Contest: Redesign a Book Cover

ShootingStarsMag

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Author Michael Harling is hosting a giveaway for people to redesign his paperback book cover for Finding Rachel Davenport. If you win, you'll get a copy of the novel with your own design on it! (more prizes may be added depending on entries).

All can enter. For the rest of July, you can download Rachel (and Mike's other books) for free!

Details and links here!
 

Alessandra Kelley

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The terms of this contest are not good.

No one is remunerated for their designing time, which means this is "on spec" (a big no-no for designers).

And the big prize is the winning artist's work gets to be used by the author for free.

This is terribly unprofessional.

There is, to be sure, a suggestion that some other prizes might be offered, depending.

This is not mitigation.

I very strongly recommend avoiding this contest.
 
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Maryn

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My first thought, and probably the first thought of several other people, is whether it would be a fair deal to design a cover, ask authors to write a book to go with it, and reward the best one with a free copy of the book, which the contest holder then sells, reaping all profits.

No? Huh.

Maryn, who knows a bad deal on sight
 

Gale Haut

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The terms of this contest are not good.

What terms? I don't see any legit legal jargon which is very troubling for all those involved, including the contest host. For example, they are planning on printing the final image but haven't bothered to designate that the entries must be a participant's original, intellectual property. That's just one thing that needs to be established from the get-go, cause guess who is more likely to get targeted for that kind of a slip up.
 

Toothpaste

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This looks like a fan art contest. It's not a contest for people who are artists seeking to have a leg up in their career. Nor is it a contest where you actually are designing a cover for a book. It's a "fun" contest for fans of the author's work. But more than that it's a ploy at getting free advertising. If a lot of fan artists join the competition word will spread, people will share their different versions of covers on their blogs, I think the idea is that the art alone will go viral and then help promote the book.

Basically it's a way for the author to self promote. It's the same as when people say "Retweet this and you are entered to win a copy of my book". Or "tweet your favourite picture of you in a superhero costume with the hashtag #awesomebooktitle and you could win . . ." The idea is to get free promotion. It isn't evil, people host contests all the time. But if people aren't aware of the specifics of the contest they might be rather disappointed. Enter the contest if you feel like making a cover for free for no other reason than the challenge of making the cover. Don't enter it if you are expecting anything more from it career wise.
 

Gale Haut

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This looks like a fan art contest. It's not a contest for people who are artists seeking to have a leg up in their career. Nor is it a contest where you actually are designing a cover for a book. It's a "fun" contest for fans of the author's work. But more than that it's a ploy at getting free advertising. If a lot of fan artists join the competition word will spread, people will share their different versions of covers on their blogs, I think the idea is that the art alone will go viral and then help promote the book.

Basically it's a way for the author to self promote. It's the same as when people say "Retweet this and you are entered to win a copy of my book". Or "tweet your favourite picture of you in a superhero costume with the hashtag #awesomebooktitle and you could win . . ." The idea is to get free promotion. It isn't evil, people host contests all the time. But if people aren't aware of the specifics of the contest they might be rather disappointed. Enter the contest if you feel like making a cover for free for no other reason than the challenge of making the cover. Don't enter it if you are expecting anything more from it career wise.

For fun or not, things get fishy when you start printing imaages, doubly true when they are printed in association with a commercial product. This is a simple caveat and not meant to be taken as hostile.
 

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Sure, of course. And I know I wouldn't waste my time entering a contest like this. And it's clear the author doesn't see it as a big deal because he hasn't even thought about ownership etc. but it's not like he is actually using the cover. The prize is a free copy of the book with your cover on it. There won't be more than that one copy. Still, he should be far more explicit about how he is using the art and what rights the artists retain.

Then again, I know people involved in the fan art community and I am constantly staggered by how little some care about protecting their own art. It's like all that matters is a pat on the head from the original creator. And that makes me sad.
 

veinglory

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I assume it is not being used because that would require a transfer of rights which is not mentioned.

But then even printing one copy would requires the same thing under most digital printing agreements.

So... dunno.