Learning Photoshop

I've been taking an online Photoshop class, trying to learn how to make my own book covers. Here's my latest attempt (with still so much to learn!).

First I made this:



And I decided it was pretty good. Or rather, it represents the hard limit of my skills and I literally can't do any better.

So I took it and made this:



What do you think?

Now just to finish the story!