Book Cover Illustrations

There’s often confusion as to what is being purchased when a publisher or author buys the rights to an illustration. Part of that confusion comes from the fact that rights to a picture can be divided up almost endlessly: Magazine, book, movie, poster, mouse pads, T-Shirts, mugs… The list can go on and on.

And the artist can sell the right to use his artwork on each of these products separately.

The rights can also be sold on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. Exclusive means only one buyer can use the artwork. Thus if you bought exclusive book cover rights for an illustration, it won’t be popping up on some other book in addition to your own. Obviously you’ll generally want exclusive rights if you’re producing a product to be sold in order to avoid confusion.

On the other hand, if you’re illustrating a magazine article, chances are you don’t much care if that picture shows up in some other magazine a year from now. In such a case you could save a little cash by purchasing non-exclusive magazine illustration rights.

(It should be noted that rights purchased for using a product also allowing for use of the picture in catalogs, ads, or reviews of that product. If, for example, you buy book cover rights to a picture, you can use the book cover in a catalog selling the book, in ads for the book, or have it appear in a product review of the book. On the other hand, you can’t turn around and use the picture by itself in any manner that isn’t related to the book. In fact, you can’t even put it on another edition of the book or on another book in the same series of books without first paying the artist for those additional rights.)

Sometimes authors will assume they should buy all rights to an illustration. And that can be a good plan if they’re expecting a title to sell very well. On the other hand, if the book is likely to be mid-list at best, then it makes sense to purchase only the book cover rights and let the artist sell the rest of the rights elsewhere.

It’s also possible to pay artists a little extra to have them reserve the option for the author or publisher buy the rights at a latter date. Of course if this is done, the artist is going to want some sort of compensation and there should be a time limit on how long the option can be held open, after which the artist is free to sell the rights.

I’ve found that whenever possible, it’s good to have a contract between the artist and client to spell out what rights are being purchased. A contract protects the buyer since current copyright law (at least here in the US) tends to assume very limited rights have been sold when no contract is involved, perhaps even non-exclusive rights. If you’re buying rights from an artist, be sure there’s a contract drawn up.

A contract can also help prevent confusion down the road as to who owns what rights to an illustration. It is easy to forget exactly what the arrangement was a few years back; having a contract to reference can save a lot of headaches.

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Duncan Long isn’t a lawyer. But he is a freelance illustrator who regularly works under contract with clients. He’s done cover illustrations for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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You’ve got a great book idea. You’ve got your manuscript finished and polished (and if it isn’t near perfect, stop reading now and come back when your manuscript is as close to flawless as is humanly possible for you to make it).

Now what? How do you get that manuscript into print?

Right at the moment it isn’t as easy as it once was. With ebooks just getting started and the economy in a slump, the big publishers have become cautious. Unless your name is something like Stephen King, the odds are stacked against you. (Hopefully that will change soon, but right now, that’s where we are.)

Yet even in the worst of times, books are printed. Often the secret is not only talent but persistence. Persistent authors get into print one way or another and those who give up easily do not.

Of course persistence is useless if it isn’t directed in a profitable direction. So how do you discover where to fire off copies of your manuscript to? How do you target likely publishers who might publish your title?

Back when I was writing seriously (13 novels with HarperCollins and Avon Books and 80-some non-fiction books with small presses), I found the Writer’s Market invaluable for locating publishers and markets for what I wrote. So if you haven’t already discovered the Writer’s Market, that’s the place I’d recommend you start your quest. (You can order it here.)

Since today’s market is really tight for beginning writers, some beginners (as well as more established writers) have turned to self-publishing. Hopefully the economy will expand soon and publishers will buy more manuscripts. But in the meantime, a lot of writers are opting for self-publishing which is a whole other game. And — who knows — this may very well be the wave of the future.

To do self-publishing right, you need to hire someone to edit your work (one place to consider is the Editing-Writing Network), hire a graphic designer to lay the book out (Book Wrights does great work), and hire an illustrator (shameless plug: me). This will give you a professional-looking book when you’re all done.

There are so-called vanity press companies that do most of this for you, but searching out the individual freelancers can save you a bundle and also gives you a bit more control over the process.

Currently POD (print on demand) is a good way to quickly get a book into print with only a small expenditure of money at any given time for printing costs. And a POD like CreateSpace automatically gives you a store front, handles shipping, and gives your title an Amazon.com presence which can be a big plus in getting your book out there. (CreateSpace also will give you an ISBN substitute, though I’d recommend shelling out a little money and getting an actual ISBN if you want to see your book get distribution by someone other than Amazon.com.)

Whichever route you take, read up on the process (via Writers Market and web searches), break your task into ordered steps so the whole thing isn’t overwhelming, and then tick off each step as you get closer to your goal of getting published.

