Create image for short story

I'm a writer (mainly magazine pieces but I've recently turned my hand to short stories) who's creating a portfolio website. While I have the rights to use my words, I don't always have the rights to use images with my work (and sometimes there are no images at all). My website is currently a work-in-progress, so please bear with me while I work out image sizes etc. I've worked with a freelance illustrator before and while he created some incredible pieces for me, he's fallen off the radar and I've written some new stories so I'm looking for new illustrators to work with. The first piece I want an illustration for is a short story of 1500 words that deals with the regrets of a love-foresaken fisherman. I've attached the story for you to read through. What I want: I'm going to post this story on a blog-style portfolio site. I want an image to go at the top of my story that depicts something from the tale. Kind of like a book cover, but slightly different because this is the internet. I also want another image to use as a thumbnail on my main menu (this can either be as separate image or a small section of the original piece). The main image is rectangular. I think 945px x 473px, but bear in mind that it may be scaled down on some screens (especially phones) which may change how certain details show up. The thumbnail image is (almost) square: 225px x 205px. This means I can't just scale down the full image -- you can either create a new but slightly different picture for this or crop the first one to focus on a particular area. The process: + Read the attached story, think about a good image (or two) and describe them to me in your pitch. Use the main character's name so that I know you've actually read it. I'm open to experimentation, so feel free to pitch comics, gifs, a standard image, a series of images to go through the piece. Whatever you think works. + Send me a link to your portfolio (or attach images) so I can see some of your previous work. If your portfolio is varied, highlight the style that you think would work best for this. + Give me a quote for how much you will charge and how long you think it will take you to complete. + After I've gone through the applicants, I will invite a few of my favourites to do a test piece -- probably an image of the main character (or something similar if he's not included in your pitch). This will be a simple piece -- no background etc -- and you can use it in the final image if you like. I'll pay for the test piece too, so please also give a quote for this. I'm going to leave this up for a while, so expect invitations around 20th September. + After I've seen all of those, I'll pick my favourite and get her/him to create my final piece. I have other stories that will need illustrations later on, and I may invite some of the others to draw for those. Rights etc: I'm no lawyer, so I don't know the exact process for this, but I want to be as open as possible. This is what I want to do with the final piece: - use it on my writing porfolio website (illustrator will be given credit, and I can link to a website/portfolio/social media profile), - use it on social media when I tell people about my new site, - if I ever publish a book/ebook of short stories, I'll probably use it in there. This depends on me actually being any good, and may never happen (again, you'll be given credit), - if I think it's interesting, I may one day write a blog article that includes images of the other test pieces. The illustrator(s): - can use the piece in their portfolio, - the final piece cannot be sold to anyone else, - for those who complete the test piece but do not get chosen for the final illustration, they are free to re-use/re-sell the character they create (although bear in mind that I may use it in a blog post). For anything that comes up later that I haven't thought of now I will try to get in touch with you to make sure it's okay.