Quote:
Originally Posted by nekokami
I remember David Cherry telling me how one of his first covers was modified by the art director without notifying him (on the original, no less!). The character on the front is illustrated holding a sword over her head, which the art director decided needed to be shorter so they could fit the title and author. (Admittedly, this was before Photoshop or its ilk existed.)
Then again, the author was his sister (C.J. Cherryh), so he wasn't going to complain too much.  |
I know David, and have met C. J. No, he wouldn't.
And things have very much changed for the better for cover artists in recent years. It used to be that the publisher bought all rights to a cover painting. If the book got reprinted, the author saw additional royalties, but the artist saw no additional fee. The publisher kept the original painting, too, and sometimes gave them away or threw them out. Now, artists sell specific reproduction rights, and what the Art Director gets is a transparency of the painting. The artist can resell the original.
It took some doing to get there. The late Mike Hinge was a fervent supporter of artist's rights, and largely shot his career in the foot. He was so paranoid about rights that he made himself more trouble to deal with than he was worth. Even AD's who liked his stuff passed on it in favor of other artists who weren't as good, but were easier to deal with. At the end of his life, Mike was basically living on a stipend provided by his brother in New Zealand, who had won a big state lottery and could subsidize him.
And in an ironic ending, given Mike's feelings about artist's rights, he died intestate in Pennsylvania, and a state appointed executor handled disposing of his inventory. (The job should have gone to a mutual friend of Mike and I, but the state doesn't work that way.) I picked up a gorgeous piece for a pittance because the executor simply turned the lot over to Jane Franke and said "Dispose of it fast!" Jane knew the potential value of the work, but wasn't given the time to realize it. She wasn't happy, but didn't have much choice.
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Dennis