Archive for July, 2012
Cartographer’s Toolkit Availability
Cartographer’s Toolkit is currently sold through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The book has done decently on Amazon since its release 1.5 weeks ago* BUT it is having a perpetual stocking issue there. From time to time it has reached the top spot in the cartography best-sellers:
HOWEVER
Right now Amazon lists it as “usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks”, which any author will tell you should be death to a book’s sales prospects. Thankfully, the book is still selling okay on Amazon but I wanted to alert my blog readers to the fact that you might as well just buy the book from Barnes & Noble instead of Amazon, if you haven’t already. That way you will get it much faster. I won’t make any affiliate revenue from sending buyers to B&N but there’s no reason to ask people to wait 1-3 weeks, if that’s what it is taking Amazon to ship it.
B&N Cartographer’s Toolkit Listing
If the availability on Amazon changes I will be sure to post again.
*Careful readers will note that the publication date is officially mid-June, even though it was released in mid-July. This is a glitch having to do with when the files were submitted at the printers and when I finally allowed the book to be released for sale…which took a bit of extra time than usual because of the large amount of graphics in this book.
New Wall Maps From Stamen Design
Stamen Design is really gaining ground in the “provide amazing cartographic products” category this year. Their latest addition is a fine art print of their watercolor web service, centered on Manhattan. I’m thrilled with this offering and their stated goal of creating more products like this in the future. Cartography is gaining attention, momentum, and excellence due to firms like Stamen Design. I know what I’m asking for come birthday time…
Look Inside Now Available on Cartographer’s Toolkit
For those who’ve been waiting to “look inside” the book on Amazon, it’s now available. There’s a link in the right side-bar to go to its Amazon page. The link gives me a little bit of extra affiliate revenue every time someone buys something (anything, not just the book) through it. Every bit helps.
I’ve noticed that Barnes & Noble has the book priced at about $12 less than Amazon right now. Amazon is also saying that it ships in 1-3 weeks. That’s supposed to change to “in stock” soon. We hope.
Map joke of the day, courtesy of @CanadianGISgirl via @amandahstaub:
Q: Why did the innocent map go to jail?
A: It was framed by the neatline.
Book Quality
Over lunch the other day I was re-reading parts of a book for the third time. This particular book happens to be a relatively famous one in the world of design, by an author with a large following, who’s often cited, and who has many books published. It was my third time reading that chapter, but the first time doing so in-depth. I realized, with this close reading, that the chapter didn’t actually finish its point. It started with a thesis that I was eager for it to resolve and it never did. Oh sure, there was a lot of interesting material in there, with a lot of ideas on how to do things, but it never came to the point!
As an author, noticing other authors screw up is like kind of like a lawyer feeling better when they note another lawyer making a bad argument.
Of course, one mustn’t forget what Stephen King supposedly said: “If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I’m impressed.”
There are some books that are just completely perfect. The one I can think of off the top of my head is Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
Note: Writing about books is all I’ve got for now, folks. It’s just been “books, books, and more books” on the brain over in my office, as all mapping related stuff has been pushed aside for a while. Focusing on getting Cartographer’s Toolkit out has been a long and winding road. The most recent challenge is figuring out just why Amazon is listing it as “Usually ships in 1 – 3 weeks” when it should be readily available. Hopefully the internets are right in that this particular bump will smooth out after a few weeks of sales, thus providing Amazon enough data to make them order enough stock to meet demand.
Announcing The New Book: Cartographer’s Toolkit
Posted by Gretchen in News, Uncategorized on July 12, 2012
Cartographer’s Toolkit, a 184 page book of colors, typography, and patterns for map design is now available. I want to give a huge shout-out to the magnificent book design firm Longfeather Book Design, for their great job ensuring that things turned out absolutely perfectly.
The Look Inside feature over at Amazon will be available shortly. In the meantime, you are welcome to learn more about the book by clicking on Books>Cartographer’s Toolkit in the navigator at the top of the page.
Also, big thanks to the great editing capabilities of Becky Dobbins. And it goes without saying that I owe a debt of gratitude to the fantastic cartographers who allowed me to showcase their work in the Patterns chapter. I will be thanking them by name in a separate post. Also, I’ve got an interview over at VerySpatial coming up soon. More on that later too.
Please note: The first two chapters of Cartographer’s Toolkit are very similar to the two ebooks that I offer. If you already have the ebooks, and want a print copy, I would still suggest getting the print book. Plus, it has the Patterns chapter, which contains a lot of maps for inspiration, and information on how to create different types of maps. If you buy the print book, and want a digital version of the first two chapters, then you might want to buy them as well, as a supplement.
Good Design is Good Design, Regardless of the Device*
A quick post about an issue that crops up from time to time: do we compartmentalize map design concepts into Digital Map Design and Paper Map Design? And if we don’t, doesn’t this mean that we are really writing about Paper Map Design, and that therefore we are completely forgetting about that whole world of map design that exists in the digital realm and are, basically, irrelevant to today’s technology and its specialized needs?
No.
The fundamentals of good design don’t change. Sure, we could add in specifics to web design that are different from print design, but in the end we are still left with the basic goals:
- Make it readable
- Make it usable
- Put in lots of information for an audience that wants to scrutinize heavily
- Put in very little information for an audience that just wants a quick visual
- Aim for seamless-drop the little boxes around everything
- Spend a lot of time tweaking colors for hue-harmony
- If there is a focal point, make sure it stands out (yes, even web maps have some tricks for doing this)
*Including paper as a “device” too
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