Cover Art

Sean Wills · Aug 5, 2010

This has probably been asked at least a dozen times already, but I spent a while searching and couldn't find the answer I was looking for.

When people do book reviews on their blog, where do they get the book's cover art from? I would have thought just pulling it from Amazon would be illegal, so I'm assuming there's some less shady way to do it?

BlueWolf · Aug 5, 2010

I designed mine, myself, with a great deal of help from someone who is knowledgeable with GIMP (open graphics software) - never use someone else's work!

Sean Wills · Aug 5, 2010

BlueWolf said:
I designed mine, myself, with a great deal of help from someone who is knowledgeable with GIMP (open graphics software) - never use someone else's work!

No, no, that's not what I meant - I'm talking about book reviews. Like, when somebody reviews a book on their blog and has a thumbnail of the book's cover art at the top of the post?

BlueWolf · Aug 5, 2010

Ohhhhhhh! LOL

Then that depends upon the author I guess, as to whether they disapprove or not. Sometimes the author has sent the book in, sometimes not - although I suppose one could say that if it is a raving review, the author wouldn't mind, would they?
More than likely though, they would pull it from Amazon, and the like.

TB4me2000 · Aug 5, 2010

You can check the publisher's Web site for cover and author photos, as well.

Collectonian · Aug 5, 2010

It is perfectly fine to pull it from the publisher's site or Amazon - it falls under fair use guidelines. It is the same reason Wikipedia can do it for their articles on said books (and generally does) - fair use. So long as you aren't posting a high enough quality image that someone could theoretically recreate a life size, quality version of the cover, its all good. If you are in Amazon's affiliate program, even, they encourage you to download the image for linking rather than being a bandwidth siphon.

Sean Wills · Aug 5, 2010

Collectonian said:
It is perfectly fine to pull it from the publisher's site or Amazon - it falls under fair use guidelines. It is the same reason Wikipedia can do it for their articles on said books (and generally does) - fair use. So long as you aren't posting a high enough quality image that someone could theoretically recreate a life size, quality version of the cover, its all good. If you are in Amazon's affiliate program, even, they encourage you to download the image for linking rather than being a bandwidth siphon.

You know, I hadn't thought of that. I didn't think a review blog would fall under 'fair use'...for some reason.

Thanks for the help!

AlterEgox5 · Aug 5, 2010

Yep. When I post on my blog, I usually just save the pictures from B&N or Amazon to my computer and then upload them to Blogger or Photobucket instead of direct linking (since that sort of thing is frowned upon). And all the links lead back to the vendors, so I'm sure any authors wouldn't mind the extra bit of income from a sale.

Cover Art

Sean Wills

BlueWolf

Let yer tongue hang out

Sean Wills

BlueWolf

Let yer tongue hang out

TB4me2000

scribbling in the deep south

Collectonian

Inclined to eclectic eccentricity

Sean Wills

AlterEgox5

Expert Procrastinator