I usually check the following sites when looking for a cover image: www.thinkstock.com,www.istockphoto.com, www.corbisimages.com, www.shutterstock.com, www.gettyimages.com, www.bigstockphoto.com, www.fotolia.com, and the site I use the most is www.photos.com. Mainstream publishers use these sites as well, though some conduct photo shoots for many reasons, one of them being that they won't see that picture elsewhere. I've also bought images from photographers, which can be more expensive, but if the cover fits and you can fit it into your budget, buy it!
Does it matter to you if you find that your book and a book by another author have the same cover image? Are there ways around this in your opinion? Do you think it's worth the time to check and see (through image matching sites and valued opinions from others in the industry) if the image you've chosen is already out there? I do.
Thanks for your feedback!
Happy New Year, and Write On!
3 comments:
Happy New Year, Marissa!
I've run into this problem with one of my indie series. I fell in love with an image, bought it and two others with the same models for the follow ups more than a year ago, only to discover that several authors in the genre had used them. Strangely enough, it's the best-selling of all my indie titles, so I guess if the cover is attractive it doesn't really hurt. I've also noticed that each version of the image had been tweaked differently by the authors, so the covers are by no means identical.
The problem is that we all shop for images on the same sites. My son is a photographer and he would be happy to provide me with originals, but the models and makeup artists would still have to be paid and that can run into a lot of money that I cannot afford at this stage.
For the self published stuff I do my own covers, using original photos from Lana so there won't be any duplication.
This is amazing. I'd be really upset about it,but I suppose the best bet is to do your own photography--or hire a friend.
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