1 Terms & Conditions

1.1 The following Terms and Conditions of Service apply to all products and services provided by Mihaela Joe (hereinafter referred to as Mihaela Joe Designs).

1.2 All work is carried out by Mihaela Joe Designs on the understanding that the Customer has agreed to our terms and conditions.

1.3 By purchasing Mihaela Joe Designs’ book cover design services, you are declaring that you have read and agree to the terms of this contract.

2 Cover Design Services

2.1 An ebook cover design includes the following:

2.1.1 An eBook cover design based on the author’s description

2.1.2 One fully customized character

2.1.3 Up to 3 revisions

2.1.4 Stock photos from depositphotos are included. If any other option is preferred, the Customer is responsible to purchase and provide the stock images.

2.2 An ebook & paperback cover design includes the following:

2.2.1 An eBook cover design based on the author’s description

2.2.2 One fully customized character

2.2.3 Up to 3 revisions

2.2.4 Stock photos from depositphotos included. If any other option is preferred, the Customer is responsible to purchase and provide the stock images.

3 Ownership Rights

3.1 Copyright is retained by Mihaela Joe Designs on all design work including words, pictures, ideas, visuals and illustrations unless specifically released in writing and after all costs have been settled.

3.2 The Customer understands that he/she has no right to alter the final cover design in any way except to change the size for printing or digital display. If the Customer desires any alterations, he/she will consult the Designer. The Customer understands that additional payments may be required to make these alterations and must require written consent by the Designer.

3.3 The Customer agrees to abide by the terms of any license agreement for any images purchased by the Designer through a third-party image provider for use in the Customer’s book cover design. The cost of the cover design includes the license to use these images. The book cover design may not be reproduced more than 500,000 times in physical print form (book cover, promotional materials). For use over the above mentioned number, additional licensing fees may apply. This restriction does not apply to electronic reproduction. Images used for the Customer’s cover are royalty-free; however, the photographer owns the copyright to those photographs and original photos cannot be distributed in any manner other than in the book cover design or above named promotional use.

3.4 If a choice of designs is presented and one is chosen for your project, only that solution is deemed to be given by us as fulfilling the contract. All other designs remain the property of Mihaela Joe Designs, unless specifically agreed in writing.

3.5 By supplying text, images and other data to Mihaela Joe Designs for inclusion in the customer’s cover or other medium, the customer declares that it holds the appropriate copyright and/or trademark permissions. The ownership of such materials will remain with the customer, or rightful copyright or trademark owner.

3.6 Any artwork, images, or text supplied and/or designed by Mihaela Joe Designs on behalf of the customer, will remain the property of Mihaela Joe Designs and/or its suppliers unless otherwise agreed in writing.

4 Project Acceptance

4.1 At the time of the proposal, Mihaela Joe Designs will provide the customer with a written estimate or quotation by email. These Terms and Conditions can be read at any time on the Mihaela Joe Designs website.

4.2 The Customer may send an email acknowledging acceptance of the quotation.

4.3 For the avoidance of doubt, the Mihaela Joe Designs Terms & Conditions are what govern the job, not any conditions on the customer’s purchase order.

5 Design Charges

5.1 Charges for design services to be provided by Mihaela Joe Designs will be set out in the written estimate or quotation that is provided to the customer. At the time of the customer’s signed acceptance of this estimate or quotation, indicating acceptance of the Terms & Conditions, a non-refundable payment of 50% of the quoted fee will become immediately due.

5.2 Unless agreed otherwise with the Customer, all design services require an advance payment of a minimum of fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total before the work commences or is supplied to the Customer for review. The remaining fifty (50) percent of the project quotation total will be due upon completion of the work prior to upload to the server or release of materials.

6 Source Files

6.1 I will supply proofs and PDF files as appropriate for printing, or other graphic files as detailed in the job scope or request.

6.2 Charges for design work do not cover the release of the copyright design source files, including but not restricted to indd, psd, AI, png, fla or other source files or raw code; the source files will not be released to the customer.

