As an indie writer, you learn things over time. I am not by any means a successful writer. I am still putting more time and money in than I am getting out. Let’s just say I will not be stopping my day job anytime soon. Needless to say, there are things we learn, and I would like to share some of those with the readers of my blog over time.
Today, well yesterday I learned that even though I paid an artist for my cover art, they still use stock photos and someone else could use my stock photo. I assumed, and wrongly so, that if I pay an artist for artwork it is their artwork and no one else could use it. Well in this case, my artist used a stock photo. In other cover art this particular artist did for me, they did extensive edits, so it no longer looks like the original photo.

So here is an example

This is my book cover:

In this case it has changed so much that it does not look like the original but in another case, it was identical. Needless to say, I am redoing the cover.

So, I decided why to spend 200 dollars on a cover when it is just stock photos?

So here is one that was made for me. I don’t know if it was stock photos, but I paid 200 dollars for it and now I wonder why I did that. And next to it is one I made this morning. Since I am making this into a series, I want all the covers to look the same.

Obviously the one made by the artist is better, but is it worth 200 dollars and the chance for someone to copy it? Heck, they could copy the ones I made without me paying 200 dollars.

Just something I wanted to share with other writers. I was quite upset last night when I saw the exact same cover for this book on someone else’s book. Yes, I am redoing this cover.

Chances are if you get a copy of Maeve with this cover, it will be the original cover as I am changing it, so it does not look like anyone else’s cover. Things you learn….