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To anyone who's had a piece of art done for a book they sold - or who just happens to know how these things go down - how was the matter of payment handled? Was it just a one time payment or did they get a certain percent of the profits for every book sold?
I'm wondering because I'm seriously thinking about getting someone to either do a piece of art for the cover of my story or to do a joint project with me for the cover. Because while I have great ideas for the cover what I lack is sufficient enough art skills to pull it off. Some things I could probably do but other things I can't, and I want my story to have as much of a fighting chance as possible when I finally publish (I'm publishing independently, you see). So I want my cover to be something that's going to intrigue people and most especially not provoke them into dismissing my story because the cover wasn't all that great. So I'm seriously thinking about seeking out someone with better art skills to help me out. But since I'm doing this independently rather than through a company, I'm not sure if there's some sort of... I guess you could say etiquette or "business rule" or something about these kinds of things - like, for example, it's better to pay them this way rather than that way to avoid lawsuits or something, or that they're supposed to be paid a certain percent with each book sold because that's just how it's done. Or if it's simply up to you and the artist how it should be handled.
If I sound like I'm being paranoid about all this, blame my brother. He's Mr. Cautious about things like this (heck, it took us forever just to pick the font for my last book so that we could avoid any "possible" copyright issues), and his caution is contagious.
I'm wondering because I'm seriously thinking about getting someone to either do a piece of art for the cover of my story or to do a joint project with me for the cover. Because while I have great ideas for the cover what I lack is sufficient enough art skills to pull it off. Some things I could probably do but other things I can't, and I want my story to have as much of a fighting chance as possible when I finally publish (I'm publishing independently, you see). So I want my cover to be something that's going to intrigue people and most especially not provoke them into dismissing my story because the cover wasn't all that great. So I'm seriously thinking about seeking out someone with better art skills to help me out. But since I'm doing this independently rather than through a company, I'm not sure if there's some sort of... I guess you could say etiquette or "business rule" or something about these kinds of things - like, for example, it's better to pay them this way rather than that way to avoid lawsuits or something, or that they're supposed to be paid a certain percent with each book sold because that's just how it's done. Or if it's simply up to you and the artist how it should be handled.
If I sound like I'm being paranoid about all this, blame my brother. He's Mr. Cautious about things like this (heck, it took us forever just to pick the font for my last book so that we could avoid any "possible" copyright issues), and his caution is contagious.
