I’ve been talking to Episode on email for the past 2/3 weeks about my cover and it’s not getting anywhere, however I don’t want to stop it because I did spend quite a lot for this cover (yes it’s a cover issue)
But after I had sent another email today I was thinking could this get my account somehow suspended or banned for not specifically arguing but for questioning their emails
Because if so then I may just give it up and waste more money for another cover
Edit - We’re having a discussion about copyright and I’m trying to prove to them I commissioned it and I did pay for it, not steal it
Episode has the power here, they wanna know everyone is kind, considerate & respectful. I recommend asking what u should change & asking the artist to do so. Arguing w them never changes their mind. However, it makes it more likely that they’ll review ur story & check on ur contribution to the community more often… when it comes to episode, my advice is to b polite, and not to argue w their decisions. It’ll make ur writing life easier & will protect ur story.
Loads of authors r currently v afraid of being suspended/having their story removed. Episode is doing it more often now… I recommend watching ur back & remembering, episode owns the platform & episode makes the rules. So, being respectful & not arguing w their decisions is advisable
Thank you, thankfully I haven’t been rude in the emails (I couldn’t be even if I wanted to as I always feel guilty if I do) but I have gone against their email
Latest email I’ve sent is just me proving evidence of the purchase and just saying I do own copyright
If this doesn’t work I may just say thank you and keep it low, really don’t want to risk anything
Hi!
I don’t have a personal expirience with something like that but you could talk to the artist\editor about your issue and maybe ask them for the payment bill if you payed for it ofc but if I’d reccomend not pushing it to much and maybe ask the artist\editor to change the cover a little because episode (from what I understood) found it to be copyrighted.
The truth is that episode has the power to suspend your story or remove it from the app that’s why I’d reccomend not pushing it like I said beore.
That’s what my latest email was, I linked my conversation with the artist and showed them the payment being accepted and going through, if that doesn’t work I plan on leaving it as Id rather just make a rubbish version of my own than have my whole story removed
Are the reference photos you sent to the artist copyrighted photos and how closely does the cover resemble reference photos? I’m not saying you did anything wrong, but their issue with the cover might not be that they don’t believe you paid for it. There are some artists recently who’ve gotten caught tracing other people’s works even though they’ve charged commissions for them, so Episode might just be trying to be really careful.
I’d keep things civil and respectful. At the end of the day, they’re only people who are trying to do their jobs and misunderstandings can occur. Plus, they’re less likely to wanna help you to the best of their abilities if they find you’re being rude.
To piggyback off of what Hellchaser said, I actually went through this same issue in November. After a few email exchanges, I provided proof from the artist stating that I was allowed to use the piece for my episode cover, so the support agent happily approved the piece for me. Definitely take that route & it should be resolved fairly quickly.
As far as I know guns aren’t allowed on covers.
So, it has nothing to do with the copyright problem, but it might can turn into another one just saying
Good luck!
Oh! There’s a gun on the cover that’s the issue… I recommend contacting ur artist & asking them to make a small change by covering that up. Most artists offer that service for free, however, they might ask u to pay extra. Anyways, paying for a small change is much less expensive that buying a new cover. So I recommend doing that.
Episode replied to me and I’m 99% sure they think I didn’t commission it and took it for free, so I sent them proof and they couldn’t open it so I’m just sending screenshots now as they seem very interested in seeing the proof
just saying 