How to Publish Your Maps on Cartahaven, Step by Step

Before you start

• Your maps as GeoPDFs (PDF maps with location data built in), map books or GeoTIFFs. Plain PDFs and scans work too; you place them on the map by hand. To make one, see making a GeoPDF in QGIS.
• For paid maps: your bank account and tax ID (an EIN, or an SSN for an individual), for the Stripe step.

Moving a catalog from the Avenza Map Store? Follow moving your maps from the Avenza Map Store instead: it adds a step that copies your Avenza listings for you.

1. Create your account and store

Create a free account with your email and a password, and open the confirmation link we email you. Use an address your organization will keep: it owns the store and is where sale and payout emails go. You can invite colleagues later.

On your dashboard, under “Become a publisher”, fill in:

• Store or organization name: what buyers see. A solo map maker can use their own name.
• Store URL: your store’s address, cartahaven.com/p/your-name. It can’t be changed later, because buyers bookmark it.
• Website and About: optional, and you can fill them in later.

Then press Create publisher profile. Stores must be based in the United States for now; buyers can be anywhere.

A checklist, “Get your store live”, now leads you through the rest. To add your logo, open Publisher settings and use Upload logo.

2. Upload your maps

Open Upload & bulk import in the dashboard menu. Drop your GeoPDFs onto the page, or use Choose files, or Choose folder to take a whole folder, subfolders included. Then press Import.

• GeoPDFs, map books and GeoTIFFs keep their location data, and each becomes a draft map with its coverage area filled in.
• Files go up exactly as you made them; we never re-encode them. Each file can be up to 500 MB.
• Each draft is named after its file, so “Bear_Creek_Trails.pdf” becomes “Bear Creek Trails”. You can rename any map later.
• Keep the tab open while it runs. You can press Pause and come back: files already uploaded are skipped, so running the same folder again is safe.

Not ready to upload a real map? On the checklist, Try it with a sample walks you through the steps with a made-up map that only you can see.

If a file has a problem

• “No GPS location data in this file”: it’s a plain PDF or a scan. Press Place it on the map and match three or more spots on it to a world map; it is then saved as a georeferenced map. Our guide to georeferencing a scanned map shows how.
• “This PDF needs a password to open”: export it again without an open password, and upload that copy.
• “Larger than 500 MB”: export it at a lower image resolution, or split it into sheets.

After an import, Download the list of problem files gives you every file that needs a look.

3. Fill in the details

Open a map from your Maps list to fill in its Title, Description, Price, Region / park, Map type and Activities. A map needs a map type before you can publish it from this page; it’s how buyers filter the store. While you’re there:

• Check how it looks shows the map as a buyer sees it on a phone, with where the GPS dot will land.
• Test on your phone gives you a link to open the map in the app before anyone else can.
• Legend adds your map key; buyers see it before they buy and get it offline with the map.

For many maps at once, tick them in the Maps list and use Set price, Set type, Add tags or Publish. You can also edit the whole catalog as a spreadsheet: export it, change it in Excel or Google Sheets, and import it again.

4. Set prices and connect Stripe

Paid maps can be priced from $1.99 to $1,000.00. You keep 80% of each sale (the fee is at least $0.50), and card processing is included: on a $9.99 map you receive $7.99. Free maps cost nothing to list.

To be paid, connect Stripe once. There is no separate Stripe sign-up: open Publisher settings, go to Payouts, and press Connect Stripe (the checklist shows the same step as soon as you price a map).

1. Stripe opens its own secure form. It asks for your legal or business name, address, tax ID (an EIN, or an SSN for an individual), date of birth and the bank account to pay into, and checks your identity. It takes about 10 minutes. Your tax ID and bank details are kept by Stripe, not by us.
2. When you finish, you come back to your dashboard and see “Stripe is connected. You can sell paid maps.”
3. If you stop part way, the button reads Continue Stripe setup and picks up where you left off. If Stripe needs more details, it says so there.

Your share of each sale goes to your own Stripe account, and Stripe pays it out to your bank on its normal schedule. There is no minimum balance and nothing to request. Open Stripe dashboard shows your payouts and lets you change your bank details, and Sales & stats lists every sale, with a CSV export.

Only paid maps need Stripe. Free maps can go live straight away, and a paid map simply waits until payouts are connected.

5. Publish

Press Save & publish on a map, or tick several in the Maps list and press Publish. Nothing is public until you do. Your store page is then live at cartahaven.com/p/your-name, and the dashboard gives you the link to share and a QR code.

You can unpublish any map at any time. That stops new sales; people who already have it keep it. Publishing here is non-exclusive and you keep your copyright, so you can go on selling the same maps anywhere else.

After you’re live

• QR signs. Each published map has a printable sign for a trailhead, kiosk or shop counter: open the map and use the QR code panel.
• Bundles. Sell a set of maps at one price, such as a trail series or every unit you cover, from Bundles.
• Codes. Under Codes: promo codes for discounts, and access codes that give one map or bundle free to members, a class or an event, as a CSV or a printable sheet. People redeem them at cartahaven.com/redeem.
• New editions. On a map’s page, New version uploads next year’s file. Everyone who has the map gets it free, unless you set an upgrade price for a major edition, and they’re emailed when it’s out.
• Notices. Post a closure, reroute or hazard under Notices for map owners; it reaches the phones of people who have the map, even offline.
• Staff. Invite colleagues as admins, editors or viewers from Staff and roles.

Everything above is on selling your maps on Cartahaven, with the full fee table.

Need a hand?

Stuck on a step, or have a catalog in the hundreds? Email support@cartahaven.com and tell us where you got to.