You will NOT receive the individual assets or photoshop PSD file. The cover images may NOT be used on t-shirts, mugs or other “swag” product items without additional licensing fees per asset.

We are happy to provide an individualized quote for your book cover extended licenses if you want to pursue using it on “products” other than a book cover. Contact us directly for this. Our licensing agreement prohibits us from providing you with the original images used to make your cover art. You are accepting responsibility for the Adobe Stock licensing agreement (see FAQ below) for each purchase. You will not “own” the book cover or its individual assets. You are given permission to use the artwork as a cover and in specified promotional materials per the agreement. This includes web ads, print ads, video, and postcard or bookmark advertising. (See other information below.)

Once purchased, PRIOR to customization, you may return it for a refund. NOTE: Once the design has been customized, or customization has officially begun, however, it may not be returned.  IF YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU WANT US TO BEGIN CUSTOMIZATION IN THE FORM YOU FILL OUT AT PURCHASE, KNOW THAT DESIGN WORK COULD BEGIN AT ANY TIME AFTER WE SEND YOU THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT EMAIL. Once returned, the pre-made design will be returned to the site for purchase by someone else. THIS POLICY IS GOOD FOR ONE YEAR’S TIME, AFTER WHICH YOUR PURCHASE IS COMPLETED AND NO RETURNS ARE AVAILABLE. We will honor your customization service indefinitely, however, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

The Licensing Agreement includes unlimited use on websites, social media, web ads, etc.

You can print book marks to give away, or postcards, however, each one is counted towards your “cover imprints” of 500,000 (see more explanation below about the licensing agreement).

No, absolutely not! Your cover will be unique to you from Morrigan Design Services and once purchased will never be sold again. As we use Stock images, we cannot guarantee that no one else is going to use the same model or photo for a cover and Stock images are not exclusively licensed to anyone. We do not have exclusive rights to the images we use, and they are able to be licensed by any designer.

That being said, we will never re-use or re-sell a cover once it is purchased! The cover you buy will not be recreated for someone else’s cover. Each one is created as an individual book cover design, or design for a series. Again, your design is uniquely created here at Morrigan Book Designs. The assets used to create it are stock images able to be licensed by any designer. We cannot guarantee that some other designer won’t recreate our cover without our knowledge. However, since we always use two or more images per cover, it is far less likely that anyone else will have your same cover, even if you notice the same image elsewhere.

We are not granting exclusive rights to the images, as we do not own those rights. Unless we have created an original photo or artwork ourselves, we use stock images from Adobe Stock under a licensing agreement, and are only transferring the license to use the images for your book cover. We do not have the copyright for these images released to us. We use stock images for the majority of our book covers under a licensing agreement, and you can assume that, unless otherwise noted, your book cover has been made with stock images. Even after altering the image(s) to make a cover, we still can only transfer the basic license to you. Please see the details of this license below to make sure you understand and can agree to the terms we must follow.

NOTE: We retain the right to use all our designs for promotional purposes, including purchased covers. However, we are flexible regarding book launches and cover reveals - let us know the reveal date and we will hold off on displaying the original or finished product until then. We retain the right to display your cover for promotional purposes.

No, you will not own the copyright to the cover. We make book cover art primarily from stock images through Adobe Stock. Unless otherwise noted, all our images are licensed through Adobe Stock, according to the legal rules provided by Adobe in their Terms & Conditions. We pass on that responsibility to you when you purchase our derivative artwork. (If we are the “original artist” it will be noted.)

It is VERY important to know about the legal usage of your book cover art, what you can and cannot do. This is for your protection, and to protect the rights of the original creator of the image we use on your cover.

We have licensed the assets from Adobe Stock. You do not need to have an account with them to use the book covers or purchase anything from Adobe Stock directly. We handle that for you!

Book covers are considered a form of “product packaging” as the primary value of the “product” is the writing, not the cover art.
You have up to 500,000 “imprints” of each cover asset (book covers + ads). Also, Adobe forbids use of their images for “pornographic, defamatory or unlawful manner.”

Information will be given to you for your “acknowledgements” section, or for the “copyright” page of your book, so you can comply with giving the original artists of the Adobe assets credit for their work, as per the Terms and Conditions.

Here is the basic agreement information from the Adobe Stock website:

Standard License Restrictions

With a Standard license, you may:

• Reproduce up to 500,000 copies of the asset in product packaging, printed marketing materials, digital documents, or software.

• Include the asset in email marketing, mobile advertising, or a broadcast program if the expected number of viewers is fewer than 500,000.

• Post the asset to a website with no limitation on viewers. If the asset is used in an editorial manner, attribution is required in this format (© Author Name - stock.adobe.com).

• Include the asset in products in a minor way, such as in a textbook.

