Stores & Distros

Chances are, you’re not going to be able to walk into your local bookstore and find zines for sale. So where does one go to buy zines?

We at Zine World recommend whenever possible you buy directly from the zine publisher — part of the fun of being into zines is the connection you make with other zine publishers. We all love to get mail. And, besides, when you order directly from the publisher, he/she gets 100% of the purchase price, instead of 40-75%. On our resources page, we give you links to places where you can read about, and find ordering info for zines.

But maybe you’re looking for new zines. Or maybe you’re looking to buy several zines at once. Or maybe you just want to browse. If that’s the case, you’re looking for a zine distro.

Distros are zine distributors. They’re often run by one person or a small group of people. They sell zines by mail order and/or online. Distros let you find a bunch of zines all in one place, maybe all on a specific topic. Distros sometimes fill orders more quickly than ordering directly from a zinester. Some zinesters prefer to sell their zines through distros because they want to protect their identity or don’t want to release their mailing address. Distros are also a good way to get your zine out to more people, especially since most bookstores don’t sell zines. (A few do, and you can find those listed at the bottom of this page.)

On this page, you’ll find contact information for some zine distros and zine-selling stores, including comments from our readers (in quotes).

Distros marked with [Recommended] are recommended by Zine World readers.

Distros marked with [Sells Zine World] are places that sell Zine World.

ZINE DISTROS

AK Press [Recommended]
www.akpress.org
674-A 23rd St., Oakland CA 94612
"I get a number of international zines through them, as well as long-time favorites such as Cometbus. And they’ve carried all three different titles of mine over the years."

Bird in the Hand Zine Shop[Sells Zine World]
www.zines.wordpress.com
zineshop@gmail.com
Retail shop: 100a King Street, Newcastle NSW 2300; Open Thursday – Saturday, 11am – 4pm
Postal address: PO Box 106, Newcastle NSW 2300
Specialises in zines of a self-made nature: cooking, crafts, DIY, mini-zines, and interesting perzines.

Black Budgie Zines
http://blackbudgiezines.blogspot.com
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Stocks literary zines and perzines, as well as some random arts and crafts, like journals and jewellery

C/S Distro
www.csdistro.com
Noemi Martinez, PO Box 621, Edinburg TX 78540
Stocks zines by people of color, examining racism, feminism, gender, sexism, classism, culture, and more.

Click Clack Distro[Sells Zine World]
www.clickclackdistro.com
clickclackdistro@gmail.com
PO Box 35501, Richmond VA 23235
Sells personal, political, DIY/how-to, health, and other zines.

Desert City Death Distro[Recommended]
http://desertcitydeathdistro.blogspot.com/
81 W. Lewis Ave., Phoenix AZ 85003
"So far my favorite distro is Desert City Death Distro. I liked that it had a bunch of zines I had never heard of rather than the zines I typically see everywhere. They were really rad and mailed me a whole bunch of cool goodies, as well. I like to order from small distros that have predominantly zines from their area."

Doris [Recommended]
www.dorisdorsidoris.com
PO Box 29, Athens OH 45701
"Cindy is an amazing writer, truly inspirational. She makes personal confession seem so easy yet her words are poetry. Always searching, always pushing herself. Just wow. In addition to distro-ing her own zines through www.dorisdorsidoris.com, she also distributes many other perzines, often focusing on abuse and feminism. Great stuff."

False Start [Recommended]
www.false-start.com
5334 Monte Vista St., Los Angeles CA 90042

Fight Boredom [Recommended]
www.hello-amber.com
Amber Forrester, 10124 Ave. Hebert #8, Montreal QC H1H 3W6, Canada
"Fight Boredom is an awesome distro specializing in queer zines, feminist zines, adventures, gardening, community-building, activism, body positivity, and more, written in both English and French."

Fluxxii [Recommended]
fluxxii.com
3660 Kent Rd. #21, Stow OH 44224
"I like Fluxxii because it’s geared toward mental health zines."

Gigglebot Distro
www.gigglebot.net
Jessaruh, 1990 Rocksram Dr., Buford GA 30519
Specializes in zines (ranging from personal to political, literary to artistic), independently published books, and crafts.

Heavymental Zine Distro
http://hm.freak-animals.org
hm@freak-animals.org
Heavymental is a zine distro, founded in Berlin, Germany, in the summer of 2007. Our goal is to offer a collection of the most exciting zines that we find, and to make them accessible to others in our area.

