Month: October 2022

It’s Time for Working With a Cover Artist, Part 2

There is more to the engaging of a cover artist part of working as an independent writer than just selecting an image or giving them an idea of what you want. Working with a cover artist involves some paperwork. Welcome to the business side of writing.

Because—surprise!—guess what you suddenly are now?

You’re a small business owner.

Working With a Cover Artist Should Mean a Contract

A lot of us get nervous talking about contracts and copyright and that is completely understandable. They seem difficult, complex, fraught with meaning, and all-too final. It feels like a prenuptial agreement sometimes – don’t you want to have faith that everything will work out all right?

Eh, not so fast.

This is not your great love (even if the cover artist is a friend or a relative). Instead, this is about rights. Your rights and the rights which belong to the artist.

The question is: who owns what? Without getting into the minutiae of copyright law just yet, this site offers not only a decent basic breakdown of the law in the United States, but also a good basic contract for a free download.

Contracts are also extremely helpful because they are, in part, a set of instructions. The artist produces the work as of X date, you pay Y amount of dollars as a down payment, etc. So, you get the idea, yes?

So, Are We There Yet?

Are you all set now, and just have to fill in the blanks and you’re good to go?

Not exactly.

Read over the agreement. If any of it does not make sense to you, talk to a lawyer! Even those of us not specially trained in copyright or contracts law can generally dope out an agreement.

Further, in the US, you have got to have competence in Contracts Law in order to pass the Bar examination. It’s a basic part of the Multistate Exam.

Hence even your friend the real estate lawyer should be able to answer your basic contract questions. Oh, and please pay for their time.

One Quick Tip

For the part which is about City, County, and State, you want to write in your own city or town and state, and county or parish. Why? Because if a lawsuit comes down, you will be a far happier person if you get to go to the courthouse in your county, instead of one potentially on the other side of the country. It will be far less expensive, and you will be far more likely to exert your rights if you feel they have been violated.

But when it’s a dispute for $100 and it costs $200 each way to fly to where the lawsuit is happening, you’ll do a cost-benefit analysis and not assert your rights. At least, that’s what the vast, vast majority of people would and will do.

Second Quick Tip

Introduce the idea of a contract before the cover artist does anything. Make it clear you won’t engage them to do the work if the agreement is not signed, but also give them an opportunity to look it over and make changes to it (e. g. they might agree to a different-sized format, etc.). Note: this agreement is rather artist-centric. They probably won’t have much of a problem with it. But it’s not outside the realm of possibility.

Be patient and pleasant like you would be with anyone. This is not you forcing the artist to do anything. But do insist on a signed agreement.

Anyone who is insulted by your insistence on signing an agreement is never, ever someone who you would want to work with. Ever.

Changes

You might want to make changes to a design. You can spell those out in the contract. Should the artist charge you for any changes? They might. So, make sure all of that is in writing. See why it’s a good idea to know pretty much what you want before you start? It could come in handy for, say, an agreement that the first three changes are free.

Working With a Cover Artist Means Payments

Don’t pay it all up front, and don’t agree to do so. If you are absolutely, flat-out broke, you should still be able to pay something, even if the artist hand waves and doesn’t want anything for their work. Be good to your conscience and at least ask if you can make a small donation to one of their three favorite charities.

Otherwise, payments should be as specified in the agreement. Are they in dollars, Euros, bitcoin, or something else? Do you pay with a check, a credit card, PayPal, or something else? When is the first payment due? What percentage of the total is due at the time? What’s the mechanism for getting a refund if things don’t work out?

If this sounds an awful lot like engaging, say, a roofer for your home, then ding ding ding! You’ve got it. You are, in essence, working with a service contractor.

Recommendations

Do you absolutely love your cover? Or do you dislike it but still think the artist is great (in other words, sometimes our visions can clash)? Then find out where and how to recommend them, whether it’s a recommendation on LinkedIn or a review on Yelp. And be sure to tell your writer friends, too!

Be good to your cover artist, and they will reward you many times over.

Let’s Look at Working With a Cover Artist

Have you ever worked with a cover artist?

They are a fellow creative soul. But they express their artistry in a far different way from how you and I do.

It is like any business relationship, or it should be. Respect your cover artist, and they will help you. Don’t, and beware!

Get an Idea of What You Want Before You Start

So the last thing a cover artist wants to hear is, “Surprise me!” When they ask you how you envision your cover, you need to have an idea. One of the best ways to get such ideas is to browse Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and even your local bookstore. Look at the typical covers in your genre. Are they natural-looking? Industrial? Hand-drawn?

What are the predominant colors? Black and white? Green? Pink? Red? Something else? So are they angular, or are the shapes softer and more muted?

Consider the fonts as well. Science fiction tends to have sans serif fonts. Romances tend to have serifs and script display fonts.

Also, are there people on the covers of the books in your genre? Is it two people holding each other, or just someone’s impressively chiseled abs?

Use Care!

Now we have all heard or read the expression, don’t judge a book by its cover.

Except that it’s absolutely untrue. We do judge books by their covers. All. The. Time.

Do Your Cover Artist a Favor and Do Some Research

If the covers in your genre’s section of the bookstore are all orange, should your cover be orange, too? It’s hard to say. You want it to look like it belongs in that section, right? But you also want it to stand out. I would say, if you are a new author and you are predominantly selling online, you need to consider how your work is going to look when it’s shown with others in the genre.

Perform an Amazon or Barnes & Noble search for your genre, and for any keywords related to your plot. If your book is a children’s work about a super-ocelot named Clive (please don’t steal this work. I suddenly have a wicked plot bunny ping-ponging around my head), then you could search under children’s works and then under superheroes or animal stories, etc.

Do some in depth research because your cover is a valuable piece of your marketing.

It might even be helpful to take a screenshot, print it and then consider images which would fit in and images which would stand out.

Your Name

So, your name is probably not going to be recognizable to most people. While it is an important part of the cover, it might be better for the artist to make the title stand out more. Unless you are very famous already, it is highly likely that the cover will have the title of your book at the top and your name at the bottom.

Cover Artist Contracts!

Oh, and another thing – be sure to have a written agreement with this person. Even something relatively informal, signed by both of you, is better than nothing. But why? Because you’re exchanging money for labor. And that means, sometimes, people sue.

This is the very essence of the business side of writing. So, it’s time to pull out all the stops and be a professional about such things.