Book Mockup Sites I Love And Why
Say you have your book cover–and it’s drop-dead-gorgeous–and say you’re ready to show it to the world, but say your book isn’t ready to be printed yet. There are ways to brag about your talent (or cover artist’s talent) while still polishing your work. This is part of marketing, after all. You’ve got to show off what’s coming next. What better way to do that than actually presenting an image of the novel you’ll be selling in a matter of months–and it really should be months.
Here’s the thing, unless you’re a whiz at photo manipulation or want to fork out money for an image, you may end up like me. When I went to make pretty mockups, I found it to be frustrating. So many sites are only partially free, others don’t have much of anything, and even more take you to other websites or broken links. To top it all off, the ones that did work were all in Photoshop format. I’m a broke author, I don’t have Photoshop. I use Gimp–free, similar, and gets the job done.
After a lot of searching, I amassed about 60 images–which should last me ten novels, or so. Turns out, there are a lot of images you can use to display your novel cover that don’t cost a fortune; in fact, a ton are free! I thought I’d compile a newly updated list with my findings as of last month (July 2019) so you don’t have to do the legwork I did. Just click the links, download the files, add your images, and sell those books!
Note: This is not an ad; I am not a sponsor of these companies. I’m just sharing my personal feelings.
If you don’t have Photoshop, don’t fret! This is a free online version of Photoshop where you can upload the mockup PSD files, drag and drop your book covers, then save the png files to your computer. Don’t let lack of Adobe things get you down.
The most gorgeous free mockups available, if you ask me. There are mockups for paperback, hardback, cookbooks. Some have simple backdrops, others stylized for genres. There’s even a tutorial video so the learning curve is almost non-existent.
Two pages. Simple. No muss. No fuss.
https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/book-mockup
One of my personal favorite mockup sites. From simple to complex, small paperbacks to magazines, Freepik has so many different types of mockups. Some are so unique to genres, there should be something for everyone!
https://zippypixels.com/products/mockups/books-magazines/
The selection at ZippyPixels is smaller than some, that’s true. But they are strong and unique images that would be striking on any social media page.
https://diybookcovers.com/3Dmockups/
This is my go-to for basic covers. Do you need a paperback or ebook version of your novel for promo images? Go here. The end.
There are oodles of mockups on this site. The book section is quite large and varied. Most are simple and clean in appearance, but the backgrounds are changeable in Photoshop (or Photopea). I bet you can find at least ten you want.
https://www.behance.net/search/?search=book%20mockup
Another of my favorites for its wide variety of styles. The downside is that they aren’t all free. Bēhance has mockups for a lot more than books, too. Give them five minutes, and you’ll give them an hour.
I’ll admit that the site is a bit irritating. Stick with me on this one, though! You can’t see how many pages actually exist with your keyword, and sometimes the links will also take you to dead ends, so you’ll feel like you’re doing something illegal–you aren’t. Here’s the thing, though, they have a huge variety of open laptop mockups. It’s a unique way to show your ebook or a screenshot of your Scrivener, perhaps? They are just so pretty, it’s worth taking a look at.
A little chaotic, but GraphicsFuel has some real gems–see the main page and the one right about this. It’s worth a gander because you’ll write more than one book, right?
There you have it. A few ways to make your book stand out. I hope they help!
