DISTRO CLUB
Practical guidance for makers selling on DISTRO CLUB. This is advice, not rules. The binding documents are the Terms and Conditions, the Vendor Agreement, the Returns and Refunds Policy and the Prohibited Content Policy. Where this handbook and those documents differ, those documents win.
Welcome
DISTRO CLUB exists because making a photozine or a photobook should not be the end of the story. Most independent publications get made, shown to a few dozen people, and then sit in a box. This is a place to put them in front of people who are actively looking.
You keep your copyright, you set your own prices, and the arrangement is non-exclusive. Sell the same book at a fair, through a gallery, off your own website, anywhere you like.
1. Getting Started
What you need
- To be 18 or over and resident in the UK.
- A Stripe account, set up during registration. Your bank details go to Stripe directly and never reach us.
- Something to sell, or something close to finished.
What to have ready before you fill in the form
- A store name. It becomes part of your web address, so choose something you will still want in two years.
- A short biography. Where you work, what draws you, how you came to make books. A few sentences is plenty.
- A few lines on what you make and what you plan to list.
Business or private? The form asks, and it matters more than it looks. Choose business if selling is part of how you earn a living, if you sell regularly, or if you are registered as a sole trader. Choose private if you make books occasionally and this is not a trade. Business sellers must accept change-of-mind returns within 14 days. Private sellers set their own position. Ask us if you are unsure.
Approval takes a few days. We read every application. If we have questions we will ask rather than decline.
2. Listing a Publication
Use the Add Product form in your vendor dashboard. Each publication appears in your own store and separately in the collective catalogue.
Title. Whatever the book is actually called.
Short description, up to 30 words. This is what people see in the catalogue grid. Make it do some work.
Long description. The inspiration, the theme, how the project came about. This is the part that sells the book. People buying independent publications are buying the thinking as much as the object, so tell them what it is about rather than listing specifications.
Images. One cover shot, then between 4 and 12 more showing the inside. Minimum 1200 by 1200 pixels, well lit, sharp. Include at least one interior spread, one detail shot showing paper and binding, and one showing the book in a hand or on a surface so the scale reads. Nobody buys a book they cannot picture holding. There is a separate guide to photographing your publication for thumbnails.
Categories and metadata. Format, genre, orientation, and then the detail: page count, dimensions, paper stock, binding, print method, edition size. Fill in everything you can. It helps people find the book, and an accurate specification protects you if someone later claims the book was not as described.
Tags. Add new ones or pick existing. Think about what someone would type.
Listings go live without review. You are responsible for what you publish, and anyone can report something that breaches the content policy.
3. Pricing
You set the price. Postage is added separately at checkout and is not commissioned.
Two things come off a sale: our commission of 15% of the book price, and Stripe’s transaction fee, which is roughly 1.5% plus 20p for a standard UK card.
A worked example. You price a book at £15 and charge £3.50 postage, so the buyer pays £18.50.
| Buyer pays | £18.50 |
| Our commission, 15% of £15 | £2.25 |
| Stripe fee, approximately | £0.48 |
| You receive | £15.77 |
| Of which postage covers | £3.50 |
| Toward the book | £12.27 |
Then subtract what the book cost to print and what the packaging cost. Work that out before you set the price rather than after, because a lot of makers discover they are effectively paying people to take their books away.
Think about production cost, your time, and what comparable publications sell for. Undercutting the rest of the community is not a strategy, it just lowers what everyone can charge.
4. When an Order Arrives
Acknowledge it within 24 hours. A short message is enough.
Dispatch within your stated processing time, usually 3 to 7 working days. If you are away, say so on your store page or pause your listings.
Pack properly. Board-backed envelopes for thin zines, boxes for anything substantial, and something waterproof around the book itself. Royal Mail machinery is not gentle. Damaged-in-transit is the single most common reason a sale goes wrong, and the cost of a stiffener is less than the cost of a replacement copy and two lots of postage.