Ink Pusher (English)
www.inkpusher.com

Le Pressier (French)
www.lepressier.com
A bilingual Canadian zine distro.

LilMag[Sells Zine World]
www.lilmag.org
1-15-2-307 Chuo, Nakano-ku, Tokyo 164-0011, Japan

Little Black Cart [Recommended]
littleblackcart.com
PO Box 3920, Berkeley CA 94703

"Bay Area distro that focuses on anarchist titles."

Marching Stars Distro [Sells Zine World][Recommended]
marchingstars.co.uk
Marching Stars is a UK-based distro specializing in perzines and zines about feminism, queer, body image, mental health, racial identity, craft, perlitical, riot grrrl, alternative health, veggie/vegan cooking, and zines that make people think or smile.

Microcosm Publishing [Recommended]
www.microcosmpublishing.com
222 S. Rogers St., Bloomington IN 47404
Storefront: 833 SE Main St. #107, Portland OR (next to Blacksheep Bakery and Plan-B).
Independent publisher and distributor of zines, books, pamphlets, stickers, buttons, patches, t-shirts, posters, films, and more.
"I like Microcosm for its vast stock. Just about any zine I’ve heard of, they have, so I feel like I can rely on them."

Ms. Valerie Park [Sells Zine World] [Recommended]
msvaleriepark.blogspot.com
PO Box 2645, Olympia WA 98507
Sells independently created things: zines, cds, limited edition vinyl, small-run cassette tapes, books, and handmade gifts, mostly by folks from Olympia and the Pacific Northwest.

Parcell Press [Sells Zine World][Recommended]
www.parcellpress.com
Taylor Ball, P.O. Box 63875, Philadelphia, PA 19147-7875
Sells zines on several topics, plus books.
"Taylor is almost startlingly professional — he peddles his inventory at many zine-related events and, perhaps more importantly, pays promptly. I can’t lavish enough good will on him, really."
"Parcel Press is my favorite distro to shop from for my zine library. Taylor is so reliable, gives great recommendations, and has a good selection."

Poopsheet Shop
www.poopsheetshop.com
PO Box 343, Bedford TX 76095-0343
Mostly sells mini-comics.

Profanity Hill [Recommended]
profanityhill.blogspot.com

Ricochet! Ricochet!
www.facebook.com/ricochetricochet
67C Paulet Road, London SE5 9HW, UK

South Chicago ABC Zine Distro
anthonyrayson@hotmail.com
Anthony Rayson, PO Box 721, Homewood IL 60430
Offers hundreds of educational and radical zines to prisoners and others for free or a donation.

Starfiend Distro
starfiend.com
jenn@starfiend.com
Jenn, 628 Central Ave #4, San Francisco, CA 94117

Sticky Institute[Sells Zine World][Recommended]
www.stickyinstitute.com
PO Box 310, Flinders Lane, Victoria 8009, Australia

Stranger Danger Distro[Recommended]
www.strangerdangerdistro.com, strangerdangerdistro.wordpress.com
PO Box 08168, Chicago IL 60608
Specializes in zines by queers, trannies, radical feminists, and other troublemakers.

Sweet Candy Distro [Recommended]
sweetcandydistro.weebly.com
Sage, PO Box 1833, Dallas GA 30132
Sells personal, craft, and other zines, plus clothing, books, washable menstrual products, and music.
"I’ve had good experiences being distroed by Sweet Candy."

Take Care Zine Distro
http://takecarezines.org
takecarezines@gmail.com
PO Box 4, Enmore NSW 2042, Australia

Things You Say [Recommended]
www.thingsyousaydistro.com
PO Box 656, Keyport NJ 07735

twelveohtwo [Recommended]
twelveohtwo.livejournal.com
PO Box 42, Stn P, Toronto ON M5S 2S6, Canada
"Totally awesome.

Vampire Sushi Distro [Recommended]
www.vampiresushi.co.uk, vampiresushidistro@gmail.com

"My favorite. They’ve got a nice selection and the all-important ‘cool factor.’"

Wild Nettle Distro [Recommended]
wildnettle.com
PO Box 765, Winona MN 55987
"Very good distro out of Winona, MN, from which I recently bought some books and zines, especially of an anarchist bent. Nice and prompt."

Attention zine publishers and readers: We would love to hear your comments about these, or other distros. Please send your feedback to wordofmouth@undergroundpress.org. (All comments will be considered for publication in our zine and/or on our website.)

