It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since the publication of Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self Help Guide . But there it is. We had had incredible success with The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology becoming the best selling title for the fall of 1982 from Prentice Hall. We had beaten out some of the heavy contenders- computer books being the bet being made by the marketing people. And then this strange book about reflexology knocked out all the competition, computer books included.
The natural inclination for book publisher is to repeat success by doing the same book only different. That's not us. We wanted to create something for the lay public as we saw The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology as more of a textbook.
We were getting a lot of foreign interest after the publication of The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology (which happens to be 29 years old). We decided to produce two books in one. The first part was for those looking for a logical explanation of how reflexology works. The second part was simply almost like a comic book. Despite language barriers we designed it so people could figure out where to work and what to do.
The only drawback to this approach was the first cover design to Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self Help Guide actually did look like a comic book cover with big balloon letters. The o's looked like overinflated tires. We quickly dispatched with that cover.
Today Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self Help Guide is still selling and is in more overseas editions than The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology. I really like the up front logical explanation part as that was based on our exploration of the nervous system as an explanation for how reflexology works.
I am going to pull out some of those concepts from Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self Help Guide to explore on this blog. They are interesting concepts which we still use today.
They changed the cover as a update for some anniversary. It went from being the "blue book" to a yellow looking cover we admit we opposed. But the guts are the same.
The years have meant that reflexology books are popular enough that even we had to go the route of color photos. Black and white line drawing aren't as fashionable. There are 2002 illustrations in that book all done by Barbara Kunz who conveyed a real sense of action in an otherwise still illustration. Priceless.
I am very fond of Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self Help Guide . It brought reflexology to people who might have been intimidated by the machinations of reflexology. It also brought a sense of rationality and logic to reflexology to those who wanted to know the how's and why's of it.
Kevin Kunz
http://www.reflexology-research.com
http://www.foot-reflexologist.com
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