I’ve been writing on and off over the past four years and managed to finish a novella in January 2016. I spent much of last summer listening to podcasts and videos by established authors like Joanna Penn and David Mitchell, and by October I was encouraged to self publish my own work.
Part of this process involved designing a cover for my book, which required me to source an image. Over the past six months I have also set up my website and been active with my twitter account, both of which also required images.
The questions that I had were :
- Where do I obtain images?
- How much will images cost?
- What about copyright?
Thus started my journey into the minefield of image licensing terminology : stock photography, standard image licence, enhanced image licence, image attribution, royalty free, etc.
My priority was to do it properly, legally, and not find myself being sued when my book went viral some day (think big 🙂 ). I found several stockists that offered royalty free images, but they all had some conditions and restrictions attached to the usage of the image.
Despite the assurances on many of the free websites, I felt uneasy about using their images. Something inside me said ‘There must be a catch, there must be some condition that I cannot see where I will be breaking the rules’.
I also had other concerns :
- What if the stockist changed their terms and conditions?
- What if the owner of one specific image changed the copyright on her image?
- How would I know?
I desperately wanted to avoid complications and having to change the book cover after publishing, or even worse, to be liable for legal costs. So I focused on Stock Photography providers that charge for image usage and hoped to find one within my budget. Just in case you are unfamiliar with the term Stock Photography, here is my attempt at an explanation.
Stock Photography is essentially a large collection of photographs, taken by a variety of people, which are available for use under a license. The terms of the license may vary depending on the stockist and the image. The license conditions may include the type of usage allowed for the image you are licensing (print, website, ebook, etc), and in the case of printed material, how many times you may reproduce that image.
An important aspect of Stock Photography is that many clients can license the same image, at the same time. If you search the internet for ‘book covers with same image’, you will see examples of this.
After much browsing and reading of articles, I settled on two image providers – DepositPhotos and ShutterStock. Both have a wide selection of images and provide detailed explanations of their licensing terms, which I would urge anyone to read before purchasing. Also do not assume that every image is subject to the same conditions. When purchasing an image, I usually check the licensing options for that specific image. The DepositPhotos FAQ and ShutterStock Image Licensing pages will answer many of the questions that arise in this area.
When I select an image, it is important that I consider how I intend using that image. Each stockist will have their own specific licensing terms and conditions. There are often different restrictions on personal and commercial use, digital and printed use. In many cases a Standard License will suffice, in others an Extended License is required which comes at a higher cost. I found the DepositPhotos and ShutterStock license comparison charts very useful in helping me to make my decision in this regard.
When it came to cost, DepositPhotos offered great value. I wasn’t interested in a monthly subscription, as I felt I wouldn’t need very many images, at least in the first year or two of my part-time writing career. So I opted for their On Demand option, whereby you get a specific number of images for a fixed price, to be downloaded in a certain time period e.g. 10 images for €47, to be downloaded within one year. I have a similar plan with ShutterStock, though at a higher price per image.
The number of downloads and re-downloads permitted may also vary from one stockist to another. In some cases, an image may be downloaded repeatedly for a set period of time e.g. one year. It is important to check what restrictions may apply when purchasing an image license.
Interestingly, audio (music) and video items may also be licensed from sites like ShutterStock. As yet, I haven’t had any need for these, but I imagine they are great for websites and computer game developers.
I also use UnSplash for some social media posts. UnSplash images are free. However, I always credit UnSplash as the source of the image in my posts. In the example below, I’ve added ‘Img: @unsplash’ at the end of the tweet. Not only does this credit the source, but your tweet becomes visible on their mentions list, which may help grow your followers list.
Happy writing,
Harry
Resources mentioned in this post
Joanna Penn / The Creative Penn : A fantastic resource for anything writing & self-publishing related.
David Mitchell : Author of The Bone Clocks. I found some of his YouTube interviews very interesting.
DepositPhotos : Stock Image stockist
ShutterStock : Stock Image stockist
UnSplash : – A great source for free images
Other Useful Articles
How To Make Your Own Free Book Cover In MS Word
This excellent blog post by Joanna Penn includes some invaluable information regarding choosing the right picture, image sizes and where to find stock photography.
Other Image Providers
I haven’t used any of these stockists, but they appear to be popular among the general image using public.
iStockPhoto
BigStockPhoto
123RF
DeviantArt
The content of this page is for informational purposes only and shouldn’t be seen as any kind of advice. See Terms and Conditions for further details.