Published Authors - A Little Advice

[Brian McKenna]

how do you go about securing the right to use photographs on the cover of a book?

[Nomtoc]

The publisher will take care of that.

[dgarza]

I would suggest contacting the photographer or the publisher of the photograph as a first step.

[bmull]

In the case of my book on the 1940 Reds ...the Reds cooperated by sending me a great many photos from their library for use without any charge - to which I am forever grateful ( I thnk they were extraoridnary in this and I don't believe it is common practice for all major league teams). The actual cover photo used by the publisher for my book is one of three I selected from the Baseball Hall of fame - which was very inexpensive (I thnk it was $25-$50 per photo for use in the book and they needed to receive a photo credit) but you can contact the Hall of Fame directly and they will spell out their policy. I don't recall the specifics.

Other photos (from newspapers or photographers or from MLB) can be extremely pricey ($250 and up)and if the publisher doesn't have a photo budget it can hit you in the wallet.

[TonyK]

If you self-publish, you bear the burden to pay for the photos. In my case, my co-author and I had a collage of photos ready only to find out a newspaper wanted $250 for the rights to use one of those photos. We wouldn't pay that price so we had the printer change the cover at the last minute. When I look at the cover today I think of what it might have looked like.

[sadiemae]

It depends how old they are. If the are in "public domain" nobody has the rights. I bought several pictures for my book on Hugh Jennings on Ebay

[Brian McKenna]

can you explain? how old do they have to be?

[johnny]

If you self-publish, you bear the burden to pay for the photos. In my case, my co-author and I had a collage of photos ready only to find out a newspaper wanted $250 for the rights to use one of those photos. We wouldn't pay that price so we had the printer change the cover at the last minute. When I look at the cover today I think of what it might have looked like.

Tony
Forgive me if you have already written on this already, but which book did you write and can you give a brief synopsis on same?

[sadiemae]

I'm not sure how old. Most of the Jennings pictures in his Hall of Fame file are Public Domain. You have to pay to get a print made, but you don't have to ask for or pay for rights.
As I said I bought the same pictures I had seen at the Hall on E-Bay for much less than the Hall cost.
Try the Library of Congress website. You can do a search for images. They will make prints or even send e-copys for a resonable cost.