Map Making

And a GIVEAWAY

One of my bucket list writing things was to write a story in a fantasy world which needed one of those cool maps - you know, like Middle-Earth or Narnia, that you saw when you were a kid and stared at for hours…

Like this framed one we have in the spare room (or Land of Spare ‘Oom’:

So when I decided to publish my YA Fantasy book this year (I brought it forward for a few reasons), I wanted to go all-in, as I always tend to do.

I looked around for some cartographers who would be able to do this for me, and I managed to find an excellent one, who is currently working on that for me now.

As part of the process, I had to do a VERY rough sketch of the map and accompany it with notes and descriptions and details.

It was really fun actually to explore the geography of the world via an omnipotent viewpoint rather than through the lens of the main character, as we so often do!

I’ll pop a picture below of where I got up to before sending it (I’ve since made some changes and additions - I am allowed 2 revision passes on the map, so it’s all good!) but this is the original:

Most of the action takes place on the west coast of the continent in book 1, so I focussed on details there a little more for this book, but maybe the maps in books 2 and 3 will have extra details of various regions.

Now, a reward for those who have read this far down, I have a GIVEAWAY for you:

To enter:

• reply in the comments below this post, guessing which country outline this continent is based on

• share this newsletter on social media

• then I will enter you into a draw for a signed, hardback version of the final book (to be sent out after publication in all likelihood for transparency) which will include the map inside the book but also I’ll print out a nice big version of the finished map (not mine above!) for your wall or wherever

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I’ll post again at the end of the month with the finished map and talk a little more about the process of finding a cartographer and how you collaborate to create the final product.

Also thanks for voting in the poll last month - it was interesting to see there was interest in all of the options I listed, but that a self-publishing guide and publishing house were the 2 most popular options.

The guide is something I’ve already been working on, and I hope that I can have something on that front released in 2025, probably as a cheap e-book.

On the Publishing House front, I’ve begun looking into the logistics and financing of this, and I am still very enthusiastic and keen to try helping those who can’t afford to self-publish in a high quality way, but tempering that with being realistic about how that might look (and being reminded by friends constantly that it’s not my job to take personal financial risks to help other people get published).

And I agree with my friends, so I’m looking at a way that would also benefit myself (selfish auld hermit, eh!?), so I’ll be back with news on that front once I’ve sorted all of that out.

For example, it might be a digital first model until you reach a certain number of sales, or only POD for paperback until a certain threshold has been reached… and it may be that the royalties (while still surpassing those you’d get with a trad publisher) would need to be shared (where you’d get all of that if you did it yourself!).

Anyway, enough rambling from me for now.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!