7 Charges for Other Services

7.1 Charges for any additional services requested during the project that are over and above the estimated time or out of scope will become fully payable (100% of the quoted amount) at the time of estimate or quotation acceptance.

8 Payment

8.1 The customer agrees to pay the initial deposit of 50% of the total cost before work will start on the project. The remaining balance is due after approval of the final work. The final files will be released to the customer after the entire payment has been received. Once the final payment is made, the project is considered fulfilled. I retain the right to discontinue, withhold, or suspend the project for any unpaid service. 

8.2 Payments will be made by Paypal through an invoice.

9 Alterations

9.1 The customer agrees that changes required over and above the estimated work, or in addition to the agreed scope, or where the Customer makes changes to the supplied copy or changes required to be carried out after acceptance of the draft design, will be liable to a separate charge.

10 Licensing

10.1 Any design, copywriting, drawing, idea or code created for the customer by Mihaela Joe Designs, or any of its contractors, is licensed for use by the Customer on a one-time only basis and may not be modified, re-used, or re-distributed in any way or form without the express written consent of Mihaela Joe Designs and any of its relevant sub-contractors.

11 Customer Responsibilities

11.1 The customer is fully responsible for proofing the book cover design provided by Mihaela Joe Designs. Mihaela Joe Designs is not responsible for errors or omissions in any work produced as per the Customer’s approval, and no financial responsibility is assumed by Mihaela Joe Designs for errors or damages resulting from such errors. 

12 Design Project Duration

12.1 Any indication given by Mihaela Joe Designs of a design project’s duration is to be considered by the customer to be an estimation. Mihaela Joe Designs cannot be held responsible for any project over-runs, whatever the cause. Estimated project duration should be deemed to be from the date that cleared funds are received by Mihaela Joe Designs for the initial payment or by date confirmed in writing by Mihaela Joe Designs.

13 Design Credits

13.1 The customer agrees to allow Mihaela Joe Designs to place a small credit on printed material exhibition displays, advertisements and/or a link to Mihaela Joe Designs own website on the customer’s website or book’s interior. This will usually be in the form of “Cover design by Mihaela Joe, www.mihaelajoe.com”

13.2 The customer also agrees to allow Mihaela Joe Designs to place covers and other designs on Mihaela Joe Designs’ own website for demonstration purposes and to use any designs in its own publicity and portfolios.

14 Rights of Refusal

14.1 Mihaela Joe Designs will not include in its designs, any text, images or other data which it deems to be immoral, offensive, obscene or illegal. All advertising material must conform to all standards laid down by all relevant advertising standards authorities. Mihaela Joe Designs also reserves the right to refuse to include submitted material without giving a reason. In the situation where any images and/or data that Mihaela Joe Designs does include in all good faith, and subsequently discovers is in contravention to such Terms and Conditions, the customer is obliged to allow Mihaela Joe Designs to remove the contravention without hindrance, or penalty. Mihaela Joe Designs is to be held in no way responsible for any such data being included.

15 Cancellation

15.1 Either the Customer or Mihaela Joe Designs may cancel this agreement at any time by providing written notice to the other party. If either Customer or Mihaela Joe Designs cancels a project before work has started, neither Customer nor Mihaela Joe Designs is under further obligation to the other, and this contract will be considered cancelled.

15.2 If the Customer should stop or cancel a book cover design job once it has started (from the point at which initial mock-ups have been provided), the Customer agrees to forfeit all payments made up until that point of the project completion. This is to cover resources and time taken during the project up to the point of cancellation. The customer will have no rights to any mock-ups sent to the Customer and agrees to destroy them.

16 Confidentiality

16.1 All correspondence, documents, artwork, conceptualization and preliminary discussion as well as Customer and Mihaela Joe Designs information and materials are considered proprietary and confidential and as such are only for use by Mihaela Joe Designs to provide quotation or completion of the provided agreement. The project from either parties’ materials will not be given out or shared with any third party unless otherwise requested by the Customer.