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cover images: royalty-free v rights-managed

When you begin to work with a designer on your book, you will eventually have to make a decision on an image for your cover. Aside from making the important decision about the content of the image, which the dedigner will use along with type to put together an eye-catching cover design, you will also need to make a decision about the rights of the image.

There are 2 types of rights that you can acquire for the image you use on your cover: royalty-free and rights managed. Both of these types of rights have their pros and cons and the one that is most suitable for your book will depend on many factors including cost, exclusivitiy, and length of use, among others.

Royalty-Free Images

Royalty-free images are becoming more and more popular every year and there are many websites and CDs devoted to these images, allowing for a perse range of images.

Pros

  1. When you purchase a royalty-free image, you have purchased a copy that you can use as many times as you please - not just on your book, but also on the promotional website, bookmarks, and promotional materials.
  2. There is no time limit on the use of the image.
  3. Cost for royalty-free images is fixed and is a one-time cost. Costs vary depending on the size of the image you purchase and the resolution - 72dpi for use on the web and 300dpi for printing.
  4. There are many royalty-free websites and CDs available and more websites open every year, some with specialized content.

Cons

  1. Because anyone can purchase royalty-free images and use them multiple times once they own them, your book may not be the only one out there with the image you bought.
  2. There is no way to know if someone is using the same image for the same type of book as yours.
  3. Newly released and popular images are highly purchased and can oversaturate the market.

Websites

Rights Managed Images

Before the availability of royalty-free images, designers would have to work with either a photographer or with rights managed photos. Even with the proliferation of royalty-free images, many designers and authors are turning back to rights managed images to distinguish their books and avoid having competing books with duplicate images.

Pros

  1. When you purchase a rights managed image, you are the only one who can use it on your type of book for the time period that you have the rights for. For example, if your book is titled Healthy Relationships, that image will not be able to be purchased or used by any other author that is writing a book on relationships, ensuring you a unique image.
  2. There are many rights managed websites available and more websites open every year, some with specialized content.

Cons

  1. You may be disappointed to find that the image you wanted for your cover is unavailable for purchase because it is being used somewhere in the country for a similar book.
  2. You can only purchase the images/illustrations for a limited time, usually a specific printing period - 1-3 years. If you want to use the image to print additional copies after that time, you need to reapply to purchase the rights to the image again and pay again.
  3. Images/illustrations can only be purchased for one purpose. If you purchase them for your cover, you cannot use them independently for bookmarks, your website, posters, or other promotional materials. You can, however, use an image of your book cover within a promotional piece.
  4. Prices are not fixed - they will vary for each image and will depend on many factors such as print run, market, size, printing period, and other factors. Costs are usually more expensive than royalty-free.

Websites

Which one is right for your book?

Which type of image will you use for your book cover? That will depend on several factors that only you can determine. If your budget is small, you will be selling you book to clients and at seminars, not in bookstores, then perhaps a royalty-free image is right for you as you will most likely not encounter a competitor with the same image.

If you are putting out a fiction novel with a large print run and promoting it to the US and Canada, hoping to perhaps do a book tour as well, then you might want to spend a little more to ensure that your book cover is unique. As your reputation grows, so will the recognition of your book, so it should not look like anyone else's.

A skilled book designer will be able to guide you through the process of choosing not only the appropriate image for your book cover, but also the appropriate rights for your image. They will help ensure that your book is well designed, eye-catching, and unique in the marketplace.

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