Text: there are two ways. First, you may insert a Text component and position it above the cover. This is a good way if you want to only a couple of words. The second way is to use textures, some of the component types allow you to specify texture, which may be an image full of text.
Bending things: I am afraid this is not that easy. I know that using NURBS is not easy and requires a lot of practice or understanding of the math behind. Still, the surface of revolution is not that hard and relatively powerful.
There are two experimental (not publicly released) U3D modules that address this issue somehow, but it is still not easy. One of them allows you to define a nonlinear transformation (using NURBS volume), an example is [url=screenshot/NURBS-volume]here[/url]. The other one can move defined vertices. Maybe they will be one day released as an optional extension, but they need a lot of work to become at least a bit user friendly.