The thing with these templates is, you have to know how to use them correctly to make certain they look their best. You don't open it and slap the image over the cover of the book and BAM you're done. These files have a layer called a smart object layer, which allows you to replace the image so it fits correctly on the mock-up.

Let me show you how they work! A PSD template is meant for Photoshop because a PSD file is a Photoshop file extension. You must have Photoshop or a program that allows you to use a PSD file. 

This is the mockup I'm going to use for this example. 

The red arrow indicates the smart object, which is the book's cover. So what is a smart object?

A Smart Objects preserve an image's source content with all its original characteristics, enabling you to perform nondestructive editing to the layer. It means that you can replace an image without having to adjust anything. It will prevent destruction of the original look the designer intended for the graphic.

If you open the PSD file for the mockup and slap the cover on it then it isn't going to fit or look the way it's supposed to. In order to get it to fit you'd have to warp it out of shape and the end result means your cover will not look as it was intended to look and the mockup will also not appear natural. 

To open the smart object layer double click it. A dialogue box will pop up. 

It tells you to to hit 'save' when you have the layer how you want it. DO NOT use 'save as' or you will be creating a new file! You just hit save to save it to the same file so it changes the image on the mock-up. Click 'ok' and it will open the smart object layer.

This is the open smart object layer. You place your cover on this layer and hit 'save' and it will put your image onto the mockup.

These mock-ups are usually made for published authors to use to advertise their books, the cover images are sized for published books. Wattpad's size varies from that. You will most likely have to stretch the cover slightly to get it to fit without cutting anything off the edges. The files size is also extremely large so when you save it you'll have to make the image smaller or it won't upload to Wattpad if you're posting it here.

Once you have your smart object layer open, drag the book's cover onto it. You can see it's quite small in comparison to the mock-up layer. Designers who design for published books make their files very big and at a higher resolution than Wattpad covers.

Resize the cover to fit the mockup. You can see the cover comes up short on one side, so it's going to have to be stretched a bit to make it fit. Once you fit the cover to the layer, hit save and go back and look at the mock-up, your cover should be there.

You can see the cover fits appropriately and you didn't have to distort it to get it to fit correctly. Some of the mockups also allow you to change the background images if you'd like.

This mock-up file has two background images. One labeled 'backdrop' and one labeled 'model background'. The 'backdrop' layer is the textured wall and wooden table layer, if you turn that layer off you will see the 'model background', which is just a white background. 

Rather than attempting to find a backdrop that will fit with the mockup, I added some overlays to give it more of a darkened grunge look. But you can completely change them if you wish. 

You can find free mockups by doing a web search for them.  Book mockups aren't the only kind of mockups. There are all kinds of mockups out there. Billboards, CDs, coffee mugs, business cards, and more.

Tutorial by DarkAngelGraphics