Consultants to aspiring authors advise that an engaging cover is essential in building a successful marketing campaign.

To get an idea for mine, I spent days studying cover designs of the most successful fantasy novels. They featured swords, fire-breathing dragons, scantily-clad heroes and heroines, and vibrant color backgrounds.

Based on professional recommendations, I contacted a designer who quickly proposed a stunning dragon-head design.

There was a problem, however. I recognized the dragon from the cover of another author’s work. The designer had simply cropped away part of that cover. I didn’t use the pirated design and chocked it all up to the learning process of becoming a published author.

Focusing on the head of the dragon, I searched Google Images and Shutterstock for more days. There are tons of great dragon designs as this one demonstrates.

But again, these were the efforts of others. I wanted something unique to my books. Also, I wanted to highlight the titles of the books I had worked so hard to refine.

I started collaborating with family and friends to come up with a design that would captivate a potential reader and be unique to my series. Weeks of back and forth discussions and reviews of drafts with my artistic son Dave produced the designs that now form the covers of Wielding the Words and Battling the Bones. The basic motif will continue thru subsequent titles.

Does it “pop” for you?