Book Publishers have the potential to corrupt, steal and severely malnourish illustrators creativity when designing books. Some publishers are renowned for their poor treatment of books and illustrators such as,keeping copyright for the illustrators work. Thereby making their work now a property of the publishers, making any merchandise and potential future use of the illustrations exclusively benefit the publishers rather than the illustrator.

The ethics of Book Illustration is very important. When an illustrator is assigned a book to illustrate they have a big responsibility to make the book marketable through the illustration as well as considering any potential unethical action

Controversies involving Book Illustrators

Illustrators can potentially act unethically in multiple ways, be that by presenting a minority class in a demeaning and problematic ways or even stealing directly from other artists.

There are multiple stories about plagiarism within book illustration. Due to the internet and the increased accessibility of each others work, it easier than ever to find and potentially visually steal from a lesser known illustrator. However, the internet has provided a new level of spectatorship over book illustrators, making plagiarism more difficult to actually get away with.

Audiences have changed dramatically over the past decades and expectations of illustrators for books has grown more demanding for conscious efforts to be ethical in terms of representation.
Consequently we return to illustrated books that moulded our childhood and early adulthood, that was once the pinnacle of book illustration has now become the ultimate betrayal of disappointment.
Dr. Seuss, a once beloved name has now been put under a cultural microscope and investigated for his more than questionable illustrations of minority groups, such as black and Jewish people. Expectations for an illustrator has grown exponentially, not only are we more critical but more aware of the audiences that have been silenced and now are finally able to demand fair and just representation.

You can click the newspaper to see a real example of a published book being taken off the shelves due to an illustrators unethical action.