Yera_Novel Map

[XCali]

Hi everyone,

I've been putting this one off for a while now, but the publishing date is hurtling along at a speed. So, here I am... needing help with the first map of my novel.

After my huge breakthroughs with my Nessa'Mor map, I became certain I need to revisit the map I planned to add to my novel.
That is the story though, a bit more than a year ago I couldn't draw, I couldn't create maps. But then I landed on Inkarnate and I finally made a few maps for my novel and it was really cool. But then I realized I can't publish my novel with Inkarnate maps. So, thus started the journey where I learned to draw from scratch and create stuff with GIMP, so that I can use my own assets to create a map. And a year and a few months later. Here we are.

In GIMP I managed to recreate my Yera map. But, my breakthroughs with Nessa'Mor made me think I need to revisit it. But, I only have days... and so I don't know what I should do. Looking at the map now, I can see hundreds of things I would do differently if I were to do it from scratch, I was heavily expirementing when I started this map. But, now I can only tweak with the little time I have... so I need help, feedback really.

After it is published I might recreate the whole thing. But for now, this is what I have to work with.

The question is, what tweaking can I do to make this better. Remember, I probably only have days to finish this map.

Thanks in advance,
Omri

Yera's Crossing_byOmri.jpeg

© Omri Pieterse 2017. All Rights Reserved. 'Aka' Omri Hope/XCali

[Mouse]

Hey XCali

I don't think its that bad at all. In fact, if this is really the first map you ever drew after using Inkarnate, then Its pretty darned excellent

That's an interesting and unusual quirk - incarnate not allowing you to use the map in a published book. Things like that need to be common knowledge, before anyone else falls into the same trap!

Right! As far as touching this up I would suggest the following:

• Find somewhere to put a proper title on it, and use a font that isn't quite so digital and straight as the one you've used for your copyright notice.
• Try to label all the important places on the map.
• Add a scale, even if its not that accurate
• Add a compass somewhere.

You might think there's not a lot of space, but you would be surprised. Just make your scale, compass and title and start moving them around the map (scaling them down if necessary, and being aware that its fine just to have an arrow for a compass as long as you can see it) until you find a spot where, even though you will be placing these things over mountains or whatever, they're not actually in the way of the story.

Hope that helps

[Azélor]

For a book unless you can print in colors your better using a black and white map.

[Mouse]

Azelor is right, unfortunately, and it did cross my mind. I just didn't want to throw you into a total panic with only a few days to go, since I don't think you've done an ink map before have you? I've no idea what kind of line drawing skills you have.

Maybe when you re-work it you could try an ink line drawing?

What kind of publishing are we talking about? An actual hard copy book, or an e-book?

[XCali]

Hey XCali

I don't think its that bad at all. In fact, if this is really the first map you ever drew after using Inkarnate, then Its pretty darned excellent

That's an interesting and unusual quirk - incarnate not allowing you to use the map in a published book. Things like that need to be common knowledge, before anyone else falls into the same trap!

Right! As far as touching this up I would suggest the following:

• Find somewhere to put a proper title on it, and use a font that isn't quite so digital and straight as the one you've used for your copyright notice.
• Try to label all the important places on the map.
• Add a scale, even if its not that accurate
• Add a compass somewhere.

You might think there's not a lot of space, but you would be surprised. Just make your scale, compass and title and start moving them around the map (scaling them down if necessary, and being aware that its fine just to have an arrow for a compass as long as you can see it) until you find a spot where, even though you will be placing these things over mountains or whatever, they're not actually in the way of the story.

Hope that helps

Thank you, Sue. I appreciate the help.
It is a good point on the title. I haven't really thought of titling the map. I have, however, all the labels planned out, and the pillar city had the biggest name. It might have been my idea of titling the map. But, I'll think on it.
Compass wize, I removed the old one just this afternoon. I'll add the one I used for Nessa'Mor. At least for now.

The scale, that is something I need to consider too, so thanks for reminding me.

Regarding Inkarnate, I drew a very basic map and then happened on Inkarnate, then took that draft and created a much much better map while using their public beta, and so I created the entire map using their assests. Then I reached out, knowing I want a map to ship with my book. The assests they had then was not part of their free for commercial use license. They said, if I created my map with their tool using only custom assests, then I can publish it. But, you could only have 10 custom assests. So, it was almost impossible. That is when I set out to create one entirely in GIMP. My first complete map aside from a rough drawn start of a map and my inkarnate maps.

