Insert Your Book Here
Bookbub has many useful posts—except the one I want most: how to get your book accepted for a promo. But in the meantime, you can advertise on Bookbub, and in this post they offer up "Twenty Stunning Designs" for book display ads.
I'm not sure if "stunning" is the right adjective. The design of each ad is fairly simple. The book and simple copy lines like praise from other authors or intriguing taglines. Most of the books are also shown in 3D format like a paperback or ebook. There's a buy button, which you can create in their own graphic generation platform. But these ads were selected because they had high click through rates. (Spoiler alert: being a recognized author probably helps.) And if an ad is selling books, that's the style you want to use.
The ability to make your books look three dimensional helps for all kinds of graphics: Bookbub ads, Facebook ads, and even your own promos. So today, let's look at how you can do this.
This great method was revealed to me in a Facebook author group. I'd tell you to join too, but I belong to about four of them and I can never tell them apart. It's a pretty simple method and looks good. You use Pixlr which is a free online image editor. But the perfectionist in me can tell that I've put the lower right hand corner too high, even though I went back in several times to try to correct this. Also in real life, the paperback of How The Cookie Crumbles is waaaaaay bigger—it's the kind of book that you don't want to drop in the bathtub or a tidal wave will occur.
Anyway, rather than explain all the steps, I'll link you up to the site on MYeBook (their capitalization, I'm not going all Spongebob on you.) One note, when you press the download button on the 3D image, the image opens up but you still need to copy and save it. This method takes about five to ten minutes.
My PS experience was made less painful by their helpful video tutorial. Still, it took a fair amount of trial and error as all my PS projects do. Also, I found that the 6 x 9 size worked best with my Amazon-sized covers. All-in-all these covers took me about 40 minutes (including trying out the 5 x 8 size and failing) and I haven't made a mock-up with a spine yet which will require cropping my paperback covers. Ack.
So, if you have Photoshop, try out the Covervault tutorial here. And if you don't have Photoshop, you can get a free trial for a month. Maybe you can do all your covers at once. When I got mine years ago you could buy it for an extremely discounted rate if someone in your family is a teacher. Perhaps it's worth checking out. I use Photoshop once or twice a month for graphics. I'd use it more if I were better at it.
Ideas to steal:
Use the minimum effort needed to get the effect you need.
Was this helpful for you? Let me know in the comments. Next Monday, we'll be doing a sexy Makeover Monday with... you guessed it, another hockey romance.
Of note: In the past I've mentioned the Deposit Photo deal I bought, which brings the price below $1 a photo. It's on right now on, check it out here. Also of note, I don't make money from any of the links I share. I'm either an idiot or doing this because I enjoy it.
I'm not sure if "stunning" is the right adjective. The design of each ad is fairly simple. The book and simple copy lines like praise from other authors or intriguing taglines. Most of the books are also shown in 3D format like a paperback or ebook. There's a buy button, which you can create in their own graphic generation platform. But these ads were selected because they had high click through rates. (Spoiler alert: being a recognized author probably helps.) And if an ad is selling books, that's the style you want to use.
The ability to make your books look three dimensional helps for all kinds of graphics: Bookbub ads, Facebook ads, and even your own promos. So today, let's look at how you can do this.
Level One
All I did here was go to good old Deposit Photos and find an image of an ereader. I opened it up in Canva and then I plunked my cover on it. Easy-peasy, it took all of two minutes and I drank a cup of Bengal Spice tea at the same time. There's an illusion of dimensionality here because of the ereader. But here's a secret: the cover is bigger than the screen. The screen size was not proportionate, so I did the best I could. Also, I didn't buy the Deposit Photo cover, so the watermarks are still visible. (You can also buy ereader images right on Canva.) It looks good, but not fully three dimensional. But we don't want the easiest method to look the best, right?
Level Two
Anyway, rather than explain all the steps, I'll link you up to the site on MYeBook (their capitalization, I'm not going all Spongebob on you.) One note, when you press the download button on the 3D image, the image opens up but you still need to copy and save it. This method takes about five to ten minutes.
Level Three
Well, what can I say? To me, this looks fabulous. The books are completely dimensional, realistic, and detailed. But this method involved my nemesis: Photoshop. Photoshop is a huge black hole I plunge into and don't emerge for an hour minimum. For this method, I used Covervault, a gorgeous free source for mock-ups. They also enable you to create box sets in 3D.
My PS experience was made less painful by their helpful video tutorial. Still, it took a fair amount of trial and error as all my PS projects do. Also, I found that the 6 x 9 size worked best with my Amazon-sized covers. All-in-all these covers took me about 40 minutes (including trying out the 5 x 8 size and failing) and I haven't made a mock-up with a spine yet which will require cropping my paperback covers. Ack.
So, if you have Photoshop, try out the Covervault tutorial here. And if you don't have Photoshop, you can get a free trial for a month. Maybe you can do all your covers at once. When I got mine years ago you could buy it for an extremely discounted rate if someone in your family is a teacher. Perhaps it's worth checking out. I use Photoshop once or twice a month for graphics. I'd use it more if I were better at it.
Ideas to steal:
Use the minimum effort needed to get the effect you need.
Was this helpful for you? Let me know in the comments. Next Monday, we'll be doing a sexy Makeover Monday with... you guessed it, another hockey romance.
Of note: In the past I've mentioned the Deposit Photo deal I bought, which brings the price below $1 a photo. It's on right now on, check it out here. Also of note, I don't make money from any of the links I share. I'm either an idiot or doing this because I enjoy it.
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