Hello from British Columbia

[Fly fishing]

Hi All; I'm in the process of writing a Fly Fishing book due out next fall and trying to figure out how to create maps that are suitable for the book. After doing a Google search I find myself here with the hope that someone can help me along the path to creating maps suitable for publication. Look forward to learning more and hopefully chatting about how to make the "maps happen?"!!!!

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild Fly Fishing! There are tutorials aplenty here (check out the tutorials section) and my recommendation would be to start there. You might also want to check out Ravells Quickstart guide to Fantasy Mapping (a link to which appears in the sticky at the top of the Member's Introduction page). If you still need help, I would recommend posting a WIP showing the map you are working and asking for criticism/advice on how to improve it.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Fly fishing]

Thanks for your help, I will start with the tutorials

[Gidde]

Welcome to the Guild!

It's worth noting that the techniques that you learn through those tutorials will in fact transfer to real-world maps -- so don't be put off by the "fantasy mapping" in the title of the tutorial sticky

[Hai-Etlik]

Hi All; I'm in the process of writing a Fly Fishing book due out next fall and trying to figure out how to create maps that are suitable for the book. After doing a Google search I find myself here with the hope that someone can help me along the path to creating maps suitable for publication. Look forward to learning more and hopefully chatting about how to make the "maps happen?"!!!!

Probably your biggest issue is going to be data/base maps. You can't just take screenshots of Google maps and trace over them. You have to find a source of data suitable for your needs.

Natural Earth is a good place to start and their data is public domain (it'd still be polite to attribute them) though the scale of their data might be a bit small for your needs.

[Fly fishing]

I checked out Natural Earth and it looks like it will work, so thanks

[waldronate]

http://www.shadedrelief.com/ is an excellent place to start. Tom Patterson provides a whole host of techniques and suggestions that are used in his work as a cartographer for the USGS.

[Lukc]

Fly Fishing? Fancy that ... did a map on that this spring!