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.
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.