After searching the four corners of the internet, you have found the image that captures the essence of your story. You want to use it on your book cover, website, bookmarks, posters, ball caps, t-shirts and coffee mugs. And perhaps you want to crop, color, distort and enhance it, insert a smoking gun, voluptuous lips, or a devil’s tail, or replace a man’s face with a gorilla’s.
Slow down. First, where did you find the image? By now, you have read the warnings – DON’T USE IMAGES PLUCKED OFF THE INTERNET WITHOUT PERMISSION. Maybe, just maybe, the image is in the public domain, but why risk it especially for something as important as your book cover.
My novel COYOTE WINDS takes place during the Dust Bowl, so on my blog and website I use images from the Library of Congress which I know are in the public domain, but for my cover I bought stock images. Some people use the Creative Commons, although be sure to check what permissions have actually been granted by the contributor. They may be too narrow to permit use on a book cover, etc.
For this post, I am going to discuss what is called a “stock image.”
Stock Images: Millions of photographs, illustrations and vector images are available at on-line sites such as Dreamstime, IStock, Fotolia, Shutterstock, Getty Images, and Jupiter Images. The images are high quality and reasonably priced, and part of the price goes to the photographer or illustrator. Plus the sites give a warranty that they have the authority to grant me rights to use the image, so I am spared the time and hassle of tracking that down.
Prices range from $1 to thousands of dollars, but my guess is 95% of the images cost less than $100. Images come in different sizes and DPIs. For your book cover, you will want a high resolution image, but for your website, a smaller, lower resolution and less expensive image may work.
Many of these sites also have music clips and videos. I bought the video, photos and music in my book trailer from IStockPhoto or Dreamstimes, at a cost of about $100. Book Video.
What are you buying? You want to purchase a “Royalty-Free License” and NOT an Editorial License, which has more restrictions on uses.
A license means permission to use. You are not buying the copyright or ownership to the image, but the “perpetual, non-exclusive, nontransferable, non-sub-licensable, world-right to reproduce the image in all media,” including book covers, websites, bookmarks, postcards and other advertising materials.
Royalty-free is a misnomer; you are paying the royalty up-front. Non-exclusive means others may have the right to use the image as well. If you want the exclusive right (and if it’s available), the sites will charge you extra, but they can’t do anything about rights they have already granted.
Permitted Uses: As of the date of this post, IStockphoto lists the following permitted uses, which are fairly typical.
Books and book covers, magazines, newspapers, editorials, newsletters, and video, broadcast and theatrical presentations and other entertainment applications;
Advertising and promotional projects, including printed materials, product packaging, presentations, film and video presentations, commercials, catalogues, brochures, promotional greeting cards and promotional postcards (i.e.; not for resale or license);
On–line or electronic publications;
Prints, posters (i.e. a hardcopy) and other reproductions for personal use or promotional purposes, but not for resale, license or other distribution.