Raising awareness
The Leeds map is something I wanted to see on my wall, but all of the maps are really meant for other people to buy. But how do you let people know they exist? A mix of social media, local groups, traditional media, and the occasional bit of luck.

I’ve found there’s no guaranteed method. Some maps get attention whilst others languish. And there doesn’t seem to be much difference between promoting a new map and a revised one.

Taking Photos
Photos can be an important part of promotion. Even on Facebook, where people don’t give a monkeys for seeing me holding the map outside some pub, it’s often still good to have an interestingly angled photo of a bit of printed map detail, just to show they exist beyond a screen.

People appreciate me having been to their area, and it’s useful and fun for me too, so it’s good to have a photo of me on location. The only problem is that taking them can be difficult or socially awkward when you’re on your own with a tripod, trying to photograph yourself like some sort of misplaced, narcissistic tube-map cartographer.

Social Media
Whether it’s for a new map or a revised one, I join Facebook groups for areas local to the maps. There, I ask for feedback, welcoming any advice on whether anything has closed, opened or changed.

I don’t usually go on Facebook to overtly sell the maps, as lots of groups don’t allow things like that. However, just asking for feedback gets around that. It also feels more natural and less pushy. And sometimes people will ask how they can buy one or figure it out for themselves.

I’ve also tried Facebook advertising before, but it was costly and ineffective, so I haven’t done that for quite a number of years.

Print Media
Ideally, a journalist from a regional newspaper will see a Facebook article and get in touch with me to then feature an article on it. A newspaper story has happened more times this way, than if I’ve contacted a newspaper myself.

I’ve appeared in quite a number of newspapers and their websites now, but this isn’t happening anywhere nearly as frequently as it once was.

One media website even prompted me to write the article myself. So doing their job for them and writing about myself in the third person seemed weird.

Radio
Even though the maps are entirely visual, I’ve ended up on the radio a few times to talk about them.

It’s usually been by phone, but in 2014, BBC Radio Leeds invited me to their studios to talk about the new Wakefield map I’d just completed.

Low-End Television
I did appear on some student Television at Leeds University that I never saw, but I also appeared in an interview on “The Book It List” for the local and little-watched “Made in Leeds TV” in 2015, after I’d just created a historical map for Leeds.

I’ve yet to make it onto television that’s seen by more than a handful of people, and at this point I think it would have happened by now.

Ah well, never mind.