The Proof is in the Mail, but It's a Faulty Proof not Fact

The meaning of that rather extraneous title to this post is simply this:

The copy of the book I have to approve isn't the book that will be printed, which I've already approved for printing.

How did I manage to do that?  Well, I changed the cover when I realized I could get my pants sued off for non-licensing.  I suffer from the vice of impatience.  When I want something done, I want it done yesterday and take shortcuts.  I'm over 50 and still haven't learned.  Who says wisdom comes with age?  Well, I do KNOW better, but the better part of wisdom is it's application.

When I went to the royalty-free site, I thought royalty-free, meant "free."  I should have thought about it considering how nice a site it was.  There were no ads to suggest it was making revenue through advertising.  So when I saw the watermarked image, rather than download it, I simple did an image search on it and found a larger, unwatermarked version and downloaded that.

Then I did my cover design, struggled over formatting it, then used it for my Kindle book.  When I decided to go to paperback, naturally I'd use the same cover.

That's when things went horribly, horribly wrong.  I started getting a nagging feeling, and went back to the royalty-free site and followed the entire downloading process and hit the price page.  Yeegads!  I didn't have a license.  And I didn't have the money in my account to pay for it.  I have the cash here at home but a lot of fat good that did.  Then, I called my neighbor and asked him if I could use his card to buy the license and I'd give him the cash.  He just got the debit card when his taxes came in, which I did for him.

Now, before you think I was imposing on my neighbor, he usually would come here once a month and have me order Dragon Ball Z dvds for him using my card and he gives me the cash.  So, I felt turnabout is fair play.  He said he'd do it.

That was two days ago, and I could tell by his voice he couldn't be counted on. Sigh.  So, I went to a REAL free photo site.

Of course, the photos were pretty crappy, but I used three different ones to create a new cover.  Then I uploaded it, although I'd already paid for the book proof.  So, the cover has been changed, but the book I'm going to get will have the old, unlicensed cover.

Still, in retrospect, it's probably better this way, because stock photos pop up all over and can be easily identified.  That's how all these political websites get busted.  They use the same crowd photos on different sites.  Kind of funny really.  Now I have a distinctive, original book cover.

Still, I really need to be more patient.  Much more patient.