I agree with your concern. The world at large won't necessarily know that you were asked to use the same stock art - it will seem to anyone who notices the similarity that you were just being uncreative.
Oh, I wouldn't do that. What an impossible position for her to be in. Who would want to say "go ahead" under these circumstances? She has no right to say no, but... Blurgh. I would stick to your original plan and politely refund second author. It's within your rights as the artist to go ahead and use the art again, but it won't win many friends.DD Graphix said:I guess I could contact the first author and ask, but that feels a little awkward as well; it kind of puts her on the spot; I would not want a grudging acceptance.
We authors are aware that anyone can copy our covers, it's just that it feels like betrayal if our cover artist helps them do it. And I would have a hard time buying any selfless motive (even if there was one) for doing so.Dan C. Rinnert said:Since the stock art is available for anyone to use, if this author goes to a different cover designer and picks that same picture, do you think it will differ significantly from the cover you did for the first author with that stock art? Or, if you were to do the cover with that same stock art, would you be better able to differentiate it from the first, which would be beneficial to both authors?
To put it another way, if someone else does this cover, you have absolutely no control over how it comes out and how close it will be to the first cover you did, whereas if you do the second cover, you have full control. Which situation would be best for both of the authors and yourself?
I don't see where DD specifically states the author got the idea from the existing cover and didn't propose the use of the same stock - DD can you clarify?Amanda Brice said:I defintiely agree it's odd she'd intentionally ask for a cover that uses the same image as another cover. It might be one thing for it to happen accidentally (I'm sure those covers I cited weren't intentional copies of each other), but entirely another thing to insist on copying.