careful. I found that out the hard way. Basically, there are 4 important factors to look for:

Line art
Clip art
Self published
Traditionally published

Line art is self explanatory. These are books by artists who draw their designs, whether it's on a computer or by hand and cleaned up with programs.

Clip art is when people take images from the Internet and slap them together in a book. It's easy to do and you can publish dozens of books per months that way, if you're motivated. It's legal, provided they use images that are licensed for free use, but the books are often of poor quality because they are rushed. Plus, you can just find them yourself on sites like Pixabay and print them yourself. (Not everything on the web is free to use, I am doing a post on copyright later).

If you are a self-published writer, then you are probably familiar with the Create Space platform. People use this one a lot to publish adult coloring book. While some are really good books, many aren't. Especially when they are full of clip art. Sadly, this makes it harder for good, true artists who go this route to establish a good reputation.

How do you know? Do your research. Read online reviews and look up the artist on Google and Facebook. Also, if a book says "designer' or "designed by," it's highly likely that you're getting images that a person (the designer) assembled into a book. Grocery and dollar store books often fall into this category.

One quick note on reviews: Beware of the ones done in exchange for free copies. I'm a reviewer myself and have gotten free copies, so I am not knocking the practice, just letting you know. Amazon requires this fact to be disclosed, and I do but some might slip by. Look for longer reviews in this case to get the real story.