Map Making

Wanting to include maps in A Month in Mongolia, I encountered several challenges. Most existing, published maps are protected by copyright. One map that I would have liked to use is copyrighted in Mongolia. As a new author and publisher, I felt overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to obtain permission to use the image from the owners in Mongolia.  In addition, attractive as that map was, it included far more detail than I needed and was missing key locations that were included in my book. I encountered another problem in connection with a historical fiction story I was writing: finding historical maps with specific locations identified was even more difficult than for contemporary maps.
In a happy coincidence, just as I was struggling with what to do Mapbox announced that they were expanding their map making design studio to include PC support. So, I set about to see if I could made my own maps. Learning my way around Mapbox and TileMill took some time and concentration, but I love the maps I was able to make. If you need specialized maps and don’t want the challenge of becoming skilled at MapBox, let’s talk!