Images
Looking for images for your book cover or author website? Check out the links below.
Most of these sites offer images in multiple resolutions. When choosing an image for a print book cover, be sure to select the highest available resolution.
Free Images
- Unsplash
- Creative Commons - Check the box next to “Use commercially” before searching
- The Creative Commons section of Pexels
- Pixabay
- The Creative Commons section of Flikr, though the search feature isn’t very usable.
Paid Images
Be sure to read the license terms before you buy. Some sites sell both cheap and expensive versions of the same image, with the cheap version having stricter licensing terms and the expensive version being more permissive.
That said, most stock photo sites allow you to use their images on your book cover if you’re not printing too many copies. (And “too many” is often a high number. Like 500,000.) Most also allow you to use the image for personal websites, hobby sites, and sites belonging to non-profits or sole-proprietor businesses. Again, read the terms.
- Deposit Photos - Their standard license permits image use for book covers on print runs of less than half a million copies. Relatively inexpensive.
- Getty Images - Sometimes expensive, but very high quality.
- Shutterstock - Like Getty, sometimes expensive, but very high quality.