this here..

I'm doing one of these photoshop battles at another site and anyway, thought this round in particular came out very good. I used a theme obviously so when you see it, just know it's not a real book, only a theme to add some spice to the competition. the girl in the pic is jessica alba. what i'd give for 2 minutes of her time..

http://home.comcast.net/~chimeco/images/round8.jpg

It looks good thus far, but I'd recommend the following steps be taken to make it look really professional.

1. Get rid of the beveling on the text MrLemo77 vs. Chimeco
2. Get rid of the turquoise bar on the left side of the image. It doesn't fit, and furthermore, throws off the balance of the composition. You could try something a little more fitting with the color motif, or in my opinion, try something more horizontal, and a little smaller.
3. Kill the bevelling on the entire image. I dunno what's going on there
4. IMO, the title text should be pop at least as much as that of the author's name.
5. Also, I think the woman's face should be a little less photographic, and a little more airbrushed, or blurred, or something. It just looks too concrete, and well, photographic, given the rest of the images more abstract composition.

Other than that, at this point, I'd definitely give a book cover like that a second look, but given that people do in fact judge a book by it's cover, I might expect the above modifications before I'd consider buying it.

You obviously know what you're doing, and I definitely like what you've got so far.

I fully agree with Pganguly. All the bevele emboss should be taken away, even if it's the final touch and doesn't count in the actual battle (or maybe it does? I dunno). But yeah the result is nice, just don't ruin all this with the text

thx for the comments. it's supposed to look like a book, that's why i added the bevel at the edges, and the turquoise border at the left. I can remove them, or put a little more effort in them maybe if the effect isn't coming across.

I really need some text effect classes or something - i continually get that part wrong for some reason.. .. *goes looking for more text tutorials.

Maybe if you wanted the text to look like it was popping out, you could put some shading on the letters?...They look flat to me, the beveling doesnt help it look 3d...not unless you knew ahead of time the text was supposed to pop out...