I recently got a suspected spam message that made a comment about getting permission to use graphics. The comment itself wasn’t spam… it was linked to an unrelated commercial site (that’s spam).

I agree with this mysterious commenter. All writers, artists, bloggers, everyone must absolutely only use photos, artwork, graphics, video clips, and writing pieces that they have legal permission to use. You cannot simply go onto Google and copy any old picture.

All the images I use on my blog, book covers, and adverts are legally obtained and used. They come from professional stock sites, and I pay for the right to use them. Or, they are offered as part of free deals from those sites or the providers directly. Or they are commissioned and paid for from artists.

Don’t steal other people’s work. Writers would not like anyone taking their stories and using them as their own. We writers (book cover designers, bloggers, editors, whoevers!) should not take others’ work and use it illegally either.