Even the most compelling stories can be boring to look at in print, if there's nothing but black type on white paper. Photographs -- and illustrations, graphs and charts -- also make it easier to explain what you are talking about. They also liven up a gray book, just like paintings on the wall of a room, or a cave.
Black ink on white paper produces a boring, gray blob. The New York Times, known for using few pictures, used to be called "the gray lady." I have a copy of the front page from the day I was born in 1946. It's all gray, with not even one picture.
Ironically, I also have a copy of The Illustrated News of the World from the late 19th century. It's filled with beautiful, highly detailed pictures, meticulously engraved by hand. The Wall Street Journal still uses engravings, but most newspapers are filled with photographs. Changes in technology, competition, and expectations have made color photos commonplace.
Technology has made it much simpler and less expensive to include photos in books. At one time, photographs were printed on special paper in the center sections of books. Today, photos can be printed on any page, whether the book is an offset-printed edition of 100,000 or a laser-printed single copy.
Photo reproduction in a POD book is unpredictable. Some photos look fine with no adjustments. Others, even after lots of tweaking, will look mediocre at best. Settle for "good enough." Mass market paperbacks have even worse photos than a trade paperback.
If you are going to present your book to a printer as a PDF file, it should not cost you a penny extra to include all of the pictures you want. If you are using a vanity press, you can expect to find that there is a maximum number of photos you can include unless you pay extra.
Since photos and other artwork can be used for both explanation and decoration, there is no rule about how many you can include or how frequently they should be used.
Even in a book of fiction or poems where no illustration is necessary for explanation or edification, it's nice to break up the type. I like to interrupt the gray about every six pages. Try an appropriate photo or drawing on the first page of each chapter. Readers like to look at pictures, and even a few illustrations can liven up an all-text book.
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By changing the number, size, and location of artwork, you can increase or decrease the page count of your book.
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Your cover photo or illustration is the most important one. Don't risk killing your sales by having an ugly cover.
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Clip art photos, illustrations and cartoons are ubiquitous, but be aware that most clip art on CD-ROMs or websites is NOT supposed to be used for commercial purposes like books.
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If you or someone you know is a skilled amateur photographer or illustrator, you may be able to save some money by not hiring a pro. However, a pro may be better prepared to provide exactly what you want in less time -- and do better work.
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DO NOT merely grap a picture from the Internet.There's no need to risk an embarrassing and expensive lawsuit when high-quality art is available for very low prices. I've been very pleased with www.Fotolia.com. There's a huge number of photos available at surprising low prices -- usually less than 10 bucks each.
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Free photos are available at various government websites.
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When you reduce a photograph to a small size, it's a good idea to sharpen it a bit -- but not too much. Look at it closely.
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A how-to book or history book will likely include lots of photos, charts, diagrams and illustrations. But even a book that doesn't need artwork can be livened-up by including appropriate art, particularly at the end or beginning of chapters.
From Become a Real Self-Publisher: Don't be a Victim of a Vanity Press, by Michael N. Marcus
