hiring cartographers

[rhos]

what are the going rates to having maps made?

prices for world maps?
prices for kingdom maps?
towns or cities?

please help and give some idea or what a fail quote is

[torstan]

This one I'm afraid is very subjective. Different artists have different levels of experience, and different financial needs (not to mention different local exchange rates - this is a very international forum). My suggestion would be to find an amount that you are willing to pay for a map, and post an ad to the Mapmaking requests forum. You can check out the previous requests - many of which have prices attached - to see what rates people are responding to.

[loogie]

i'd agree with torstan, having brought a friend to the guild to get his map done (great work btw Ramah!) i can say this is true. For many cartographers it's a juggling act between a labour of love, and time... the payment is what makes it hurt less when spending time on a map when they should be paying bills.

to be VERY vague, i'd say getting a high end map (like those featured on the homepage) you'd probably be looking beyond what a normal person would consider spending for the campaign with their friends... I say very vague cause it's just that.. how much people would consider too much varies, and what you consider a high-end map varies as well.. including how much a cartographer would expect for it.

in the end, the best bet is to ask, and don't suggest a price at first... the cartographer should be willing to suggest a fee based on the ammt of work they need to do, and are willing to do... and it gives you a chance to negotiate, as well as maybe drop some of the frills for a cheaper price.... the other option is if you can get one of our cartographers to fall in love with you're world.. it IS possible that they could take up the crusade by themselves... not a simple thing to do, but still possible, most of us have our personal projects we work on in the dead of night

[Jaxilon]

One of my favorite quotes from Napoleon Dynamite: "That's like a dollar an hour!"

I agree with loogie that if you state what you have budgeted for the map it does help folks determine if they can set aside the time for your project.
Torstan's is a good idea because you can look at the thread for requests and see the ones that have been fulfilled as well as those that were not. That might give you some idea.

If you want someone more established it will undoubtedly cost more just because the demand is higher for them. The law of economics Supply & Demand. One person only has so many hours in a day.

A guy who's just sitting at home waiting to draw something might be willing to accept "a dollar an hour" but the problem with "a dollar an hour" is that any job will pay more than that. You can't make a living at that rate as far as I know. If anyone figures that out let me know, please.

I hate to admit it but I probably have made less than that tongue in cheek "dollar an hour" just because I was having fun doing it and I wanted it to be as good as I could make it no matter what.
That unfortunately translates to, "Don't quite your day job" which in turn means less map making time.