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Must Read Magazines Pauses Story-Based Cover Art Contracts After Artists Reject Its Terms

After artists John Picacio and Donato Giancola went public over Asimov's cover contracts, owner Must Read Magazines says it will pause story-based cover commissions.

The Publishing Times Staff · October 9, 2026 · 5 min read

Must Read Magazines Pauses Story-Based Cover Art Contracts After Artists Reject Its Terms

Will Asimov's still commission covers based on the stories inside? Not for now. On October 9, 2026, Must Read Magazines publisher P.L. Stevens said the company plans "to pause cover contracts based on specific stories for the foreseeable future," a day after two well-known science fiction artists publicly turned down its cover-art contracts.

Must Read Magazines (MRM) bought Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 2025.

What the artists said

Donato Giancola, a three-time Hugo winner, wrote on Facebook that the Asimov's art director approached him for a cover. When the contract arrived, it was a work-for-hire agreement that, among other things, required him to sign a non-disclosure agreement and barred him from showing the artwork in his portfolio or on his website without permission.

"I went back and forth in contract revisions with Asimov's SF legal department five times over three months," Giancola wrote. He said that was "All for a $1200 fee on a commission who's legal contract issues were settled in a five minute digital handshake six years ago." At the end of June, he said, he told the magazine to find another artist.

John Picacio, a four-time Hugo winner, shared the memo he sent MRM about an Asimov's contract. As reported by File 770, that contract still included moral rights and copyright waiver clauses, despite a January 2026 announcement that MRM was changing its standard contract in response to issues raised by SFWA. Picacio told his readers that if they are approached to write or draw for any MRM publication, they should "walk away." Both artists said they do not fault the magazines' editors and staff.

What Must Read Magazines said

In a statement published in full by File 770, Stevens said MRM previously commissioned illustrators to create covers as work-for-hire "when they were asked to adapt authors' original stories for elements such as cover art. This will be changing."

The company's reasoning is about the authors' rights. "The rights granted to MRM by authors are limited," the statement says, so MRM can't let an illustrator retain an adaptation copyright in a story's worlds and characters while also protecting the story's author. "We don't acquire rights from authors that allow us to grant illustrators broad unencumbered use of the worlds, characters, and other elements created by the author."

Instead, MRM says it can license existing art, or license new original art that isn't based on a story, "with contracts for illustrators where the artist clearly retains the copyright in the underlying image."

On moral rights, the statement says MRM's licensing agreements for original art and original fiction use language prepared by an international IP attorney based on notes from SFWA's contracts committee, and that "These kinds of agreements no longer include a waiver of moral rights."

The statement does not say when story-based cover commissions will resume, and it does not address the NDA or portfolio terms Giancola described.

The writers' contracts

Writer Beware's Victoria Strauss, who has tracked MRM's contracts since the 2025 acquisition, wrote on October 9 that the writing contracts did improve after community pushback. The moral rights waiver and the morality clause are gone, she wrote, and the contracts now require MRM to publish within 30 months of signing or return the rights. MRM still seeks to keep a merchandising clause but will remove it on request, she said.

Strauss's concern is that those gains came one negotiation at a time. "As far as I know, MRM has never shared an official boilerplate," she wrote. She quoted author Scott Edelman: "any progress achieved by a single author doesn't accrue to all authors."

Why it matters for authors

Your rights limit what a publisher can give an artist. MRM's own explanation is that it only holds the limited rights its authors grant, so it can't hand an illustrator broad rights in the characters and worlds of a story. That's the same logic authors should apply to any contract that asks for merchandising or adaptation rights.

Moral rights waivers are a red flag. A moral rights waiver can let a publisher reprint or change your work without crediting you or asking you. MRM now says its current art and fiction agreements don't include one. Check the contract you are actually offered.

A good deal for one writer isn't a good deal for all. If a publisher only fixes terms for the writers who push back, every new contributor starts from the same boilerplate. Ask to see the current standard contract before you submit.

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