SaveYourself.ca to get all purtied up with new illustrations and diagrams … at last!

I’m excited to report that SaveYourself.ca may finally be getting properly decorated with good quality illustrations and diagrams. This has been a long time coming.

Good artwork sells books and is worth every penny — but it’s nearly impossible to find the right artist, and almost always unaffordable for smaller publishers. Most books just don’t sell enough copies to pay for the art. Ironically, if they had good art, they might make enough money to pay for the art …

But it’s risky business. You can easily end up paying for a bunch of mediocre artwork, or artwork that is just not quite right for the project. And the wrong artwork is worse than no artwork at all!

The result is that there are an awful lot of books and e-books out there that are barely and/or badly illustrated. Sadly, SaveYourself.ca is no exception. For my e-books, I’ve stuck mostly to stock photography and simple diagrams.

Until now, I hope. Shayne Letain to the rescue: a friend and talented freelance illustrator, Shayne has been out of my price range for many years. Although SaveYourself.ca isn’t making a pile of cash selling e-books, it is finally getting to the point where I can afford to take the chance on an illustrator who seems to “get” what I’m trying to do here.

We’ve been kicking ideas around for a while, and I’m feeling pretty optimistic! For example, here’s a sample of a great little editorial drawing that we cooked up to illustrate the concept that muscle knots (myofascial trigger points) are “toxic” — that they contain an unusual concentration of metabolic waste, and that’s why they hurt. Here’s a prototype. More to come soon, I hope!