I don't entirely know their policy at the moment. But that was how it was last year.

Though, I made do without. So, anyway.

For a book unless you can print in colors your better using a black and white map.

Um, yeah, I thought of that. I'm starting out as an e-book and then after a while, a physical copy. For the e-book I might try the color version. Though, I will add it as a black and white in print.

Azelor is right, unfortunately, and it did cross my mind. I just didn't want to throw you into a total panic with only a few days to go, since I don't think you've done an ink map before have you? I've no idea what kind of line drawing skills you have.

Maybe when you re-work it you could try an ink line drawing?

What kind of publishing are we talking about? An actual hard copy book, or an e-book?

I've been getting better and better at pencil drawn stuff. But haven't try inking anything yet. So, that might be a long shot right now. I might try it later, though.

It will start out as an e-book, but I will work towards physical editions

[Mouse]

I think you might need to aim specifically for an ink line map for the hard copy version.

colour printing is 10 x more expensive than B/W, and the clarity of an ink map on white paper is far far better than a coloured one, no matter how lovely the colour is. Colour maps are really for webpages and coffee table books

[XCali]

Hi,

I labeled the map with a creamy color on Duralith and added a compass and lastly a scale. I tried my first idea with having Yera's Crossing quite bigger than the rest. See if it works or not.
Yera_Novel_map_byOmri.jpeg


And just for comparison, I added a desaturated version of the map.
Yera_Novel_map_Grey_byOmri.jpeg


EDIT: Ach! There is another 'caves' I missed. Don't mind it.

I think you might need to aim specifically for an ink line map for the hard copy version.

colour printing is 10 x more expensive than B/W, and the clarity of an ink map on white paper is far far better than a coloured one, no matter how lovely the colour is. Colour maps are really for webpages and coffee table books

I'm not entirely sure how to go about that? Do I just draw basic ink line art of this map or what?


Hmm, I thought I'd add how I did it last time too. Though, it being downsized later for the e-book messed the labels like this up.
Canon MAP BIG With Names.jpeg

[Mouse]

For any book you just want it as simple as possible. I'd do away with any fancy coloured text, since the map happens to be colour anyway.

Try to imagine how small this map will be when its being looked at in the book - especially on a reader like a kindle. That's really tiny. It needs to be pin sharp and easy to look at without squinting to try and see what everything is.

The big fancy coloured maps are really for your author's webpage

If you look in any fantasy paperback book you are likely to find a B/W map done in line art only. If you look at this search page and scroll down through it you will notice that the clearest and easiest maps to read are the ones that are just literally black lines and black labels on white paper, with little or no shading. As soon as you start adding shading, you start to darken the image and spoil the clarity.

If you don't have time to do a line drawing (and if you do I'd do it on a plain white background - no fancy paper), then I'd stick with the colour version (which is actually clearer than the desaturated version) and keep the white text, not the coloured stuff. But this is only my opinion

[XCali]

For any book you just want it as simple as possible. I'd do away with any fancy coloured text, since the map happens to be colour anyway.

Try to imagine how small this map will be when its being looked at in the book - especially on a reader like a kindle. That's really tiny. It needs to be pin sharp and easy to look at without squinting to try and see what everything is.

The big fancy coloured maps are really for your author's webpage

If you look in any fantasy paperback book you are likely to find a B/W map done in line art only. If you look at this search page and scroll down through it you will notice that the clearest and easiest maps to read are the ones that are just literally black lines and black labels on white paper, with little or no shading. As soon as you start adding shading, you start to darken the image and spoil the clarity.

If you don't have time to do a line drawing (and if you do I'd do it on a plain white background - no fancy paper), then I'd stick with the colour version (which is actually clearer than the desaturated version) and keep the white text, not the coloured stuff. But this is only my opinion

I'll try the line art version. But getting the monster in the mountains effect will be tough.
But, I was thinking. If I need to add the color map and it's going to be REAL tiny, then why not just have one label? The Yera's Crossing one. Would that work?

[Mouse]

Tell you what. The easiest way to make judgements on what can and can't be done is to find out how big the map will be shown in the ebook, and make a reduced copy of your file to exactly that size, then upload that here and see if the rest of us can still read the labels