If you’re persistent, pretty soon your manuscript will be in print.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator who has done work for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and many other publishers — and self-publishing authors. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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I enjoyed a nice interview at Artsy Shark. The site has some fantastic information for illustrators as well as those interested in book publishing as well as the process of book illustration.

Now to get over my inflated head.

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When not being interviewed, Duncan Long works as a freelance book illustrator. He has done work for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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It isn’t rare to read a book and discover that the cover illustration didn’t have much to do with the story. One reason for this is that with many publishers cutting back with their budgets, cover artwork often suffers either in how well it is done (you do get what you pay for) or in how it matches the story.

In the case of self-published authors, a poor cover can be due to the dictates of the writer. I’ve found that the majority of writers have good cover ideas, but there are a few that just do not. I suspect that large publishing houses have learned the hard way to keep writers out of the cover design process whenever possible.

Yes, this is unfair to the many writers that would do well giving their input, but this practice does keep an occasional disaster from happening. That said, over the last year I’ve done some work for publishers who’ve given a say — or even full control – of the development of the book cover illustration, so the old practice of keeping the author out of the cover creation loop may be ending.

In the 1950s-1960s, US science fiction publishers would buy paintings for covers without having manuscripts in hand. That meant covers often were whatever came close to what was in the book (and some cover illustrations missed the mark completely with sometimes humorous resutls — unless you were the author of the book).

During this period authors would occasionally even be asked to write a story (or at least add a scene to their manuscript) which fit a painting the publisher had purchased but couldn’t fit to a book.

As far as I know, publishers no longer have the money to buy illustrations before they have manuscripts to illustrate, but I might be wrong. More commonly (and rationally) most presses buy the manuscript first and then hire an illustrator to supply the cover artwork.

However judging from my narrow experience in the publishing industry, it appears that sometimes if an art director is pushing a deadline, they may buy the cover rights to artwork that has already been created, so in the end the result can be much like in the “good old days” when artwork was selected because it was available, rather than because it precisely matched the story.

Full circle.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. He hopes his book cover illustrations always match what is inside the covers. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

I’m currently working on a book cover illustration for author James Johnson. There are some real challenges in this since the light for the returning Christ needs to be ultra-bright — yet we still need to be able to see details in his face and figure as well as hints of a Heavenly army behind Him.

Obviously that’s next to (if not) impossible to do with the light from a monitor (and even less so when it goes into print where the light is being reflected from paint and paper). So the trick is to create the illusion of brightness. Getting it just right isn’t easy.

On the flip side, painting the clouds into darkness has proven to be a fun task, and one can only imagine how the light and formations would turn out since this vision doesn’t employ the normal displacement of clouds and light.

Finally, the world in darkness needs to be portrayed on the ground, making the perspective convoluted if done according to the rules. So rather than fooling with the perspective, I’ve reverted to the mind set of the Middle Ages when art allowed size and perspective to be fluid and inaccurate. Hopefully this will work as well in this project as it did back when.

In the end, the book cover illustration may be different from this version, but I felt it was interesting enough at this point to post.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book illustrator. Most of his clients treat him very well and he has few complaints. See his book illustrations at: http://duncanlong.com/art.html
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I keep seeing this suggestion that with technology, all change is good, that new is always better.

Perhaps slow-to-adopt-new-technology folks simply have a sense of history. They’ve perhaps read about (or experienced) changes that were technological dead ends: Eight tracks, Betamax, the latest Hi-Def standards… These new technologies arrive with glowing promises that often fail to materialize.

So the question: Why waste time and money being an early adopter. Why gamble on something that will likely die of glitch fever and perhaps will even go out with the trash a month from now? Why play the part of beta tester without pay?

Could it be that perhaps those resistant to change have learned an important lesson.

Likewise, I would suggest that many of today’s designers are great at eye candy, but not so good at human engineering. When I compare the controls on much modern technology (my current TV DVD recorder is a prime example), I find the controls are poorly laid out with gray on gray text that defies reading in dim light. The remote is streamlined so it appears it might easily travel at 350 MPH, yet doesn’t fit my hand (at least until I grow another digit from my wrist — perhaps this is what is meant by the digital age?).

This has not always been the case. I used to easily set the clock and timer on my recorder. Now I have to dig into menus and double click this and be sure to give a second command or it will sit forever waiting to record the show. Is this change for the better?

Back in the 1960s, the US government as well as various large industries did a lot of research as to what makes design USABLE. (“Human engineering” — is it even mentioned in design schools, I wonder). The research dictated where the on switch should be for ease of use, what colors made letters easy to read on control panels…. that sort of stuff. Not always pretty, but very user friendly and easy to pick up and use without consulting an owner’s manual.

