Design Ebook Covers: Tools, Tutorials & Photoshop Actions
If you are going to publish your first ebook (or have plans to do so), good for you, self-publishing ebooks are opening up a lot of doors for many an aspiring author, trying to make a name in the genre of their choice.
One of the biggest problems these writers will face is the discoverability of their work. You first need to get people to notice your ebook before they would be interested in getting a copy. Aside from the marketing and promotional work you can pour into getting your book out there, there is also the need for a great ebook cover design.
Fortunately, plenty of tutorials help you get started. We also have plenty of tools and Photoshop actions to help you create 3D ebook cover images for both hardcover and paperback. Make your work stand out from the crowd with a little help from Photoshop.
Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide To Book Cover Design
Ebook Cover Design Tools
If you don’t have Photoshop, or want a quick and easy way to create a 3D ebook cover image, here are four tools that will do most of the work for you.
3D Box Shot Maker. Select your spine and cover images and tweak the parameters (box size, shadow, and reflection) to your liking.
3D-Box Maker. Just choose your front and back covers and spine image, then click Create 3d-box.
Free Ebook Cover Creator. This tool offers you a choice of four templates. Once you’ve selected a template, just upload a flat image of your book cover and select a background color, and you’re done.
Ebook Cover Design Tutorials
Prefer to have more leeway in the design of your ebook cover? If you have and use Photoshop, here are 9 tutorials to check out and follow.
Design An Ebook Cover In Photoshop Using Action – Design a cover and turn it into a 3D ebook cover using Photoshop actions.
E-Book Cover Tutorial – How to turn a pre-existing flat cover image into a realistic 3D ebook cover.
How To Create An Ebook Cover In Photoshop – How to turn a flat cover image into a 3D ebook cover, complete with shadow.
How To Create Ebook Cover Tutorial With Photoshop – How to create a 3D ebook cover from scratch.
How To Make A 3D Ebook Cover Image – How to make a slightly different style of 3D ebook cover.
Ebook Cover Design Photoshop Actions
There is also the option to automate some of these actions, and you can do that by running some actions in Photoshop. Here are nine links to action files that you can try out.
E-Cover Action Script 2 – Turn your flat cover image into an angled 3D hardback ebook cover.
Free Photoshop Action For Ebook Covers – Turn flat to 3D curved paperback cover with reflection and shadow.
ECover Profile Action – Try a slightly different perspective for your 3D ebook cover.
ECover Reflection PS Action – Like reflections on your cover? Here’s a Photoshop action to help.
ECover Slim Photoshop Action – Go slim with this paperback style cover, plus reflection.
ECoverSuiteElite. The motherlode of more than 60 actions designed to create 3D ebook covers in a variety of styles and angles.