With a Standard license, you may not:

• Create merchandise or products for resale or distribution where the main value of the product is associated with the asset itself. For example, you can't use the asset to create a poster, t-shirt, or coffee mug that someone would buy specifically because of the asset printed on it. (Note: the Book Cover itself does not constitute “merchandise” in this context as the value is the contents of the book, not the cover.)

Link to Adobe’s full list of licensing terms and conditions

Remember - in purchasing a book cover from Morrigan Book Design made with Adobe Stock assets, you are agreeing to be bound by and to abide by Adobe Stock’s Terms and Conditions. This is a legally binding agreement.

Here is the licensing agreement for purchasing cover art from Morriganbookdesign.com:

AUTHOR LICENSE AGREEMENT

RECITALS Whereas, MorriganBookDesign.com (the “Company”) is in the business of providing one-of-a-kind artwork consisting of two or more photographs or illustrations to its customers for use as a book cover, and
Whereas, Author desires to license artwork from the Company for use as a book cover,

It is therefore agreed as follows:
1. Grant of Rights. Author is licensing from the Company the right to use the artwork selected from the Company’s available cover art for the cover of Author’s book (the “Book”).  This license is limited to an eBook, print run (physical print book cover or print advertising), of up to 500,000 copies. This license grants unlimited web views and use of the licensed cover in email marketing, mobile advertising, social media, or a broadcast program, per the stock company terms and conditions.

This grant of rights includes the right, for all print and ebook versions of the Book, to distribute, publish, use, transmit, crop and otherwise display the Licensed Cover in connection with the Book, and for marketing, advertising and promotion of the Book. The actual cover art image can only be modified or altered by the artist who has created the cover.

2. Author Acknowledgments. The Author acknowledges that, per the Adobe Stock (“stock company”) terms and conditions, the Licensed Cover cannot be used on “merchandise,” which is defined as items produced for resale or distribution where the main value of the merchandise is the Licensed Cover art (for example, but not limited to, t-shirts, mugs, etc.). (Note: the Book does not constitute “merchandise” in this context as the value is the contents of the book, not the cover.) An extended license for each cover art image is required to be able to produce “merchandise” as defined above. 

When buying a book cover design on MorriganBookDesign.com, the Author agrees to purchase an enhanced license from the stock house for images used for the Book cover once a total of 500,000 books (combined ebooks, audio, and print) have been sold, AND/OR if the Author want to produce “merchandise” as defined above. An extended license fee of $79.99 per stock image is needed if there are more than 500,000 combined ebooks and print sales, or to produce “merchandise” as defined above. 

On rare occasions, original cover art or public domain images may be used that do not come from a stock company. If the cover is created using an original "hand drawn" illustration, an original photograph not licensed through a stock house, or if public domain images were used, there would be no additional licensing fee for that image. 

It is the Author's responsibility to inform MorriganBookDesign.com if book sales exceed 500,000 books, or if the Author wishes to produce “merchandise” based on the Licensed Cover. MorriganBookDesign.com will inform you if an extended license would be needed at that time and the total cost. The Company will not be held liable for license infringement.

Author acknowledges that although the Licensed Cover is represented by the Company to be a one-of-a-kind piece of art, it is derived by combining two or more stock photographs and that such stock photographs may appear individually or combined with other photographs for other uses. The combination of the stock photographs used to create the Licensed Cover will be exclusive to Author, will be removed from art available for licensing on the Company's website upon execution of this Agreement, and will not be licensed by the Company again. 

However, since the Company does not have exclusive rights to the stock photographs used to create the Licensed Cover, it is possible, although unlikely, that a non-affiliated party could recreate the Licensed Cover without the Company's knowledge, in which event the Company shall not be liable in any way to the Author.  

The Author acknowledges that MorriganBookDesign.com retains all rights to display the Licensed Cover art in their online portfolio and for marketing purposes.

The Author acknowledges that the terms and conditions of appropriate use of the listed stock company images also apply to the Licensed Cover, and that by purchasing a Licensed Cover from MorriganBookDesign.com they are bound to those terms and conditions of use. The stock company used by MorriganBookDesign.com will be listed on the website in the FAQ and clicking in a check-box for acceptance of terms will be required prior to purchase.

3. Representations.  Company represents and warrants that (i) the Licensed Cover was created by an artist for the Company by using two or more stock photography images, which were either “original work” (the artist owns the copyright) or licensed by such artist from a reputable stock photography agency; (ii) that each such stock photography usage license is represented by the artist to be sufficient to grant to the Company, and for Company to grant to Author, the rights the Company is granting to Author herein; (iii) the Licensed Cover is represented by the artist not to infringe upon any copyright, trademark or trade dress, or other intellectual property rights of others; and (iv) that the artist represents that the stock photography agency has obtained valid model releases from each person who appears in the images sufficient to convey the rights granted to the Company and to the Author herein; (v) that IF the artist used “original work” and is the copyright owner of one or more images in the creation of the Licensed Cover, that they retain full copyright ownership and reserve all rights to the original work; (vi) that IF original work is used by the artist to create the Licensed Cover, they have obtained valid model releases from each person who appears in the Licensed Cover sufficient to convey the right granted to the Company and to the Author herein.

