In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through the techniques I’ve used to create this e-book cover.  Of course, there are several different ways to approach this, a lot of which is basic or intermediate Photoshop skills.  I’ll share a couple interesting tricks that you can do to give your e-book that special shine.

So to start things out, let’s create a new document with a 500 x 500 pixel canvas.  We’ll leave all the settings at stock:

The first thing we’re going to start with is an image for the book cover.  In my example, we’re working on an e-book for internet marketing, so I’ve chosen a stock photograph that reflected the subject matter to a degree.

Now once I’ve pasted this stock photo into my canvas, I’m going to use Edit > Free Transform to resize the image within our 500×500 dimensions.  I’m also going to duplicate this layer, then put a 100% opacity, color overlay on the copy, group it as a new smart object, and rasterize the layer.

Next, I’ll use the rectangular marquee tool to delete the center of our copies layer.

With that done, I’ll change the color overlay on the copied layer to white and reduce the opacity slightly.  Using professional fonts, such as Segue UI, I then wrote the book’s title above, and the author’s at the bottom in small points.

Now to begin the process of add the 3d look and feel, let’s create the side spine of our book.  Essentially, use the rectangle tool to create a book as tall the cover, but very thin.  Then type your book title and author and rotate the text vertically.

Once our layers and set up, it’s time to give the cover and the spine a 3 dimensional look by going to Edit > Transform > Perspective.

Once you get the prospective right, let’s add a shine to our spine by using the Bevel and Emboss layer style on the spine.  Set the depth to 100%, size to 158px, and the soften to 16%.  Also, notice in the picture that I’ve changed the angle to 6 degrees, and the altitude to 37 degrees as well.

Next, we’ll use the Edit > Transform > Warp tool to give the spine or book a more realistic book shape.  Simply use the tool to make the top and the bottom of the spine curve out.

The last thing we’ll do to this book is give it a nice reflection of itself.  To do that duplicate all the layers, then group the duplicates into a new smart object and rasterize that layer.  Now go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertically and move the copy directly below your ebook.  Then, delete everything below the bottom third of the book, as in the picture.

Once you’ve done that, add a gradient to that layer as seen above, and reduce the overall opacity of the later to 60%.  This give us our final image: