Despite the rise of ebooks, the interest in cover design and the look of physical books is probably stronger than ever. The rate of books being published grows ever higher, and they all need covers, even if it's just a thumbnail for a Kindle edition on Amazon.
Cover designers the world over have access, via online art databases and stock libraries, to a vast array of images that can be used to decorate and, with any luck, sell books. Unfortunately, all those designers tend to have access to the same databases and libraries, which means you sometimes end up with books which feature photographs that look strangely familiar…