4. Term. This license shall remain in effect for as long as the Book remains in print.

5. Compensation. Author shall pay to Company a license fee, in full and complete compensation for the rights granted herein, in the sum indicated next to the Licensed Cover selected by Author.

6. Indemnification. Author agrees to fully indemnify and hold harmless Company, its licensees, artists, owner(s), employees, directors, advisors, officers and anyone else associated with the use of the Licensed Cover as authorized herein, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, costs, expense, or damages including attorney's fees and expenses, arising out of any unauthorized use of the Licensed Cover.

7. Copyright Credit & Acknowlegement. When necessary, the Company will provide the Author all copyright credit information for images used in the Licensed Cover and the Author will print the copyright credit for the Licensed Cover on the copyright information page of the Book. The author will acknowledge morriganbookdesign.com as the cover designer either on the copyright page OR in the Acknowledgement section of the book.

8. Disclaimer. The Company, its employees, directors, officers and anyone else associated with the Company, hereby disclaims any and all warranties of merchantability, fitness for any particular purpose, expressed or implied, in connection with the license granted to Author herein. The Company shall not be liable for any indirect, special, incidental, economic or consequential damages arising out of the license granted to Author and in no event will the Company's liability exceed the amount paid by Author to Company for the use of the Licensed Cover herein.

9. Jurisdiction & Forum Selection. In accordance with North Carolina Senate Bill 621, this agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina and the parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal and State Courts (for litigation or arbitration) located in Buncombe County, North Carolina.

10. Miscellaneous. a. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Author and Company regarding its subject matter. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be void or invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect. Failure by Company to enforce any provision of this Agreement is not a waiver of future enforcement of that or any other provision.

b. By clicking the checkbox for this Agreement upon purchase, the Author hereby acknowledges that Author has read the Agreement, has understood its terms and has been given the opportunity to seek legal advice. 

Changes to Author Name and Title can ONLY be made BEFORE publication of your book, but NOT after. However, if you want to use one pre-made cover for a series of books, please see the FAQ below.

We can add a review quote at a later date, post publication, without your having to re-purchase the design and at no extra cost, as long as you still have one of your three purchased design changes left to work with. If you don’t have any of the originally purchased design changes left (ie you used all three already), we will charge a flat fee of $30.

We will not change the Author Name after publication. If you have questions about this, please contact us for support.

We are happy to accommodate your needs! Each “cover title change” for a new publication is a flat rate fee of $40. However, you must remember that if you use the same cover images, each sale of all books with that image applies to the 500,000 print limit of the licensing agreement. When the total of all print impressions (including postcards or bookmarks) reaches 500,000 for the images used in the cover regardless of the title change, you will need to purchase an extended license.

If you want an entire series of books based on the theme of the initial cover you purchase, we can do that!

We will work with you and the number of books you are purchasing titles for in a custom contract. Please see the information in this FAQ regarding custom contracts.

Simple! You may use the purchased pre-made as a foundation for your custom cover contract, which will be significantly less than a full custom book cover!

Color changes, additional objects, etc. require far more design time /customization and are not provided on pre-made covers. You would do better with the custom cover option if you have these sorts of changes, but you would be able to use a pre-made cover as a foundation for the design, at significantly less cost than a full custom design. This requires a custom contract.

Contact us by email to request a custom book cover contract (see full process below). Provide us with the number of the book cover you wish to use as the foundation.At this point, the cover you desire will be put temporarily “on hold” for you and will not be available for others to purchase. We will send you a form to fill out regarding the changes you want to make. We may contact you with further questions. If you do not return the form within five business days, we will remove the temporary hold on the book cover design you indicated in your initial email.

Yes! You can easily do this with your ebook cover, so buying a “print cover” is not necessary UNLESS you want a full, professional cover design wrap around on front spine and back. If you want a full print cover design, the fee is a flat $149 and can easily be added on at any time after the pre-made has been purchased.

Here is the full process for developing a custom cover design for your book:

1. Contact us via email on our contact page.

2. Receive a detailed form regarding your custom design.

3. Fill out the form and send it back to us. Give us all the notes and information you can about your custom design. If your needs meet our abilities, we will return a quote to you for our services.

4. Receive a Quote for Custom Design Work.
   IF YOU ARE WANTING TO USE A PRE-MADE DESIGN AS A BASE FOR YOUR CUSTOM CONTRACT: Based on the information you give us in your form, we will work up a quote for you. Reply to the quote within seven business days. If we do not hear back from you after seven business days, we will put the pre-made design back up for sale for others to purchase. Please keep in contact during this process so we can better serve you. If you have questions regarding either the contract or the quote, you can contact us for help during this process via email.

   IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PURCHASED THE PRE-MADE DESIGN, then the purchase amount will be deducted from the custom quote. If for some reason you are not satisfied with the quote, you have two options: 1. return the cover (prior to any customization) for a full refund, or 2. keep the cover and customize it as-is.

   YOU MUST APPROVE THE QUOTE TO CONTINUE THE PROCESS.

5. After you have approved the quote, you will receive a design contract based on your quote. This needs to be signed off on before work can begin.

6. Pay for the Custom Book via instructions in your Custom Book Cover quote.
   You must first sign off on the contract. Then, simply pay for the customization package per the contract and instructions, and work will move forward on your custom cover. You will pay the remainder when the process is finished and you have received your completed design. Please stay in touch throughout the process! We are happy to work with you.

7. Receive a Design Proof for Review. You will have five rounds of changes provided in your contract. More than that will be an additional charge, via your contract.

8. Receive your Custom Book Cover File! After all changes are approved, you will receive your final, upload-ready JPEG file.

   
   NOTE: Please note that we only provide cover art for books that fall within the Adobe Stock Terms and Conditions, see FAQ above. We reserve the right to determine which projects are best suited to our work and ability.  We reserve the right to decline projects or add them to a waiting list, due to current work load or other issues. If we are not currently taking new projects for custom work, we will post that information clearly on the site. We want to give you the best service possible and strive for professional and timely service, within our legal constraints and artistic abilities, and we will be honest and up-front if we are not able to meet your cover art needs.

Pricing for Custom projects varies based on the amount of work required. Generally speaking, there are three basic tiers of custom work. We ONLY use either Adobe Stock or our own images to create our designs. Ownership of images, and the ability to trace ownership ourselves, is very important for legal purposes. A contract will be mutually agreed upon and signed prior to work beginning. (These are the current guidelines. Changes in pricing may be made at any time.)

1. Extended Customization of Pre-Made Cover: This is the lowest cost for custom work. Generally, this would include altering color schemes (like making a dress green instead of red, or changing a model’s hair color), adding in an element to better suit the individual story, etc. (Radical changes to the design, however, would be treated as a higher level project and would cost you more — for example, you like the model but you want a different background image, new typeface and a color change to the model’s dress. This could be a “basic” or “medium” design depending on the design hours required.) You will be provided with five rounds of changes.
   $100-150

2. Custom Design - Basic: This is “from scratch” stock image cover - i.e. a project not taken from one of our pre-made covers. This is a simpler design with 1-2 stock images needed for completion, with little alteration of the images. You will be provided with three design options to chose from and five rounds of changes after the basic design has been chosen.
   $200-300

3. Custom Design - Medium: This covers 1-4 stock images with more significant alterations and photoshop work needed. You will be provided with three design options to chose from and five rounds of changes after the basic design has been chosen.
   $250-500

4. Custom Design - Complex: This covers 1-4 stock images with an advanced level of photoshop work needed for the design. This may include advanced Adobe Illustrator font options, and more design hours to complete. You will be provided with five design options to chose from and unlimited rounds of changes after the basic design has been chosen.
   $400 - 1000

5. Book Series Design - $400 - 2000, same as “Complex” above, depending on the number of books in the series and the level of complexity involved in creating a “branding” for the series, multiple cover designs, etc. (NOTE - this is a full custom design. If you want the same pre-made cover for each book of the series with only title changes, please see the FAQ above for details.)

The only thing standing between you and your swag is an extra level of licensing fees and a second licensing contract agreement specifying how you can use the images (based on Adobe Stock’s licensing terms for Extended Licenses). Currently, this Extended License costs $79.99 per image in your design. IF your design photoshops together several images, each one will need to have the extended license for use in your product as a derivative work.

We will handle the licensing for you at no extra charge! After the licensing happens, you can use the book cover art to produce swag promotional products.

NOTE: EVEN IF PRODUCTS ARE FOR GIVE-AWAYS, THEY ARE CONSIDERED “MERCHANDISE.”

Click here to link to general information on the perimeters of image licensing at Adobe Stock.
Click here for Adobe Stock in-depth Terms and Conditions.

All artwork is made in-house. There are other sites that may act as a sales vehicle for multiple designers.
Morrigan Book Design is not set up to function that way and we do not sell cover art by other artists.

Custom design contracts have the same Terms & Conditions issues for licensing, however, they are tailored more to the individual project. You would receive the contract agreement via email, and it would be customized for your project based on the work requested. A custom work contract would spell out the expectations, design needs and time frames more specifically than the pre-made contracts do. The Terms & Conditions are otherwise the same. Please see the detailed FAQ above on the Custom Design Process.