Today, it’s painfully obvious that that the notion of human engineering has been lost or is blatantly ignored. (I am reminded of the young junkie of “Breaking Bad” who called barns “cow houses”).

Do we have a generation of barbarians painfully ignorant of what constitutes good design, all the while scoffing at old timers who seem so quaint in their notions?

Does such technology really deserve our blind acceptance (whether we are young or old)?

Might it be that those who fail to embrace change do so because they know things should be easy to learn and intuitive instead of requiring the proper incantations before the “on” light appears?

And might designers be forced to make technology more usable if we didn’t rush out like lemmings to buy the newest and latest?

One of the art program I use for my illustration work is not mainstream, nor new. It’s version 8 of a program whose newest version is at X5 (with that anti-intellectual mixing of Roman and Arabic numerals to avoid the superstitious edition 13 — is fear of the number 13 a sign of progress or reversion toward cultural illiteracy?).

The old version of this program does everything I need to do to produce my artwork. Why should I buy new software that has some extra bells and whistles — and which wants me to empty my (virtual PayPal) pocketbook to help a company’s bottom line? Why learn new commands and layout to do what I now do without thinking? I resist this change not because I’m “anti-digital” but because change doesn’t pay any dividends.

Resistance to change is not necessarily a sign of lack of technology savvy or clinging to worthless ideas.

Some may resist because they have the good sense to save time and money by not investing in slick and shiny with no real dividend in capabilities. New is not always better.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator but not an early adopter of technology. He has created book cover artwork for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of his work including book cover artwork at: DuncanLong.com
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I have no complaint about the vast majority of my clients — with perhaps three exceptions over a decade or so. And these few bad eggs had song-and-dance routines shown in this video (below).

For the rest of my customers (past and future), I hope you can enjoy a few laughs. For my fellow illustrators, I hope these routines aren’t painfully familiar.

And for those art buyers that employ these tactics… a gentle hint before I point you toward the door.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book illustrator. Most of his clients treat him very well and he has few complaints. See his book illustrations at: http://duncanlong.com/art.html
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Leonardo da Vinci once noted that “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” In the digital age, that might be modified to, “Art is never finished, only stored forever.”

Or maybe not.

At any rate, this is one of my digital paintings that seems never to have been finished. It started as an exercise in creating a suit of armor. Then I added an arch (copied from the local mall). But the face… He’s had at least three different faces and many variations of those.

First was my face – which seemed a bit contrived if not pompous (though “Duncan” does mean “Dark Warrior” so perhaps somewhere in the family linage…)

Then he had a somewhat cartoon face for a time. And now this one, which is sort of a cross between my own and that of an over-the-hill pirate. But he still doesn’t seem quite right.

But rather than leave him languishing on the hard drive, I thought I’d toss him out for consideration.

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Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book cover artist. His magazine and book cover artwork has appeared on titles from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Asimov Science Fiction Magazine, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See more of his artwork at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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One of the more important parts of being an illustrator is displaying your work (and hopefully enticing someone to buy it). When it comes to displaying artwork at web sites, things aren’t quite as clear cut as they might seem.

Sadly there are many beautiful sites on the web that are plagued by problems that often occur at “designer” sites: Pictures that scale too large for many monitors (causing the picture to be “off to the side” when the home page loads), tiny print, and/or print that’s too close to the background color to show up well in many monitors.

Granted artistic sites are likely to be visited by folks with large, properly adjusted monitors; that’s especially true of the “target audience” of pages like this. Art directors have quality monitors.

Yet how much potential business from, say, self-publishing authors is lost when a potential client lands on a page and has to scroll, decreases the size of graphics, or adjust the contrast of their monitor in order to see the page? How many of these would-be clients just move on rather than take the time to see what’s there?

Of course designing for the lowest common denominator is never good, either. But sometimes the gold standard needs a little tarnish. The page must become a compromise rather than aiming at the latest and greatest tech, perhaps.

These are tough questions — and hopefully this site isn’t one of those that is visited momentarily and then left without a second thought by folks looking for a book cover illustrator.

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When not pondering web design, Duncan Long works as a freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. You can see more of his work (on pages easily viewed by most visitors) at: DuncanLong.com

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Another “book cover illustration exercise” done last weekend for entertainment — and hopefully to either inspire the commission of a book cover illustration or even to serve as a book illustration should it match an author’s vision of a story in search of artwork. Or maybe some concept art or a character design. At any rate, such exercises are seldom wasted time since they often attract customers as well as help hone my painting skills.

And they keep me from playing in the street.

Once again, a beautiful photo from “BobbiStock” provided the reference for this space lady.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of his work including book cover illustrations at: DuncanLong.com
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