Royalty-Free Stock Photos Don't Mean License-Free. You have to Pay!

Wow.  I had to change my cover for "Sahara" because I jumped the gun and used a stock photo to design the book cover.  The problem was I was in such a hurry, I didn't go through the entire process or I would have seen there was a one-time licensing fee of $15.00 to use it.

There are royalty-free License-free images that you can use so I had to locate several of those and paste together a cover that would not hit my empty pockets.

So when designing your book cover, be absolutely certain you have the rights to use the image, otherwise later on you may find yourself in the middle of a lawsuit with someone demanding royalties from your book sales.  Make sure if there is a licensing fee, you pay it.  Otherwise, use photos that are completely free of charge.

Here you can get truly free photos

http://www.photogen.com/