Not sure if I'm alone in doing this (it's just another excuse not to write if I'm honest) but I like to mock up cover designs for whatever book I'm working on - just something to imagine sitting on the bookshop shelves. Anyway, thought it might be fun if people were to post their efforts. This is mine, for the novel I'm currently pretending to write.
If someone used one of my photographs without permission or attribution I'd be pretty darn cheesed off, I'll tell you that much.
We've actually got a client in the middle of a lawsuit over this very issue, because the photographer never secured the proper permissions from the subject of the photo. One publisher I represented had to pay out a settlement over a similar issue. It's so easy to swipe photos online these days, and also easy to be caught at it via image searching.
Yeah GIS is awesome. And when it's as easy as right-clicking on a photo... You'd think the publisher would have asked to see the model release!?
I'd like to do a mockup. There was a painting I saw in a gallery that was perfect for the cover, but I never got the artists name in time and when I went back it was gone. I regret that. Anyway, I might dabble with a design in the coming days for the fun of it.
It's fun to do when you put off writing. Lol. Now I don't like to put off writing *I say as I put off writing*.
Lol. From personal experience you shouldn't. I put off/had writers block (Honestly a 50-50 of both) writing for three months and I hate myself for it. Now whenever I find myself putting off writing I make sure to start working on it again. Case and Point: The fact that I am now going over my first few chapters to change a few things/add a few things that need to be added.
Thanks for the interest, AgentBen, but from past experience on forums I've learned that discussing my WiP in too much detail can seriously diminish my enthusiasm for it. Suffice to say it deals with a future dystopia.
When in doubt...HIRE Someone to do your artwork. You would be surprised how much artists can negotiate (with reason) but having original art for your cover is Eye appealing. How I choose my books by the covers. Also avoid a lawsuit and possible problems with publisher BUFFY THE VAMPIRE!
Technically yes but since no money is being generated out of a visual example, worst that could happen is being asked to take it down.
That's not true. Copyright violations don't require that the infringer make money, and in fact statutory damages for registered copyrights allow the copyright owner to recover monetary damages without even having to prove damages.
And this is the very reason I took up photography. If I'm messing around with mock ups, the finished image is 100% mine. No ifs, ands, or buts. And besides, why would I want to be spending money on stock images when there is an alternative? I'm a cheap git!
Not to criticize the photographer but she should have tagged her copyright information to her images and also on her website.
Yes, it is always smart to do that, but it is no longer a requirement of the Copyright Act. In the U.S., at least, Copyright vests automatically when a work is created (i.e. set down in a tangible medium of expression). When you come across a photo or image online, unless it is so old that it is clearly in the public domain, or unless the creator has given it away under a permissive license of some kind, or if it is a government work, you're safe in assuming that someone, somewhere has the copyright in the work. That will generally, but not always, be the person who actually created it.
This is an interesting exercise (as are any exercises that keep me away from the keyboard ). I may just pull out my pencils and do one up just for fun.
