Author Survey - Stock Images

3. When designing covers, do you use stock images or custom photography?

• Stock Photos
• Custom Photography
• Other Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.

4. When searching for stock images, where do you find most of the photos you use?

• Major stock agencies (Getty, Corbis, etc)
• Micro-stock (Istock, 123RF, Dreamstime, Fotolia, etc)
• Niche agencies (hotdamnstock, razzdazzstock, etc)
• Free or Creative Commons (Flickr, Deviantart)
• Other Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.

5. How much time do you spend searching for photos (per project) for cover designs?

• Less than one hour
• One to three hours
• More than three hours

6. How do you pay for stock photos?

• Purchase individual images with a card
• Buy credits to use on images (credit prices based on the amount of credits purchased?)
• Subscription

7. What do you like most about your current image providers?

• Cost
• Number of available images
• Variety and selection
• Customer service
• Other Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.

8. What are the biggest problems with existing image collections?

• Not enough variety
• Bad lighting/exposure
• Poor expressions
• Bad poses
• Bad costumes (historically inaccurate details, "sexy" caricature versions of outfits, etc.)
• Too cropped
• Keywording/search issues
• Other Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.

9. What kinds of images are the most difficult to find?

• Background plates
• Genre specific (Regency, western, medieval, Victorian, etc.)
• Couples
• Men alone
• Women alone
• Other Please enter an 'other' value for this selection.

10. How much do you spend on a typical image for a cover design?

• Less than $5
• $5 - $10
• $10 - $20
• $20 - $30
• More than $30
• I contract a custom shoot