Book Cover Illustrations

For many self-publishers and new presses, the US Copyright Law in regard to who owns what rights to artwork can be confusing. Up front, let me note that while I’m no lawyer, I have been in the publishing business for about 30 years now, and have over a thousand illustrations in various books and magazines that have gone to print with publishers big and small. And I’ve signed a whole lot of contracts with publishers.

So here’s how I would boil down the book rights for those wanting to stay within the law: With the exception of “Work for Hire” (which applies if you’re running a big publishing operation and have in-house artists you’ve provided a studio for, paying into Social Security for them, etc.), artwork becomes copyrighted the moment it is created and all rights to it belong to the artist under current US law. To protect the copyright, the artist may wish to register your work with the US Copyright Office. But whether he does or not, he owns all the rights to whatever he creates.

Because the creator of artwork owns all the rights to it, he can license some or all of those rights to his clients. These rights can be “split” any number of ways; the artist might sell exclusive book cover rights to a publisher, sell the t-shirt rights to someone else, and maybe license the picture for use in a magazine article.

On the flip side, if you purchase limited rights from an artist, you can legally only use it for a limited purpose. If you think you might have a market among fans for t-shirt, mugs, etc., then you’d want to buy not only the book cover rights from the artist, but also these other rights. All of these can be (and should be) spelled out in a contract between you and the artist so you know exactly what you can use the artwork for once you’ve paid for it.

There are some strange twists to this. For example, if you buy a painting at a gallery, you can hang the picture in your home, sell it to another buyer, and so forth. But — here’s the twist — you don’t automatically own the rights to use it as a book illustration just because you own the physical painting. Under US Copyright Law, the artist retains those rights even if he’s sold you his painting. So you can’t just buy a painting and then use that for a book cover. You must pay for the book cover rights as well.

Obviously a contract is key because how the rights are licensed can be spelled out in a contract. If you fail to use a contract, generally courts are going to rule in favor of the creator of the work. That means if you pay an artist for a book cover illustration, you’ll only secure the right to use the artwork on your book cover — but will have no other rights, even if you thought you did. If it isn’t in writing, courts will assume you only paid for the minimum number of rights.

Obviously if care isn’t taken, a self publisher or small press can get into hot water in a hurry. Always be sure you have rights secured before you use them.

For a more detailed look at the ins and outs of book cover illustration rights and licensing, check out these articles:

Copyright Law and the American Artist

The Cover Artist/Illustrator Contract.

Glossary of Book Cover Illustration Contract Terms

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See Duncan Long’s book cover artwork portfolio here: Duncan Long’s Book Cover Portfolio.