Here’s the thing, most authors do not do licensing for rebinds. At all. Most actually explicitly state on their forms for requests that they do not do them. This can be for many reasons. first sale doctrine being one of them, another being that the point of licensing is to make sure that the author is being paid for their lP, and with rebinds, they already are.

With every single one of my rebinds, I pay full market price for the original book that I then turn around and use my original designs on. And thus, the author is still being paid as they should. Any additional cost that I charge, is honestly time and materials and so licensing is not really a need or an issue because their IP is still getting their rightful earnings. (On that note, authors should be able to get their bag, they work hard, they deserve it, and people who think artists of any nature deserve to have their work stolen/pirated, can step on legos, repeatedly)

Generally speaking, if an author does not have it explicitly stated on their licensing form that rebinds are unable to be licensed, I reach out to them. Most times I honestly don’t hear back (they’re busy, I get it). I’ve had people bring my rebinds to book signings, share in author groups, authors themselves commenting on my socials and doing reposts, etc, so the authors know I’m here, and I do try to get permission etc it’s just kind of a gray area. And as long as I’m not taking an image directly from someone else’s cover and putting it on mine (BIG no no, never do that) it’s not a copyright issue.