An atlas of fantasy mapping

[Gidde]

That sounds fantastic! I would totally be on board with it.

[kacey]

I would love to see this resurrected.

[Jaxilon]

Might be better than my inspiration folder

[Voolf]

Obviously me too.

How do we start? There must be a person who will collect all the maps and stitch them together. We also need to think do we want to include some text for the maps or just pure image book. Even so, some preface and maybe a short introduction with a link to portfolio for every artist would be appropriate.

At the beginning it would be wise to start google docs (or otrher simillar platform) so that every artist has access to it and can edit it. The images can be placeholders (or small resolution maps for now. As we place more with or without text, one person can arrange them and make index and table of contents.

I never did a kickstarter, but i think that would allow us to push this idea from simple PDF to printable book and publish it.

[Gidde]

Could we do a print-on-demand sort of thing? I've never tried to self-publish anything so not sure how that would work.

[J.Edward]

There are problems that face a venture of this sort.
Rights related issues, financial and legal. Just things to think through.
Things that we would need to have a full discussion about before we get too far into this.

I am trying to think of a way that we could produce one where no one profits, which would alleviate some of these issues.
The reason for no profit is that if there is a profit margin, whoever is the beneficiary of that profit has to answer for that profit to the tax authority.
But, to set up a Print on demand account, one has to give ones financial information and be the owner of the account.
Thus the recipient of any profits.

But likewise, I would not want to make a book that was always available that I made no profit from.
So it's a bit of trouble.
Maybe we make a book that is made available at base cost [no profit] but is only available for a limited time.
Just long enough for the Guild members to pick up a copy, and then removed from the market.

I am predominantly thinking of Lulu for this, at the moment. But there are some other options.

Print on demand is probably going to be our best option, but is the most costly option with the lowest level of quality [relatively speaking].
There are often limitations on color interior pages with POD sites, sometimes.

Edit - Gidde - I just saw your sig text
I always enjoyed the voice of Gag.
I have the original BBC radio show, which a friend gave me many years back.
Great stuff, that show. Loved it. I re-listen to the whole thing every few years.


Edit edit...
Here's something we could start with..
what maps might people like to see in this book?
It might help for us to decide how many maps would be in this, and also what sizes of maps.
Some maps may be a bad fit for a book, some might not be allowed due to rights issues [as commercial maps],
and some might be an issue as we may not be able to get in touch with the mapmaker [or they may not want their map in there].
But knowing what we would be dealing with might make this easier to move ahead with.

[Voolf]

I would like to see every kind of map.
If we can we can make a sections in the book separating maps by different genres.

About the copyright. People can put maps only if they still hold the rights for it. Let's focus on the guild now. When we gather significat amout of maps from guildmembers, then we can reach out for more artists outside of the guild. We may prepare some legal agreement that people who sends maps actually have the rights to them. That way we avoid any infringement and the responsibility will pass directly to the person who gave us map.

I understand the difficulties with the profits. I think all the artists would like to get some profit from it and someone indeed has to answer to the tax authority. We need some bright minds here to shine more light on the possibilities.

If we are doing this, i would rather want this to be avaiable for everyone, not just several prints for guildmembers.

[J.Edward]

well, one version is quick and more easily doable, albeit costly.
The other is going to be more of a problem.

A book that is limited also limits the difficulties.
A book that is unlimited, likewise increases the difficulties.

I suppose we might have to start with a question...
Is this book supposed to be a way for guild members to have a collection of Guild maps.
Just that. Nothing more. And not really be intended as profit generating.
Or..
Is this to be a large inclusive book of many, many maps and be available to all customers for a long extended period of time.
Is it also supposed to generate profit for all involved?

The answers dictate a lot about how we would proceed.
Or if we would, possibly.

[Voolf]

I would lean thowards the second John.
I understand that this creates load of problems to overcome, but we could give it at least a try.

The first option is also good, but to be honest and a bit blunt, just making a collection of maps and print or not, is what i can do myself and also pick my favourite maps.
Unless we are going for the GOOD print that will also be somewhat better in terms of costs then doing it individually.

[Wingshaw]

For myself, the purpose of a book like this isn't to be sold to generate direct profit for the mapmaker, but rather to raise the profile of artistic mapmaking altogether (and hence create more potential customers for artists as commissions and prints). Therefore I would prefer it to be something that is not limited and is widely available.

Regarding the profit, this is one idea that occurs to me: the profits of the book could be provided to the guild (aka Robbie) either for the purpose of being redistributed privately to the individual mapmakers, or, if that is too legally challenging, to help support the guild financially. I'm sure there are many mapmakers out there who would be happy to allow their work to sponsor this website, and, if it does raise the profile of our craft, then the individuals could cash in on that with private collections of their own.

I envisage a book like this, if successful, being merely the first stage in a series of future publications, some individual and others collaborative.

Wingshaw