A friend of mine is set on writing a series of childrens books, and she wants me to be her illustrator. Though she has told me that I will receive a share of the proceeds of any sales however, the realistic (pessimistic) voice in my head tells me that this ain't gonna be something to rest my hopes upon. My agenda here is not to make loads of money from my skills (nor is it to strengthen my friends view of me as a top bloke), I simply want to further my reputation, and keep myself busy /skills sharp because I have 15 months of doing sh*t jobs to look forward to before I return to Uni and pursue something else. My question(s) is this:

I have/will have no dealings with her publisher, and despite the fact that I have a high respect for my friends integrity...I would be a fool to think the same of her contacts. What problems should I be aware of and how should I pre-empt them?

(my first concern is that though a contract would help to stop certain people from reproducing/manipulating/changing my work as they see fit, it could make things very awquard (cant think how to spell this ))

(My second concern is that my friend knows jack about printing...but because only she is gonna deal with em I'm gonna have to work extra hard to find out what restrictions I have before starting)