I recently wrote my first movie review on this site. You can read it here. Soon after I posted the review, I got a message from one of you asking me why I wasn’t using better images representing the movie rather than using a generic image.

I thought about it and I agree, but I think I’m still going to stick with the movie image I used. If you’re wondering, here it is…

And I’ll use this for book reviews…

And this for reviews of TV shows…

Free Use

I know under “free use” rules, I’m allowed to use the actual book cover or movie poster, but this is a bit of a gray zone. Being an author myself, I know there is a fine line between using someone’s work legally and crossing that line. I prefer not to take that chance. The last thing I’d want to do is step on the toes of a fellow artist.

Easy to Identify

Besides, even though using actual work from the movie or book would make my site more aesthetically pleasing, I think using an easily recognizable image or icon like the ones above can serve an additional purpose. When you see these images, right away you know it’s a review. You also know what kind of a review it will be.

Quick and Easy Posts

A second advantage is that using the same identifying image over and over again will help me post on this site quickly. That helps me, and also gives site visitors plenty of new content on a regular basis.

If I have to go looking for book covers and movie posters, then crop it to the right dimensions and scale it to the right size, a review takes that much longer.

As I stated in a previous post, the life of an independent author is filled with a lot of work. Even though adding more relevant images really doesn’t take that much more time, saving any bit of time helps. I hope this answers your question dear reader. It was a pleasure hearing from you, and keep ‘em coming.

Art Benson