Duncan Mara, Professor at Leeds University contacted Leeds College of Art to ask for the help of an illustrator for his first children's book (he has other genres of work published). He asked for a sample illustration (kind of like Mr Men with the bold colours and the outlines) and provided him with the image below. He liked the image and went on to meet up with me to brief the rest of the project and to discuss pricing. 

After meeting up I got the manuscript for the childrens book and discussed the price that I was to be paid.