New Member introduction

[jbgibson]

Welcome, C.C. You can definitely get good, publishable results with free software. You note "clear & legible" - it's good you know that. SOme first-time authors seem to want to put artistic masterpieces better suiited for four-color lithography at three-feet-by four into standard paperbacks. Not. Going. To. Work. :-) Beyond clarity, can you give us an idea what style you're shooting for? How much detail are you shooting for?

An option might be to put a bare-bones map in the books and link to better stuff online. Genning up an online community around your work seems an effective way to get repeat business and broader notice. 'Course that takes a whole nother skillset and devotion to ongoing effort - might work though. Might also be a place to host tidbits that don't fit in the narrative, yet which seem too good to bury in your notes :-).

[C. Craig]

Thank you also for the welcome Jbgibson. Good question. I just want the coastal outline, rivers, site names, border lines, and a few mountains to match story locations. I might put in the compass points thingy if it fits. A bit of shading for seas around the coastline perhaps so long as it doesn't make the site names fuzzy.

I'll need to shrink the first map, as it's part of a larger continent, and add the rest of the continent for the second map. I already have the maps, hand drawn, but the names are not professional and a bit more professional shading the the coast line, mountains would make it professional without too much detail.

I really like the idea of maybe making the maps larger with full color and detail for the website! That would seriously draw attention and lure the website followers to check out the book(s). That can come later when I have a better grasp of technological cartography.