Photoshop for authors

I'm sure we all agree that a book's cover is pretty much the shop front for an author's work. A picture, as the saying goes, is worth a thousand words. I don't always agree with that but certainly if a cover doesn't (and shouldn't) sell the book, it goes a long way towards getting a potential reader to at least read the blurb.

It's the same with websites. Make them interesting with suitable images and people will be more likely to look further.

Recently I came across Covervault, a site hosted by a designer who makes templates available for free use to anyone who wants them. You can download his templates as zip files which open to a Photoshop .psd file and .jpg files showing the end results. He has templates for boxed sets, stacks of books, series - you name it.

I'm no Photoshop expert but I know a little bit, so I downloaded his series templates. After viewing Mark's video tutorial, I set to. As far as I can tell Photoshop Elements doesn't really support smart objects the way Photoshop CC does. What Mark explains in his tutorial works in CC. You probably can use Elements by using transform-skew to put your covers into place but the result won't be as good.

Here are some of the results, which I've used to jazz up my website.

There's no Misfits series yet - but there might be in due course

This one allows for a background, making a poster. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Here's another one using the same template
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If you like to play with Photoshop take a look at Mark's site. It's free - and it's fun.