Sometimes, we’re lucky enough that something good can be salvaged from something bad.
Earlier this month, my publisher, C.R. Langille of Timber Ghost Press, was alerted to the fact that one of the cover artists she had worked with on several titles had been passing off AI-generated art as his own original work. Timber Ghost Press has taken a hard stance against and pledged not to use AI-generated art in their book covers, so this came as a shock. C.R. was only told about one title, but for safety, she ran the other covers that D Goodman had done through an AI art checker and found that another book cover, the one for Mouse Trap, had been created with AI-generated art as well.
As happens on X/Twitter, there was a bit of a pitchfork frenzy about the issue. But I think C.R. did exactly what was most appropriate: she owned the past decisions, was transparent about the whats and the whens and the whys, and immediately moved forward to commission new covers for the affected titles at her own expense.
Wherever you stand on the ethics of AI-generated art in book covers, I hope that we can all agree that artists using AI content need to be up front about doing so. C.R. was mislead. She had made decisions about which artists to use based on those artists’ statements about their own work. And once she found out the artist had lied, she wasted no time getting new covers.
I feel awful that C.R. had to go through all this. But as always, she’s been an unbeatable advocate for her authors, and she went straight to one of my all-time favorite horror cover artists to get a new look for Mouse Trap: Don Noble, who also did the cover for Dread Softly.
It turned out so beautifully!! Honestly, I love it even more than the original one. The vibrant colors, the Astorian Victorian house, and something sinister hovering over it all. I think it’s absolute perfection.
You can pick up this gorgeous version of Mouse Trap everywhere you found the original: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BDS3NB4S or signed copies at http://carynlarrinaga.square.site