Every Catholic author needs a tool kit, and one of the coolest looking tools is a beautiful mockup of your book – before it’s even printed.
Photo-perfect mockups of your manuscript/masterpiece can do wonders for showing your friends and fans your vision. There’s something magical about previewing the future.
But aren’t mockups hard to to?
Not any more! There are some nice services that offer completely free mockups for personal use; just don’t resell them.
And if you know anything about Photoshop, you can download it for $10 a month, and that unlocks a whole new world of amazing mockups.
First, the freebies. You upload your cover art, and download the finished product.
Yes, it’s that easy. :)
That being said, the options are limited, with few actual book covers, and lots of ipads, laptops and smart devices. Perfect for ebooks or downloads!
4 Free Options
Adazing
Here on this site you will find tools , software and tips all aimed at making your book better. If you want the general direction of what the founder, McDaniels, thinks you should be focusing on and when, then should check out Start Here page.
I’m on his mailing list, and he keeps sending out valuable goodies and writing tips. Sign up too! Lots to benefit from!
PlaceIt
This is one of the best available; you can not only generate high quality mockup images, but some of the mockups also have video footage of people interacting with your product.
Imagine uploading that to your Instagram. :)
The free versions are small graphics, about 400px across. Once you’re happy with a graphic you like, you can pay $8 for a decently HD version.
I’ve been really impressed the couple of times that I’ve used it. It’s so easy to upload, and then download a photo-perfect mockup. That could be really valuable for a pre-launch, or proof-of-concept image to share on your facebook page to get folks psyched.
Magic Mockups
Works very simply, and has a nice feature; click on the actual screen to upload your image, and then download the graphic in HD immediately.
Very nice. Up to 1600px wide is free. After that, they ask for some sort of donation if you need a higher resolution.
Dunnnk
I was pleasantly surprised how quickly this worked; upload your graphic and then download an HD image. No strings attached.
With the lack of an About page, I’m going to assume that these are licensed under a CC licence, so don’t sell whatever you do, and might be safest to throw a link back to them, something like Made with Dunnnk.com. Or I Dunked this at Dunnnk.com
But don’t quote me.
Paid – But No Photoshop
My ECover Creator
You can make five covers totally free of charge. To access their entire collection of covers, it starts at just $14.95 a month for unlimited covers and downloads.
I haven’t worked with this, but the trailer shows you what their interface it like, and it looks like a real find. :) If you’re a self-starter who likes to get their fingers dirty, this is quite cool. 3D mockups are available for showcasing your cover design once you’re finished, and I imagine you can upload your own if you want.
If you’ve used it, drop me a comment below letting me know your experience!
Go Photoshop!
So after the free options, a $10 gateway and about an hour’s worth of basic photoshop training (free on Youtube) unlocks for you boatloads of unique, creative, and more custom mockups.
Graphic Burger
One of my favorite places to go for mockup resources, most of these are free, with some deee-licious saleables that I hope to try some day.
You can search for what you’re looking for; some very nice options.
You will need to take a little training in using smart-objects in Photoshop, but the principle is excitingly simple; open the file, input your cover, save as an image. All the work done for you.
Graphic Twister
Also a favorite location of mine for high quality mockups. He does have an online mockup generator, but doesn’t have many options yet.
Prices seem nice and low, so its quite inexpensive to buy the mockup photoshop file you’re interested in.
MockupWorld
Mockup World handpicks and presents the best photorealistic Photoshop mockups that designers and agencies worldwide have published online.
Each item is featured together with a preview image or gallery, a detailed description and a link that leads right to the download page. Visitors can use the directory to quickly navigate to the desired category.
Loads of freebies, and plenty of gorgeous options to buy.
PSD Covers
I’d say this was my #1 place for free book covers if I hadn’t already said some of these others were my favorites.
PSD Covers recently wised up to the value of their mockups, and have a monthly plan they offer for a plugin that hooks right into Photoshop. I haven’t tried it yet, but I imagine it delivers the same amazing stuff like before.
If you try it, comment below and let me know your experience!
CoverVault
I love this site. I’ll check it first before checking my favorites. He has a bunch that are free, and some are $5.
Just download, open in Photoshop, open the smartobject, add your covers, save and export. Beautiful.
Mocup
Not many books on here, but certainly some gorgeous and unique mockups to dazzle your fans and visitors.
Bundles of HQ PSD mockups for your designs! Put them in a realistic situation and let your presentation speak for itself. Packages of complementary mockups with several devices using smart objects. Done.
Graphic River
I absolutely love this market, and spend ages every month combing through the new options and storing them in ‘collections’, my bins of favorites. Some really nice options here, for low prices.
How about you?
So, have you used any of these? Did I miss your favorite software/service?
Let me know in the comments below! I’m looking forward to your thoughts. :D