The 13th Floor Complete Collection Gets A Makeover!

Ah, the old cover. The one where I took an image of some stairs and photoshopped a silhouetted couple in it. Not horrible, but not that great either. I wouldn't call this an eye-catching cover any longer.

I've been wanting to change it for a while now, but I could not decide what I wanted to be on the cover. It had to scream paranormal romance. Researching covers, looking at hundreds of them, I came up with a list of what I should have on it.

1) Setting. Dark background. Don't let it overwhelm anything else on the cover. It can just be a faded partial bit.

2) Title/author. It should be easy to read in thumbnail form. Font is important. I had complaints about the font I used on the original cover. The style of it makes the letters uneven. I liked it, but some people thought it was just bad design.

3) Hunky man or dynamic couple. It's tough to find an image or images of a couple that work together for what you want. It's easier to go the hunky man route. But having a person or people on the cover is key. (Sidenote: usually having just a woman on the cover is more representative of urban fantasy than paranormal romance.)

4) Something paranormal. Lots of magical swirls or mist is popular.

Even with these guidelines, it was tough to figure out what to do. The book consists of six different novellas with various characters. I spent hours searching through image sites.

I finally decided I would feature either Marc (The Marquis) or Xan (The Dragonslayer). They are my two most popular heroes. And it was easier to find a dark haired muscle man than a blond one. Marc gets to represent the collection!

I don't know how pleased Marc was with the decision, especially when I knew immediately how I wanted to present him. I imagine some grump going on, but Mae would convince him to be a good sport about it.

I found the background at Pixabay and the model at Unsplash. These two are my favorite free image sites. Lots of variety and beautiful shots.

As I've leveled up my Photoshop skills, I've learned to layer, but I've also learned that if you can get away with a few layers, all the better. Simple and clean without so many things to distract the eyes.

Behold! The new cover!