A step-by-step guide to applying, being approved, and opening your bookshop
1. What you are joining
The Distro Club is the marketplace arm of The Unseen Press Collective C.I.C. It gives independent photographers, zine makers and small presses their own branded storefront inside a shared catalogue that collectors browse as one shop.
What that means in practice:
– Commission is 15%, calculated on the net sale price and excluding shipping charged separately. You keep the remaining 85%, less Stripe’s payment processing fee, which is deducted from the transaction before it reaches you. Section 4 sets out what that costs in practice. – There are no upfront costs and no inventory requirement. You list what you have. – There is no editorial gatekeeping on what you publish once you are in. You decide what goes on your shelf. – You get your own storefront and URL, plus exposure through the master catalogue. – We handle the payment processing, hosting and technical side. You upload your publication, set your price, and post orders out when they come in.
You are not renting a shop window. You are joining a collective that exists to get independent photographic publishing into people’s hands.
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2. Who can apply
Applications are open to:
– UK-based photographers at any level of experience, from first zine to twentieth book – Independent UK-based creators working in photozines, photobooks, posters and photographic materials – Anyone committed to collaboration and mutual support within the community
Before you apply, make sure you have:
– An active Unseen Press membership with a completed profile – Work to show us: a portfolio, a website, an Instagram, or images of a publication you have made – Valid contact and payment details for processing transactions – Read the Distro-Club Rules & Guidelines, the Prohibited Content Policy and the Vendor Agreement
You do not need a publisher, a gallery, an ISBN, a print run, or a track record. You need work you have made and care about.
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3. What to have ready before you open the form
The registration form is one page and there is no save-and-return, so gather these first. It takes about ten minutes if you are prepared.
Your identity – Email address – Chosen username – Password – First and last name
Your shop – Store name. This becomes your public shopfront name and generates your store URL, so choose something you can live with. Your own name, your imprint, or your press name all work. You can change the display name later; ask us if you want the URL changed. – Bio. A short paragraph about you and the work you make. Write it in your own voice, not as a sales pitch. What you photograph, what pulls you towards it, what a reader will find on your shelf. Three or four sentences is plenty.
Your address – Address line 1, UK city, postcode, country, and state or province where applicable. This is used for account and payment purposes, not published on your shopfront. – Phone number (optional but useful if an order goes wrong)
Your payout details All Distro-Club payments are handled through Stripe. On the form, select Stripe Connect as your payout method. You do not need a Stripe account before you apply, but you will need to set one up before your shop can go live. Section 4 covers exactly what that involves.
The last two fields – Your website address, if you have one. A portfolio site, an imprint page, or a social profile all count. If you have not got a website, use the address of your Distro Club shop. – Motivation. This is the part we actually read closely. Tell us what you make and why you want to distribute it this way. A paragraph is fine. See Section 5.
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4. Setting up payment: Stripe Connect
Distro Club payments run through Stripe Connect. Every vendor connects their own individual Stripe account, and that is where customer payments actually land — not into an Unseen Press account that we then redistribute.
This is why we ask you to set up Stripe rather than handling payments ourselves:
– We never see or store your financial details. Your bank details, card processing and ID verification are all handled directly by Stripe, not by us. – We do not hold your money. Payments land straight in your own Stripe account, so Unseen Press is never sitting on your funds waiting to pass them on. – It’s your account, on your terms. You have your own Stripe dashboard, your own transaction history, and your own payout schedule that you can view and adjust at any time.
You do not need Stripe to apply — only to go live once you are approved. To connect it: from your Vendor Dashboard, click the three horizontal lines (☰) in the top right of the dashboard menu bar to open Settings, then open the Payouts tab and choose Stripe Connect as your payout method. Stripe will take you through its own account creation and ID verification — none of that passes through us. See Section 6 for this same step laid out as part of opening your shop.
What it costs
On every sale, Stripe takes its own processing fee before the balance reaches your account. This is separate from, and on top of, our 15% commission:
| Card type | Stripe’s fee |
|---|---|
| UK-issued cards | 1.5% + 20p per transaction |
| European (EEA) cards | 2.5% + 20p per transaction |
| International cards | 3.25% + 20p per transaction |
Since Distro Club sells to UK-based buyers, most of your sales fall under the UK rate. This is Stripe’s fee for processing the payment securely — we don’t set it and we don’t take a share of it.
Why there is a delay before you can access funds
Stripe holds every new account’s first payout for a waiting period — typically 7 days, sometimes up to 14 — as a fraud-prevention measure. This applies to any new Stripe account anywhere, not just ours, and it cannot be waived by Unseen Press or by Stripe support. After that first payout, your balance moves onto your regular schedule (a rolling basis by default), and once a payout is sent it typically takes 1–2 business days to land in your bank. You can check your balance and payout schedule at any time in your own Stripe dashboard.
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5. What happens after you submit
Once you submit your application, it comes to us for review — Distro Club is not an automatic sign-up. Every application is read individually and approved by hand, in keeping with Unseen Press’s creator-first, curated approach to independent publishing.
This is where your Bio and Motivation matter. They are what we actually read when deciding whether to approve you:
– Your Bio tells us who you are as a photographer or maker. – Your Motivation tells us what you’re trying to say with your work, and why Distro Club is the right place for it.
A vague or empty Motivation is the most common reason an application takes longer to review. A few honest, specific sentences will get you approved faster than a polished sales pitch.
We’ll let you know by email once your application has been reviewed. If you’re approved, you can move straight on to connecting your payment and opening your shop.
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6. Opening your bookshop
Once you’re approved:
- Connect your Stripe account. Open your Vendor Dashboard, click the three horizontal lines (☰) in the top right of the dashboard menu bar to open the menu, and select Settings. Open the Payouts tab and choose Stripe Connect as your commission payout method (see Section 4 for what this involves and what it costs). This step matters more than any other in this section — it’s the method by which you actually receive the funds from your sales, and your shop can’t pay out to you without it.
- Add your first publication — title, description, images, price — and set your shipping fees. (See the separate Adding a Product and Shipping guide for a full walkthrough.)
- Publish it. Your shop goes live inside the shared Distro Club catalogue, alongside your own storefront and URL.
Use your storefront URL. Once your shop is live, copy your store’s own URL and use it — on your own website, in your bio links, or shared directly on any social media you use. It’s your own shopfront address, so anyone who clicks it lands straight on your books rather than having to search the wider catalogue for you.
From there, it’s yours to run: list what you have, price it as you choose, and post orders out as they come in.