Thanks for the heads up, any ideas on where I could get some CC images in the sort of style that's expected on WN?
Book cover arts rights and regulations.
Transparency Pinterest!!
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I just googled open source images and used the first result. Website was called Pexel. I took photos from there and edited them in Gimp. Mine don't look like typical webnovel covers though. You may want to try one of the threads where people offer to create a free cover for you.
In case you're curious what my covers look like:
Uniform System I edited this cover for several hours. I'm a complete amateur and I used 5 different images.I think it's customized enough to use however I want. It's pretty bad though so if I ever got published I'd want a professional to make it, haha.
Steampunk Apocalypse! This one I just lazily took an image and resized it. Then threw text on it with the title. I would never continue using it if I actually published since I just blatantly took it.
Transparency Generally, you should use royalty-free stock images that can be used for commercial use, regardless if you are contracted or not.
I use Shutterstock images. Purchasing a regular licence will cover a book cover.
You will recognise a lot of covers from here.
https://www.shutterstock.com/g/tithi+luadthong?page=6§ion=1&sort=popular&search_source=base_gallery&language=en
Apparently the font used on the cover must also be purchased, or free for commercial use or you could be sued by the license owners...
Yup. If you use custom fonts then you also have to make sure they're free for commercial use or that you pay for them.
Thank you, everyone! :) Super appreciated!
https://fonts.google.com/attribution
all free. If you use Apache, its free, but you need to display their license info aka attribution. But the others are open license.
Skully_ Those are awesome!
- Edited
SnoozySloth wow 5 hours! thats amazing! You do some cool stuff! I worry if free cover runs follow the CC licencing or just steal stuff off the net too :P I don't wanna get sued.
I mashed together a new one from images I can use. Thank you!
Transparency It's not just about being sued. The chances of that happening are small, but if you were hugely successful you would want to ensure you were covered.
Webnovel could get a DCMA and your novel taken down.
And most importantly as writers were are artists. The last thing we want is some smuck stealing our work and posting on another site pretending it's theirs. So we should return the favour by respecting the artists who create the covers we use.
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I am not a lawyer but normally a company would send a cease and desist later before suing. At least in the US anyways. Suing is expensive for businesses since they can't legally represent themselves. So they have to hire a lawyer even for small claims court. This is all based on my business law class I took a few years ago though. Don't take it as actual legal advice haha.
Skully_
Agreed. That's why I made sure to use images that were free for commercial use and didn't require the artist to be mentioned. My first cover is so heavily edited that most of the original work isn't noticeable. I'd like to replace my 2nd cover when I have time though since I just used a free for commercial use image with no editing done to it on my part.
If anyone reading this does want a professional artist to make them a cover then make sure you pay them! Nothing worse than asking an artist to work for free. Though it's fine if it's in one of those free cover threads where they actively offer to do it.
You are right and I am actually in the middle of paying someone to fix me a new cover. Just worried about my old one so I asked. Mm for all the reasons stated above I asked. I would hate for my book to be translated without knowledge for instance. nods
The new cover is up this time its legal :P It's not great but it will do till the paid one arrives.
Transparency Use Adobe Spark. It had CC search engine.
Transparency the one you've posted is the old one right?
existing The one I posted about was the old black and white one yes, :)