18 replies to this topic

[David Medeiros]

As I surf the web typically looking at outdoor recreation sites I frequently come across organizations with printed or online maps that are really awful and could easily be replaced with a nice MAPublisher version. I have a little list of places that might be worth contacting to do one-off map jobs for but I’ve never followed through.


I’m wondering how many of you go through the exercise of making a map on your own and then showing it to the potential customer to see if they’d be interested in buying it? How successful are you at this? Any tips or amusing anecdotes?

dave

Hi David,

Although it has been a few months since I logged into Cartotalk, I will let you know my success story...
For eight years I have been dreaming about a drawing a map for the Whistler Olympics. 2 years ago I started drawing it. Last year Hans van der Maarel compiled data to build the base map. I have, to date, over 3000 hours into this map. Last week I approached the Municipality of Whistler, Tourism Whistler and Whistler.com, made my presentation and success! For 2 years I was working on hope with a 50/50 chance of succeeding and now I have to deliver. This deal works out to be over 500,000 maps and an iPhone app.

My advice, don't listen to anyone if you have a dream. Go with it and make strides everyday. Many people said I was wasting my time, I'm too small to matter, it will never work. They were wrong because I believed!

Jason

Thanks for sharing. Thats great news! I wasn't so lucky, of course I doubt I put any where near as much effort into my Refuge map as you did your map. I did recently get a magazine job offered to me as a result of my introducing myself and offering my services even though they already had someone making maps for them. That was months ago but just a few weeks ago they were in a bind and needed maps fast, they had my contact info and got in touch. Not a lot of money in it, but a good reference.

[natcase]

My advice, don't listen to anyone if you have a dream. Go with it and make strides everyday. Many people said I was wasting my time, I'm too small to matter, it will never work. They were wrong because I believed!

You believed and you worked your butt off. A powerful combination. Congratulations!

[François Goulet]

Hi David,

Although it has been a few months since I logged into Cartotalk, I will let you know my success story...
For eight years I have been dreaming about a drawing a map for the Whistler Olympics. 2 years ago I started drawing it. Last year Hans van der Maarel compiled data to build the base map. I have, to date, over 3000 hours into this map. Last week I approached the Municipality of Whistler, Tourism Whistler and Whistler.com, made my presentation and success! For 2 years I was working on hope with a 50/50 chance of succeeding and now I have to deliver. This deal works out to be over 500,000 maps and an iPhone app.

My advice, don't listen to anyone if you have a dream. Go with it and make strides everyday. Many people said I was wasting my time, I'm too small to matter, it will never work. They were wrong because I believed!

Jason

That's fantastic! I've always love your maps. Do you think we could have a preview?

[DaveB]

That's great! As Nat said, you believed and you worked hard and it paid off. Good for you!
(of course, there are no guarantees)