Stock, Horror!: a challenge--veinglory Stock photographers are like the ebook writers of photography. They toil away valiantly, saving our covers from bad Poser for not nearly enough money. And they have the same issues with illegal distribution but are less able to detect it because photos can easily be made anonymous. So my first point is, when looking for photos to use on your books, blog and promo materials--please check that they are free to use, or pay the photographer! (Okay, you caught me, I dabble in stock photography myself).

I do think though, that some of the more profitable publishers could splash out and pay a little more. Stock photos are cheap because their use is non-exclusive. So they tend to pop up over and over. So my challenge is, can we find the most over-used stock photo in erotic romance? If you have a cover that you think looks overly familiar send me a link and we'll see how many clones can be found. One point for every small press use found, two points for large presses and, bonus points of it was highly modified and so harder to find. Anyone who comes up with a good example can have a cover spot on the blog :)

Just to get you started here is one example :):

  ¶ posted at 5:50 PM by Emily Veinglory