Here's a quick tutorial on the cover above. Took me about 15 minutes to make on Photoshop because it is super easy to do as I'll show below.

Step 1.

I used the following stock image:

Adjusted the stock using free transform, positioned it on my 512x800 canvas, and erased the edges using a soft eraser until I got this:

I did make adjustments to the curves and hue/saturation to make it darker and a little more blue because blue is much fab. 

Step 2

I took this stock image:

And set it to linear dodge using the layers panel. 

I got this effect:

Step 3

I took a soft brush, created a new layer and painted white all over like this:

I then set that layer to overlay to get this effect:

Step 4

I added my title, subtitles and author's name. Fonts used:

Author's name and subtitles: Microsoft PhagsPa

Title: Georgia

Step 5

I used the following font style settings to get the slight bevel on the font:

Step 6

I created a new layer, used a divider from spiritsighs_ dividers brush set on Deviantart to achieve the final result. I also set the font layers to linear dodge.

I hope that this tutorial helps in some way even if it is a short one. 

Much parrots, and happy designing.