Keep proof of postage. Free at the Post Office counter, and it is your only evidence if a parcel goes missing.
Consider tracking or insurance, particularly above about £20. Risk sits with you until the book reaches the buyer, so a parcel lost in the post is your loss and the buyer still gets a refund. Build the cost into your postage rate.
Send the tracking number if you have one.
Keep stock levels current. Mark things sold out the day they sell out.
5. Talking to Buyers
Reply within 24 hours where you can, 48 at the outside. Most enquiries are simple and a quick answer often turns into a sale.
Be straight about what a book is. If the edition is hand-bound and slightly irregular, say so in the listing. Expectations set accurately are complaints that never happen.
Use buyer addresses to send the order and nothing else. No mailing lists, no passing details on. That one is in the Vendor Agreement, not just here.
If something gets difficult, hand it to us rather than letting it escalate.
6. When Something Goes Wrong
The Returns and Refunds Policy has the detail. In practice:
A buyer wants to return a book they simply did not get on with. If you registered as a business, they have that right within 14 days of delivery. They pay return postage, you refund the price and the standard outbound postage within 14 days of getting it back. If you registered as private, it is your call.
A book arrived damaged. Refund in full including postage, and you pay the return postage. Ask for photographs of the book and the packaging, which you will need for a claim against the carrier.
A book never arrived. Chase the carrier, but the buyer’s remedy does not wait on that. If it is genuinely lost, refund.
You cannot agree. Email us. We will look at the listing, the messages and the evidence, and settle it.
A refund returns our commission to you in full. We do not profit from a sale that fell through.
7. Getting Paid
Payouts run monthly, within 30 days of confirmed delivery, by bank transfer or PayPal.
A payout is not released while the buyer’s 14-day window is still open or while a dispute is unresolved. So a book sold on the 2nd will not usually be paid out that same month. Plan around that, especially if you are printing a new edition off the back of sales.
Your dashboard shows sales, commission and what is due.
Records and tax. You are responsible for your own tax. Keep your sales reports, and keep receipts for printing, materials and postage, which are costs against any income. HMRC has a trading allowance that covers small amounts of casual income, and the rules differ depending on whether you are trading. If you are unsure where you stand, talk to an accountant or look at the HMRC guidance directly. We cannot advise on your tax position.
8. Getting Your Store Seen
Your store has its own URL. Share it. A visitor who arrives for your book can browse the whole catalogue, which is the point of a collective.
- Put the link in your Instagram bio, your email signature, your website.
- Post about a new title when it goes live, not three months later.
- Photograph the book in use rather than only flat on a table.
- Tell people what the work is about. The story is the thing that travels.
We promote titles through the platform and across UNSEENPRESS channels, and we feature vendors regularly. Tell us when you have something new.
9. Community
UNSEENPRESS is a Community Interest Company. What the platform earns goes back into supporting photographers who are not being seen.
What that means practically:
- Workshops on photography, publishing and the business side of it.
- Peer mentorship, pairing newer makers with people who have done it before.
- Vendor meetings, for questions, problems and comparing notes.
- Collaborative projects, festivals and exhibitions.
- Early access to new platform features, and the chance to break them before everyone else does.
Join in if it is useful to you. None of it is compulsory.
10. Where the Rules Actually Live
This handbook is guidance. The binding documents are:
- Terms and Conditions, covering accounts, payments, territory and liability
- Vendor Agreement, covering commission, payouts, shipping, returns and conduct
- Returns and Refunds Policy, covering cancellations and refunds in detail
- Prohibited Content Policy, covering what can and cannot be published
You agreed to the first, second and fourth when you registered. All four are linked in the footer of every page.
11. Getting Help
he***@*********ss.org
Tell us what you are stuck on and we will point you at the right thing or fix it.
We are not just building a marketplace. We are trying to prove that photozines and photobooks can reach audiences and tell stories that matter. Thanks for being part of it.