One Voice: A Guest Post by The Map Men
The Map Men have spent years exploring every type of map out there: the old ones, the new ones and even the fake ones. Here, they share everything they’ve learned in this hilarious debut book. Read on for an exclusive essay from the Map Men on writing This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters).
Hardcover
$14.99
$29.99
This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters)
This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters)
By Map Men
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$14.99
$29.99
The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all—round cartographical nerds, The Map Men!
The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all—round cartographical nerds, The Map Men!
As one of the two co-authors of This Way Up: When Maps Go Wrong (And Why It Matters) (On Sale: 11/04/2025), I thought it would be fun to write a little piece for Barnes and Noble about the process of co-authoring a book, and how The Other Author and I divided up the work.
I won’t tell you which of Jay Foreman or Mark Cooper-Jones (AKA YouTube’s ‘Map Men’) is writing this, because that would spoil the illusion of total co-author harmony that we work so hard to engineer, including on behind-the-scenes features for esteemed bookshops. And besides, the shorter member of the double act has given this his editorial sign off.
There’s no doubt that co-authoring presents its challenges. We didn’t want the book to feel ‘lumpy’, like you could feel the joints between the bits I wrote, and the bits the thinner, slightly paler Map Man wrote. We did consider writing a word at a time, but this method proved deeply inefficient and we struggled to get beyond the dedication.
Whilst the best means of dividing the labour continued to elude us, hitting the right tone was something we felt more confident on. Having worked together producing geography skits for the past decade (it may be niche, but it’s our niche), we agreed from the start that the book should have the same playfulness as the work we’d done before. This meant it had to be underscored by a strong idea; one that allowed us to write about interesting maps with fascinating stories behind them, but that also left room for ‘a spot of somewhat British humour’.
Happily, we quickly hit upon a theme we liked: maps that would get you lost. That central paradox—along with what became a sort of tag-line: ‘the worst maps are the best maps’—got us excited about the places the book could go.
And yet, we still needed to crack the central problem of how Ray Boreman* and I would go about it. (*Not real name).
In the end, we settled for each of us being responsible for researching and writing different chapters. Of course, after each first draft had been written and read, we then invited the other to dive in, give notes, cross bits out, and write better bits. This process undoubtedly made the book better, but it also made writing the whole thing take twice as long as we’d first assumed it would, because of all the arguments constructive debates creative conversations we had to have.
Happily, on most points, Jay was eventually able to concede that I had been right all along. On the rare occasion I wasn’t, Jay Foreman, 41 years old, of North London, would be the first to tell you I never got in a sulk about it.
Should you choose to buy the book (from Barnes and Noble, of course), we would both be equally honoured, and equally hope you enjoy what’s inside. Because—as I hope is now clear—Map Men only ever speak with one voice.
Mark Cooper-Jones
