72 Free Image Sources for Authors

by Shelley Sturgeon | May 13, 2019

By Shelley Sturgeon

Nearly ten years ago, not long after Joel first started The Book Designer, he wrote an article entitled 4 Incredible Free Sources for Photos to Use in Your Book or Blog.

As you can imagine, that article is somewhat out of date and we have been discussing for a while now that we should update it.

So today I would like to present our new and expanded list of 72 free sources for photos. These images can potentially be used for book covers, social media and blog post images.

Using these sites

Some of the sites in this list are reputable, some of them aren’t as well known. As any wise “netizen” knows, it is always a good idea to scan downloaded files to check for viruses.

Please also read the fine print on each site—if it exists. Some of the sites are very straight forward and invite you to download their images and use as you wish. But most sites detail whether:

there are restrictions on how and where their images are allowed to be used, i.e. personal, editorial or commercial use, etc.
the images can be edited
they want you to attribute the photo to them (I almost always leave a photo credit at the bottom of posts even if the image came from a free site that doesn’t request attribution. I see it as a way to give them a nod and a bit of exposure and it helps me to remember where I got the photo later if I want to go back to the site in the future.)
model releases have been signed by individuals who appear in their images although this is more common in sites where you buy images versus sites that offer free images
you are required to create an account with them
there is a limit to the number of free photos you can use from their site