Rights to your cover artwork
A stock licence lets you publish the cover. It does not make the artwork yours, and that difference decides whether you can build a series brand on it.
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This is guidance, not legal advice
What follows explains the general shape of how stock and template licences work for book covers. Licences differ between providers and change over time, and the terms you accepted are the ones that bind you. If a cover matters commercially — a series brand, a large print run — read the licence in full, and consider asking a lawyer.
Permission is not ownership
When you use a stock photograph, illustration or template, you receive a licence: permission to use it in specified ways. You do not acquire the artwork. The creator, or the platform, still owns it and can licence it to anyone else.
That is usually enough to publish a book. KDP asks that you hold the rights needed to publish everything on your cover, and a standard licence used within its terms normally provides them.
Non-exclusive means somebody else can use it
Most stock licences are non-exclusive. The same image can appear on other books, including ones in your own category, and you have no grounds to object. This is the most common unpleasant surprise for authors who find their cover photograph on a competitor's book.
It also limits branding. A series identity built on non-exclusive elements is hard to protect, because the distinctive part of it is not yours. If a recognisable series look is the plan, commissioned artwork or an exclusive licence is the safer foundation.
Things licences commonly prohibit
Read your licence for these in particular:
- Reselling the design as a design — selling cover templates or premade covers built from licensed elements.
- Using an unmodified stock image on its own as the product, with nothing of yours added.
- Using images of identifiable people in ways that imply endorsement or are sensitive, without a model release that covers it.
- Trademarks, logos and characters you do not own, which a stock licence never covers.
Keep records
Save the licence text and the receipt for every element you use, with the date. Terms change: the print-run cap one major design platform once applied to book covers no longer exists, but the terms you agreed to at the time are what matter if a question ever arises.
What to do
- KDP asks you to hold the rights necessary to publish everything on your cover. A stock or template licence normally satisfies that, so a cover made in a design tool is fine to publish.
- Holding a licence is not owning the artwork. You are permitted to use it; you did not buy it, and you cannot stop anyone else using it.
- Stock content is licensed non-exclusively. The same photograph is on other books, and nothing in your licence prevents that — including on a book in your own category.
- Because it is non-exclusive, a cover or series identity built on stock elements generally cannot be trademarked. If a recognisable series brand is the plan, commission the artwork or buy exclusive rights instead.
- Selling the book is what the licence is for. Selling the design itself — a cover template pack, even one you reworked heavily — is prohibited by most stock licences, including Canva's.
- A bare stock image with nothing added is usually not a licensed use. Licences cover artwork used within a design, not resold as the product.
- Read the licence you actually accepted before you publish, and again before a reprint. These terms change: the print-run cap Canva once applied to book covers no longer exists.
Build a cover — the tool in this app that settles it.