Software to Create Your Own Ebook and Download Ecovers

You know when you go to a site and they say “download our ebook” or when you land on a sales page and they have 3D graphics of DVDs, books and audio? Those are called in the trade “ecovers”. They are not the real product, just an illustration representation of the product, but they do help create visual appeal and encourage downloads.

ecover software

In the past I have had to have a designer create them for me, at a cost of $70 a shot. This is not cheap if you need lots of them done, or if you need to change them over time. I realized this was a daft approach recently as I have been working on an online course with 12 modules, all of which requiring one of these graphics, and where the titles of them might well change. On top of this, I intend to do a freebie download about Excel right here for this blog.

So I started looking around for how I can create them, and you know what? It’s easy!

OK, you do need to be able to create the basic, flat cover image, but minimal skills in a photo/bitmap editing package suffices. The tools do the rest, converting your 2D cover into a 3D box, book or CD case as required.

There are two main approaches.

  1. Photoshop plugin – This uses Photoshop tools in a kind of macro/wizard, where it does all the tweaks and distortions necessary to achieve the effect. The plus is it’s all in Photoshop, the minus is it requires the full and expensive Photoshop CS, which is overkill if all you need is a few covers for your ebook downloads.
  2. Dedicated software – These packages vary in price or quality, but they get the job done and you can usually try before you buy.

As I am a photoshop elements user I had to go with the second route, and hunt for dedicated software. Most of the software I turned up was for PC users, but I did manage to find a pretty decent tool for Windows and Mac called Box Shot 3D.

Box Shot 3D

This sofware allows you to create 3D graphics representing books, CDs, DVD, and also change angles, perspective, shadows and lighting. It’s all very intuitive and the results are not bad (see the graphic at the top of this article).

What do you think? Would the graphic make you want to download? Know of any better options? Let me know in the comments …

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Chris Garrett 
Filed Under Software Tools

Comments

4 Responses to “Software to Create Your Own Ebook and Download Ecovers”

  1. 10 Twitter Stories in 140 Characters – Brain Leaders and Learners on November 13th, 2008 5:24 pm

    [...] Twitter I learned how to create e-covers for e-books. What are you learning [...]

  2. Laura Christianson on November 13th, 2008 5:48 pm

    Thanks for the tips; have been looking for something affordable to create nice-looking covers that match our brand design.

    Laura Christianson
    co-founder, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com

  3. Michele Connolly, Get Organized Wizard on November 14th, 2008 8:20 am

    I love Box Shot 3D!

    I had a pretty good look at the competitors at the time and this stood out for ease of use and quality of output.

    Even with my sadly limited skills, I can produce nice images. EG, the product image on my home page was done with Box Shot 3D.
    http://www.GetOrganizedWizard.com

  4. Richard on November 22nd, 2008 12:58 pm

    Just thought I’d throw in another great piece of software to this list. It really deserves to be in it! Here’s the link to it: eBook cover photoshop actions

    Thanks again for the info, I hadn’t heard of box shot 3d before.

    Richard

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