My wife has over a dozen books out, all traditionally published. Today she got this email - I’ve removed all identifying information.
It has come to my attention book written and published by you used my picture without approval. I am avail right to discuss an amenable solution.
It then gives a LinkedIn page, which exists but is sparse, and then says
You will note similar picture.
You’ll note a few things. This woman claims to have an MA and MBA, but doesn’t write the language very well. The particular book with the supposed copied picture is not mentioned. And of course the picture itself was not used.
All the books my wife has done with pictures were work for hire, with the publisher putting together the art work. But I think someone who self-publishes and grabs a picture from the web might fall for this kind of thing. Anyone see it?
The person gives a company name, but a Google search on it turns up nothing. She claims to be in Atlanta but the phone number is from Chicago, but could be a cell.
I would ignore the first letter, if it is not on letterhead.
However, if you get a second letter, and it is on letterhead, or makes a specific demand, I would inform the publisher, and look into contacting a lawyer.
If it’s really true that the publisher gathered all the illustrations, then you shouldn’t have to worry about paying a lawyer, but it never hurts to have one at the ready.
I’ve heard about these kind of scams. From what I remember: They are hoping that the writer will be too scared by the threat that they will pay money to make it go away.
It turns out not to be a scam. I looked up the person - she is a “consultant” with a rather poor work record in LinkedIn. But she is real. She identified the picture that she claims is her - it is from the introduction, and doesn’t have a picture credit. It’s the packager/publisher’s problem. Another book in the series, also by my wife, has a different picture in the introduction. The introduction is written by someone else, but that person certainly didn’t have anything to do with the picture.
Anyhow, as you can tell from the email (letterhead? hah!) that it is no wonder this person is not all that successful.
You say the publisher put together the art work, and so you should be fine. But please check her contract. And the copyright as stated on the book.
As an author of many books with images, the legal responsibility for copyright permission on the images is in my contract. My publishers have chosen images on occasion, but my contracts have me legally responsible. I am happy with that because I supply most of the images and want that control. These are Australian contracts, but my books are also published by a US publisher, and they also check that I have all the copyright permissions in writing. It took 3 months just doing copyright permissions for one book.
Who chose to add the image? Did they seek to find the copyright owner? In one case, I couldn’t find the owner, but have evidence of what is considered due diligence - I tried really hard!
Grabbing pictures from the web and publishing them is a really risky thing to do!