⚠️ Do You Really Own Your Book Cover? 4 Copyright Mistakes to Avoid

Have you ever paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a book cover and still don't actually own it? Or maybe you don't know for sure? There's a lot of rules around fonts and images and, well, if you've hired a contractor, the reality is you could be taking risks you don't even know about until a lawsuit or a cease and desist hits your mail. So if you're wondering about your book cover and if you're okay, well, this video is for you. Hi, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers and your host here at Book Launchers tv. Book Launchers is your first choice for all things related to writing, publishing, and promoting nonfiction books. And now we're not only a full service operation where we do that work for you, but we also have an amazing tool called Author Launch Kit that will help you with all things book marketing to. Today, though, we're digging into top copyright mistakes nonfiction authors will make or can make with their book covers and how to avoid a legal nightmare or branding mess. Now, little confession. I didn't really understand how complex this issue was until the early days of Book Launchers when we were working with William Hung. You know William Hung of American Idol fame? Well, he had all these really cool pictures of himself. So some were on big stages or talk shows or with celebrities, and we couldn't use any of them. And it was a little surprising. But my team, who were true experts in this area, explained to me that just because he's in the photos or he has the photo in a digital copy does not mean he owns it or could use it on a book cover. The photographer that took the photo owns it, or in some cases, it was a magazine that owned it. And, well, believe me, they do not relinquish the rights to those kind of images cheaply. Just dang it, I can't talk today. My mouth just ain't working. We encountered something similar when we did a book with Mark Magna, who used to play in the NFL, and he had a couple cool photos that would have been amazing on the COVID but they were owned by magazines or sports outlets and we also couldn't use them. So to make sure you're not making any costly mistakes and that you know all the things you need to know, well, let's cover mistake number one, thinking you automatically own your cover. Now, this might sound funny, but if you've hired somebody on Fiverr or some other platform, or you've hired somebody through a friend, unless it's a work for hire, agreement, or it includes a copyright transfer clause. Your cover designer actually keeps the copyright and you've just licensed it. Weird, right? By the way, everything we do at Book Launchers for Clients belongs to our clients. They own it. And that is clearly stated in our terms and conditions. But not every cover designer is the same. And if you have a hybrid or traditional publisher, go through that contract to understand if you have the rights to use your cover for all kinds of things. Because what if you want to use that cover on T shirts or mugs or turn it into a podcast brand? You could be violating their rights. Now, what does this work for hire clause look like? Well, it's going to vary depending on who you're working with, but it should sound something like this. Work made for Hire and assignment of Rights. The parties agree that any work prepared by the contractor within the scope of this agreement shall be considered a work made for hire as defined by U.S. copyright law, and all rights, title and interest in such work shall vest exclusively with the author. To the extent that any such work does not qualify as work made for hire, the contractor hereby irrevocably assigns, transfers, and conveys to the author all rights, title and interest, and including all copyrights in and to the work, effective from the moment of creation. All right, mistake number two. Using something off the Internet and thinking it's good to go, or even using stock art without a commercial license. Just because it's on the Internet does not mean it's free to use. That goes for the inside of your book, too. But we're talking about covers today, and we've even encountered this with a client many years ago who had gotten images off of Wikipedia and he wanted to use them and we wouldn't let him. He actually got pretty mad when we refused to publish it. But often it's not as obvious as an image just being copy and pasted off of Wikipedia. You may have hired a designer to do your book and they used stock photos from a site that didn't have a commercial license. Or maybe you're doing it yourself and you pulled something off of Canva or even Shutterstock. Now, generally, you're probably okay with them. I'll talk about it in a minute. But you should always, always check the licensing for each and every photo that that you use, especially if you're putting it on your cover. Now, sticking with Shutterstock as an example, because it is very common, the Shutterstock standard license does allow you to use images on book covers, both for print and digital formats. You just can't exceed 500,000 copies. Now let's be real. That's a dream come true for most of us. That includes self published and print on demand books. Now, if you expect to exceed 500,000 printed copies or you want to use the image for merchandise such as T shirts, mugs, et cetera, you will need to purchase an enhanced license which removes the print run limit. Again, that's a dream come true for the majority of us authors. Now you're generally allowed to alter shutterstock images, such as adding text or combining multiple images for your book cover. But again, check the specific license terms to ensure this is permitted for the image you select. All that said to be sure, check the notes for each image. Because sometimes there's images marked as editorial use only and those cannot be used for commercial products like a book cover. They're restricted to non commercial like newsworthy contexts. Now for Canva, it does grant you non exclusive license to use their free and pro content, that's photos, graphics, fonts in your designs, including commercial uses like book covers. These images cannot be used standalone, so they must be part of a unique design and not sold or distributed as a standalone. So you can't turn around and sell that image. Whatever image you use, you want to make sure you're keeping the license record in case you're ever questioned. All right, mistake three, Creating an AI cover and thinking you're safe. So let's talk AI. Now, there's lots of tools where you can generate a book cover and you might be okay. But let's talk about midjourney or Dall e for a second. If you just generate a cover and do nothing else, you don't do edits or overlays or custom typography, it's likely going to be considered public domain in most countries, which means anyone could take your cover and use it. So it's not protected by copyright. You're not necessarily in violation, but it's not protected. But if you do some work to it, like okay, bear with me, I'm going to show you how horrible my design skills are and why a good designer is worth every penny. This is not the skill level of my team, but let me take you into midjourney. And all I've been thinking about lately is author launch kit. So space and authors and all of that. So let's put an author in space reading a book and try to turn this into an image that might go on a cover. Obviously this isn't a book cover or anything like that. All I'm trying to show you is you put one image in here, I'm going to layer on another image and all right, this is ugly. Actually, it's kind of interesting, but also ugly. I would never put this on a cover, but what's happened is once you start designing an image and overlaying it with something else and adding colors and editing elements, well, now you're into transformative territory and you're good to go. This is copyright protected. Bonus points if your font is stylized in an artistic way. Well, that might even qualify as art on its own. Again, I don't touch the design of any of our covers, so don't worry if that just scared you. All right, Mistake four Using fonts you're not licensed for this was also something I learned in the early days of book launchers. Fonts are copyrighted too. If your designer grabs a font off a freebie site or you find one you love on Pinterest, stop. Unless it's licensed for commercial use, you could be violating copyright. Stick to fonts bundled with your Adobe or OS license, or buy from trusted sources like MyFonts or Font Squirrel. And yes, it's totally okay to ask your designer for proof of licensing. Wow. Alright, so how to protect yourself? Well, always have a contract with your cover designer, preferably a copyright transfer or work for hire. Use properly licensed fonts and images. When using AI, aim for transformative use. Don't just drag and drop. When in doubt, ask or research. Now, speaking of asking, do you have a question about your cover or your font? Well join our free community on Skool where you can get support, ask questions, and get help as you write your book. It's a spam free solicitation free zone filled with smart, supportive authors like you. The link is below and don't forget to comment when you scroll down. And of course, subscribe for more highlights. NoboringBook insights see you on the next video.