An Updated Bookshop Guide for Independent Presses

Made a zine? Run a micro-press? Self-distribute? Want to stock your publication in a bookshop?

You’ve come to the right place!

It’s been 5 years since we wrote our last guide to independent presses and in that time we’ve created and sustained a new system for keeping track of zines and self-distributed stock.

Here are some key points:

• We ask for a 40% discount from the retail price

• Our terms are consignment. That means if we sell them, we pay you for them. If we don't, we give them back. We will hold onto your publication for one year. In January we will send out emails to let you know that we’re returning your stock. You will need to pick up your publications from the bookshop. If you cannot pick them up then we will move them to our second-hand section at a discounted price and eventually donate them if they remain unsold.

• We are only able to pay for self-distributed books through PayPal or cash in-store – please make sure that this works for you

• If we take your books, we will need to know your contact details, the retail price and the quantity of copies

• We will send a sales report every 4-6 months to let you know if we’ve sold any copies. If you haven’t received a sales report then we haven’t sold any copies during that period.

Some things to keep in mind:

• The price. Before you approach a bookshop, you need to have decided on a price, and that price needs to be able support the 40% wholesale discount that a bookshop needs to cover its costs. Please do not ask us what price it should be. Have a look around on our website at similar publications and take your lead from them. If because of your production costs etc you aren't able to put a retail price on your book that supports a wholesale discount (which, understandably, is the case with some short-run artist books), then you are going to have to look at a direct sales model.

• We endeavour to get back to everyone who gets in touch with us. But if you don't hear from us, or if we tell you we can't take stock, it's simply because we don't think we'll be able to sell it. AND: that doesn't mean it isn't a good book, it just means that we don't think we're able to reach your readership.