STORES THAT SELL ZINES

Atomic Books [Sells Zine World][Recommended]
www.atomicbooks.com
410-662-4444
3620 Falls Rd., Baltimore MD 21211
"Atomic Books is great."

The Big Idea Bookstore
www.thebigideapgh.org
412-687-4323 (412-OUR-HEAD)
504 Millvlae Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224

Bluestockings Bookstore
www.bluestockings.com/
212-777-6028
172 Allen St., New York NY 10002

Bound Together [Sells Zine World]
1369 Haight St., San Francisco CA 94117

Boxcar Books
www.boxcarbooks.org
812-339-8710
408 E. 6th St., Bloomington IN 47408

Chicago Comics [Recommended]
www.chicagocomics.com
3244 N. Clark St, Chicago IL 60657
"Chicago Comics is also great. It specializes in indie and small press titles but also takes zines."

City Lights Bookstore [Recommended]
www.citylights.com
415-362-8193
261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco CA 94133
"A great place to buy and sell zines. They also carry a lot of small press chapbooks."

Depanneur Le Pick-Up [Recommended]
depanneurlepickup.com
7032 Rue Waverly, Montreal QC H2S 3J3, Canada

Elliot Bay Books
http://www.elliottbaybook.com/
(206) 624-6600
1521 Tenth Avenue, Seattle WA 98122

Goteblud
www.goteblud.com
766 Valencia, San Francisco CA 94110

Jim Hanley’s Universe [Recommended]
jhuniverse.blogspot.com
4 W. 33 St., New York NY 1001

Left Bank Books [Sells Zine World]
www.leftbankbooks.com
206-622-0195
92 Pike St., Seattle WA 98101

Monastiraki [Recommended]
monastiraki.blogspot.com
5478 St-Laurent, Montreal QC H2T 1S1, Canada

Needles & Pens [Recommended]
www.needles-pens.com
415-255-1534
3253 16th St., San Francisco CA 94103

Pegasus Bookstore
http://www.pegasusbookstore.com/
2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704
"…has a decent sized, completely random, zine section, with relatively comfy chairs and friendly cats, and they really do not care how long you sit there. Also, they have a sign in the window inviting people to come in so they can sell their zines, and they sell anything made by someone local."

Polyester Books[Recommended]
www.polyester.com.au
330 Brunswick St., Fitzroy Victoria 3065, Australia
"Excellent for stocking zines and paying zinesters (admittedly, for me it’s in trade for stock in the bookshop/record store/dvd shop, but the range at Polyester is so awesome that it’s an extremely cool deal in my opinion)."

Powell’s Books [Sells Zine World]
www.powells.com
800-291-9676
1005 W. Burnside, Portland OR 97209

Quimby’s [Sells Zine World] [Recommended]
www.quimbys.com
773-342-0910
1854 West North Ave., Chicago IL 60622
"A great place to distro; very zine friendly."
"Quimby’s in Chicago is rock solid reliable. They get in touch, pay promptly, and send back unsold stock."

Reading Frenzy [Sells Zine World][Recommended]
www.readingfrenzy.com
503-274-1449
921 SW Oak St., Portland OR 97205

Shake It Records [Recommended]
www.shakeitrecords.com
4156 Hamilton Ave., Cincinnati OH 45223

Spartacus Books
www.spartacusbooks.net
604-688-6138
684 E. Hastings St., Vancouver BC V6A 1R1, Canada,

Trees & Hills Comics Distro
treesandhills.storenvy.com
c/o Colin Tedford, PO Box 645, Winchester, NH 03470
The distro arm of the Trees & Hills Comics Group sells minicomics from Vermont, New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts.

Please note:

New distros open and old distros close all the time. This list is not meant to be comprehensive. You can find information about other distros by visiting ZineWiki (www.zinewiki.com), by reading Stolen Sharpie Revolution (Small World Buttons, Alex Wrekk, PO Box 17230, Portland OR 97217, http://www.smallworldbuttons.com, by visiting WeMakeZines ( wemakezines.ning.com) or by searching for distros on the Internet.

Do you distro?

If you have a distro and you’d like to be listed on this page, please email wordofmouth@undergroundpress.org with your distro’s name, website, mailing address, and a one-sentence description.

Interested in carrying Zine World in your store or distro? Visit our distribution page.

List updated April 2011