There’s no question that authors can save a lot of money by buying premade book covers for their books rather than hiring a designer to custom-make a cover. But there’s a lot of “fine print” – that annoying agreement that really needs to be read before you sign on the dotted line. Because in some cases, that fine print may have clauses that are unacceptable to you – after all, every author’s needs and level of acceptance is different.
So we checked out several different online sources that offer premade book covers, and we’re going to highlight some things in their agreements that illustrate why you need to read each agreement carefully before you hit “accept”. (We’re not going to list the names of these websites or companies because agreement conditions can change at any time, and not all companies have all of the same conditions.) Again, it’s up to you to decide whether a company’s conditions are acceptable to you.
Okay, let’s go.
Sign before you save. Yes, that’s right – not sign before you buy, you need to sign their full purchase agreement in order to save covers that you’re interested in on their site. Now, it makes sense that you’d need to open a basic account in order to save your selections in one place so you can come back and make a decision, but it was a little unusual to have to sign the full agreement just to create an account. On the up side, you don’t have to pay anything and it doesn’t say you’re obligated to buy from them, but you do have to read the entire agreement just to save your selections.
Limited book sales. Sometimes companies limit how many books can be sold when you purchase a cover before you have to pay more money. For example, one company’s agreement states that if you use one of their stock images and sell over 250,000 copies – a combined total of both print and e-books – you must pay an additional licensing fee, which could be ongoing or one-time.
In some cases, illustrated covers are handled differently than stock image covers. Also, it’s your responsibility to notify the company when your sales reach that magic number.
Each cover is original and sold only once…but… But that can be a relatively loose statement when dealing with stock images. Because “original” is a relative term. We found a number of cases where the same cover – the exact same image – was being sold more than once because it had slightly different lighting…very slightly different. But that was enough to consider each one “original”.
In other cases, the same background was used multiple times with different colorings or with a different person in the foreground, or a woman’s gown was a different color – you get the idea. Also, if another company uses the same stock photos in the exact same way, well, that’s permissible.
Some other things to check out:
- Is the price limited to ebook or does it include print?
- Does the print price include a back and spine if you want one now or later? Is there a limit to the amount of time you can wait before ordering the back and spine?
- Does the company offer immediate downloads of the cover?
- Can you change the font style, size or color?
- Check whether the website or artist requires copyright credit and how that credit should be given – better safe than sued.
- Some companies offer social media exposure or permanent exposure on their site with a link to where your book can be purchased – a definitely plus!
So the takeaway is that yes, premade book covers can save you lots of money and you can find some great stuff out there, but you definitely need to check through the selections, read the fine print and FAQs carefully, and if you don’t see the answer to your question or the answer is too general, ask before signing or buying.
Do you plan your writing out with outlines, character development exercises, and other pre-writing activities? Or do you just write as it comes to you?
There are few interesting things that can be said about my home town. I grew up in a mildly racist country town in the Santa Barbara mountains, though I am hopeful that things have changed there. Having grown up during the great migrant issues of California during the 80’s and 90’s, I was able to experience some of the issues when I was getting my higher education in university. The biggest part of my life was finding my self-identity, which was never truly clear to me as a youth.
A. Claire Everward takes the world far too seriously. Passionate and sensitive to her surroundings, she takes it all to heart, sometimes too much so. but it makes her fight for what she believes in. She is direct, although she tries not to be, at least not always. Like every artist she has her quirks, some understand them and some don’t. She prefers to keep to herself and spend time with her characters, and for her escaping into writing is always the best refuge. She would say it maintains her sanity but her sister Kate says that sanity does tend to be overrated.
When A. Claire Everward said all she wants to do was write, her sister Kate Anne decided she would use her ten-year PR and marketing experience to start a publishing company that would support it as a business.
After ten years working as a PR expert specializing in crisis and reputation management, voicing other people’s thoughts and needs and making sure they got what they want, Kate knew it was time for a change. She’d always been a dreamer, a bookworm who escaped to her imagination when things got tough, and when her sister, another bookworm (they got it from their bookworm mother) came to her and told her she wanted to be a writer, and already had stories and books to show her, Kate decided to help her dream come true.
owner smack dab in the middle of rural small-town Alabama – the deep South. He must gain the trust of a tight-knit Southern farm community in order to fulfill his goal of revenge against one of their own, who he believes is behind his brother’s disappearance. What inspired you to choose these two very opposite cultures in particular as the basis of your story?
Worlds trilogy to a breathtaking and explosive conclusion. Walk alongside characters old and new as they navigate Hellish realms where blood rains from the sky, and Heavenly worlds that would imprison or destroy their very souls.
Jay Norry is the author of Stumbling Backasswards into the Light, a spiritual autobiographical novel set in the mountains of the Puget Sound, and Walking Between Worlds (as J.K. Norry), a fantasy series set in San Francisco. He is the owner of Sudden Insight Publishing, an indie publishing company he founded in 2014 as a venue in which to publish his books. In 2016, Jay will join the Underground Book Reviews (
Marnie Cate was born and raised in Montana before adventuring to the warmer states of Arizona and California. Her love of Dame Judi Dench and dreams of caticorns and rainbows inspired her to chase her dreams. One great sentence came to mind and the world of elemental magic and the humans they lived amongst filled her mind. With Remember, the story has begun.
William Lloyd has a home in Atlanta, Georgia, where he enjoys spending his days playing music and watching football. His specialty genres are horror and suspense as well as science fiction/fantasy. He released his first novel Horizon in May 2014 and is currently working on a new novella called Afterlife: What Happens Next. He loves playing golf, video games on PlayStation 3, and reading horror novels in the evenings. He attended college at the Art Institute of Atlanta, where he studied Audio and Video Production.
He turned his head to the entrance into his chambers and pulled himself more upright to lean against the nightstand beside his bed. One of the serving women stood just inside of his room. “What?”
Joshua currently lives in Alaska with his wife and children. In 1999, he began crafting the world for Thrice Nine Legends, including Melkorka and Anaerfell. He is also the author of the A Midwinter Sellsword and Gladiators and Thieves in the Hawkhurst Saga. His short story, Grimsdalr, is inspired by the tale of Beowulf.
