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Fake books can look real, and be real useful

It’s important to have a realistic "3D" picture of a book before it exists -- for publicity, seeking orders, and evaluating titles and cover designs with more impact than a flat printout or monitor viewing can provide.

Also: A picture of a printed book can help to sell ebooks.

If you have a flat cover image, it can magically become a realistic picture of a book at http://www.myecovermaker.com.  I've been a happy customer for years.

You can choose from a huge selection of book types, and even CD-ROMs, loose-leaf notebooks, iPads and multimedia packages. You can pay $14.95 per month or $99 per year for unlimited downloads. If you don't want to pay for a membership, you can pay a one-time download fee of $4.95 for a cover.

The tech support folks respond fast and have the right answers. Help is also available from users in the online forum.

The service is extremely easy to use, and an image takes less than a minute to render and download. There are nearly 100 designs available. New devices (Nook Color, Kindle Fire, MacBook Air) are added often, and there are format variations (back of book, stacks of books, books lying down and standing up, iPads and iPhones horizontal and vertical).

You can also "make" non-books like DVDs and DVD packages, and you have various editing options including cropping, re-sizing and choosing background colors. Images are stored online and you can download both 2D and 3D images for different purposes. The site provides many background images, plus links to free illustrations. The company even offers a membership card format. I'm not sure how useful it is, but I had to try it. I was able to create the image of a video showing my faces. It's not particularly useful, but it might stimulate some thought.

I had "photographs" of many books long before they were printed, and realistic renderings helped me avoid major mistakes and make major improvements. (above) I designed the cover at the left  a year ago. I designed the version on the right this morning. It will evolve more before publication. You can left-click on the image to enlarge.

My publishing company could not function without My eCover Maker. Try it.
Posted by Michael N. Marcus at 6:22 AM Books for authors at Amazon.com. Click on cover image. Book Biz News Indie Authors Daily

Important news and advice Some blogs and websites I like Some blogs I have mixed feelings about Some bloggers I CAN'T STAND CLICK for home page Info below here is for Everyone Hunter J. Marcus Below: In the works for 2018 Internet Hell A horror story, available as a paperback and ebook Funny and useful. Paperback and ebooks. Who? What? Above: a book I'm thinking about writing. MICHAEL'S BLOGS (some are no longer being updated)

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