How to present a map in a Kindle book?

[Aquilonian]

I should be finishing the third volume of my fantasy fiction trilogy within a few weeks, and having decided to self-publish on Amazon etc, I've a question re the maps which I have drawn to accompany each volume. (Maps are an absolute essential in fantasy fiction IMO!)

The map's width is longer than its height because that's the shape of the continent which it depicts. Now I don't personally use a Kindle, but I understand that pages are shown on it separately, unlike a printed book where you would see two pages at a time with the book open.

So my question is, should I split the map into eastern and western halves and show it as two portrait images on consecutive pages (even + odd) or should I show it as one landscape image on one page, which would require the reader to turn the book/kindle through 90 degrees in order to see it? I want readers to be able to see the whole map at once, not have to turn over a page.

Can you in fact turn a Kindle 90 degrees without the text automatically correcting 90 degrees back again like an iphone?

 

[Montero]

Speaking as someone who uses the Kindle reader on an Android, when you turn it to landscape, the book turns with it. There is a little padlock symbol in the bottom right corner, so you can lock it as portrait or landscape - say for if you are reading lying down and want portrait.

 

[HareBrain]

I'd go for two portrait ones.

Make sure the Kindle displays it at a reasonable size. I've no idea how you do this, but I've had Kindle versions of books where the map is a tiny portion of the screen (and is not zoom-in-able), even though in the paperback it takes the whole page.

 

[Ursa major]

I've a question re the maps which I have drawn to accompany each volume. (Maps are an absolute essential in fantasy fiction IMO!)

Have you thought about putting the maps on your website rather than in the Kindle files? Or having separate Kindle files for the maps and letting them be "bought" for free?

 

[Ogma]

Portrait would fit the page better. That is the map designed to be viewed as portrait, NOT turned on its side like in a paperback. Splitting a map on the kindle would only work as two separate maps, not two halves of a map. Stay away from anything that expects the reader to lock the screen or go to any other trouble. I've used landscape maps and never had any complaints (yet). If you use landscape, simply make sure the map is zoomable so the reader can click into the picture and make it bigger. Same applies to portrait. Remember there are people who read on their phones. Lanscape/portrait doesn't matter to them if they can't zoom in and see the detail.

In the original version of my first two books, I used lower detailed maps in each book with a link to more detailed maps on my website if readers were interested. At the time, there were tech reasons for this, but the technology has moved on and I use the more detailed maps now to keep things simple for the reader. Very few readers are going to click out of an ebook to your website to look at your maps and, depending on what device they are using, the experience of doing so may prove confusing/awkward for some of them. And the number one rule of this is to never make things awkward for the reader.

Also, maps tend to be at the start of a book, i.e. will appear in your sample on Amazon for example. An attractive map is a selling point. A link to your website to look at your map? Not so much.

Go to Amazon and take a look at the 10% samples of various fantasy books to get a better idea how other people have handled this. And maybe seek advice at the Cartographers Guild.

 

[Aquilonian]

Thanks to everyone for useful advice. I'm thinking I'll go with two portrait maps on consecutive pages, showing the east and west of the continent in which the story is set, with an overlap shown in both maps. The overall culture is divided between east and west anyway, so I reckon a divided map should be OK, same as we have maps showing Asia and Europe separately although they're one landmass divided by culture not geography. I shall have them on even page followed by odd page so they appear together in the printed version.

 

[Aquilonian]

A follow-up question- for eBook publishing, to what size in kilobytes should I reduce the two illustrations (maps) included in my book? The originals are about 500 kb each. The whole text in word (excluding illustrations) is 1,770 kb.

 

[Aquilonian]

Tried to edit the above but timed out.
The images don't show anyway on kindle preview, just icon of a camera crossed out. I read elsewhere that I should have "zipped the html zipped file together with the image file and kindle will know where to put the images."

Firstly, is it true that Kindle will know where to put them as I don't see how it could do this?
Secondly, how do I zip two files together? My menu just allows save as---> zipped file, there's nothing about zipping files together. Am I missing some software to do this?

 

[Aquilonian]

OK I've found out how to zip the files together now. But as regards KDP knowing where to put the images, do I just need to save images and words together in two files zipped together, then use insert pics tab to tell KDP where to put each image?

 

[Brian G Turner]

If you're uploading a Word file, you simply insert the images into the Word file where you want them, then upload the Word file to KDP.

 

[Aquilonian]

So I don't need to convert the word file to html or zip it?

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I did one map for my "The Witch's Box" series and split it into two portrait portions - the western appears in the first book and the eastern appears in the second, and will go in the third. I inserted the map image file in the Word file. The maps appear in both Kindle and paperback versions and also on my website. I do not recall zipping anything.

 

[Aquilonian]

Thanks to everyone- I have now successfully uploaded as word file including pics, with the two halves of the map split as Cosmic Geoff suggested. I don't know why Dr Andy Williams' book said I should convert to html and zip it etc, following his advice has wasted a lot of my time, so thanks again to sffchronicles!

 

[Phyrebrat]

Make sure the Kindle displays it at a reasonable size. I've no idea how you do this, but I've had Kindle versions of books where the map is a tiny portion of the screen (and is not zoom-in-able), even though in the paperback it takes the whole page.

This.

I laughed aloud (as opposed to LOL) when I recently downloaded The Weirdstone of Brisingamen which has lovely little maps of Macclesfield/Alderley Edge in it. I read it as a child and recalled the maps with nostalgia in the paperbacks I went through. On Kindle they were unreadable.