WHY I Changed One of My Book Covers
Posted on | December 1, 2009 | No Comments
Have a look at the fabulous NEW cover for the recent republication of the 3rd Edition of The Dreamkeeper Messages
You might wonder why we changed the cover art when the original lovely starry field and red nebula were quite stunning. Well, I felt that we HAD to change it because the image was from the NASA archives and could be used by other people.
I’ve had a particularly unpleasant situation to crop up lately over at Smashwords. They are lovely people to deal with and I have chatted with their CEO online several times. None of this was their fault at all — truly — none of it whatsoever.
Exactly one month from the time I published The Dreamkeeper Messages over there, some other writer created an exact duplicate of my cover and uploaded it with his own badly spelled, clearly unedited piece of ‘fiction’ with an almost identical name. In order that I don’t get sued, I will decline to name that person’s book or the writer.
Lovely friend and editor Greg noticed it first and when I lodged a formal complaint with the CEO of Smashwords last month, I was told that since the NASA image was in the public domain, I couldn’t do a darned thing even if that man DID ‘accidentally’ duplicate my cover. Perhaps it was just a ‘mistake’ by the other writer??? Aarrgghh!!!
So, the cover below (which is now on both Smashwords for the e-books AND at Lulu for the print version) is a completely original work of art which DOES HAVE a copyright! And Greg is responsible for creating this wonderful image that really captures what the Dreamkeeper looked like all of those years ago.
This kind of ‘borrowing’ of other people’s covers and other people’s book themes goes on ALL of the time in the writing and publishing world and it is one of the reasons why I don’t release the names of my books to the public until they are online, available, and have an ISBN attached to them with a copyright. The stories that I have read on writer’s forums would turn your hair white!!!
Interesting times we live in, eh?
The Dreamkeeper Messages in PRINT at LULU
When you order a copy of the book in print (and yes, they have finally fixed the broken link-up at Lulu and it is working just FINE now!), whether you order in the USA or Great Britain or Europe or Australia — the book will be printed locally to where you live and will be shipped at local mail rates, not overseas mail rates. I took a reduction in royalties to enable my readers around the world to not have to pay ridiculous overseas shipping rates.
Here is the Smashwords link.
The Dreamkeeper Messages in E-book at SMASHWORDS
Enjoy!
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Deborah Harmes, Ph.D.
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DARKNESS FOLDING INWARD: Print Version
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