Why do we need flaky artists when we can have flaky writers?

For the record, graphic design industry standard is 50% up front, 50% on completion.

So when designing covers that is a perfectly reasonable way to handle things.

These are pre-mades, so it's usually a case of sending the files and getting the money pretty much immediately.

Patty Jansen said:

These are pre-mades, so it's usually a case of sending the files and getting the money pretty much immediately.

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Ah. In that case I'd have gone with the "you pay, I send" school of business. After all, they know what they're getting, and they know the turnaround is brief.

Sucks anyway. Hope you get your money soon.

For pre-mades, I always ask for payment up front. Usually by the time the transaction clears, I'm ready to send the finished covers.

Hope they're just having some issues with PayPal or something.

Rue

I've sold pre-made covers to people here and have had no problems.

It's not a huge amount of money and not at all the end of the world, but it should have been sent three weeks ago. I feel dirty.

At this point in time, I'd just be happy to get some sort of communication.

To be sure, if the books pop up on Amazon and I haven't yet received payment, I'll post a comment to that extent.

*grumpy*

If it were to pop up on Amazon they would technically not have your permission to use the cover yet. The transaction is not completed. You could email the KDP team and report that the cover art is stolen.

No telling what the 'zon would do. But technically until you've been paid the rights aren't handed over.

Patty Jansen said:

To be sure, if the books pop up on Amazon and I haven't yet received payment, I'll post a comment to that extent.

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You're nicer than me, if somebody didn't pay me for a premade (and I was an artist), I'd be sorely tempted to leave a sock puppet 1-star or 2.

These things will happen from time to time. Hopefully not often. Not a very smart move because, you know, they will have publish the thing and they'll be open to all sorts of worldly and divine retribution.

When I offer to do, or do free editing, the result is almost always negative. Not everyone in the ebook business is a good guy/girl. Very hard to believe, I know, but true.

I'm so sorry this happened to you.  

I know everyone has their own process, but something I've found to be helpful is sending premades with the new text and a blatant watermark glazed over the top. They don't have to pay until they see what the cover would look like with their info worked in, and I don't provide watermark free until I've been paid.

What a bummer; hopefully they just flaked out and aren't stealing your work.

Sorry that happened to you, Patty. Hopefully they'll send payment soon.

When they publish, shoot amazon a message saying they are harboring copyrighted artwork on their cover. Tell Amazon that they do not have the rights to it because they defaulted on payment. I know you have to sign an agreement with Amazon as an author that you have rights to the artwork. The same goes for pubit, smashwords, and ect.

Who knows maybe they will take it down ??

Perhaps you could send one last email telling them that they are not entitled to the cover until they have paid for it, and they will be reported if they try to publish. It would save you the time and trouble of looking for it at every distributor.

If it wasn't bad form, I would suggest that you post a thread if you see the offensive book published and we could do a pile on. But that would be unprofessional. 

Mathew Reuther said:

Ah. In that case I'd have gone with the "you pay, I send" school of business. After all, they know what they're getting, and they know the turnaround is brief.

Sucks anyway. Hope you get your money soon.

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Yep. This I what I would do, too.

Janet Michelson said:

If it wasn't bad form, I would suggest that you post a thread if you see the offensive book published and we could do a pile on. But that would be unprofessional.

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To hell with bad form, I miss a good angry mob.

chris, looking for his pitchfork.

Ugh!  I hope you get paid.  But until you do, if they use your CA, it's illegal -- just remember that.

Ell said:

To hell with bad form, I miss a good angry mob.

chris, looking for his pitchfork.

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Made me spill my tea.

Patty Jansen said:

People here tell you: don't pay for cover art until you get the goods.

Picture yourself on the other side of the equation: you send off completed files and then the writer disappears.

URGH.

I. Want. My. Money.

(no one here, as far as I know)

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That's just classless of that author to do such a thing, but karma is a *×€_¥$! I hope you eventually get your compensation, Patty.

I think it's pretty standard to ask for payment for premades up front, because it's generally not a lot of money. (I do). If they want to see what their text looks like, I send a copy prominently watermarked "DRAFT COPY." If it's someone I haven't worked with before, that assures they're not going to just run with it.  (Well, most of the time. I once did a rough draft concept for someone and they decided "not to go with it." I later found it uploaded, with clearly watermarked stock art, because I don't purchase custom stock until I have a commitment. After spending about an hour being really ticked about it, I just decided it was funny that the person in question was such a maroon and figured karma would catch up with them eventually. )