Cover artist and publisher Deron Douglas has managed to conjure artistic success out of fantasy, imagination, and just the right amount of attention to commercial needs.

Going to the bookstore holds the promise of a feast not just for the mind, but also for the eye. Row upon row of shelves loom, filled with the visions, dreams, nightmares, and worlds of others, their covers summoning – or repelling – readers by the images they display. Likewise the websites of e-book publishers: A good cover can sell a book; a bad one can relegate it to a short life on the remainder table or electronic oblivion, if the author is otherwise unknown. The artist a publisher assigns can make or break not just the book’s sales, but perhaps also the author’s career.