I have been looking into the practicalities of self-publishing, including artists books. I found a very informative video here

Some ideas for free distribution/promotion - libraries, local art/craft shops, art galleries, local shops. Personally, I have even left zines in the ladies toilets or on the bar when I've been to gigs, or local clubs/pubs!

To sell work, there are specialist shops such as the
or local independent bookshops or craft shops may be willing to stock books on a sale or return basis, but it's important to remember that they will inevitably charge commission on sales, so this would need to be taken into account when pricing work. There are also craft and art fairs, where the cost of the stall would need to be taken into account.

This site will actually print a book of photos/images, ranging from A4o r A3 hardcover down to A5 softcover relatively inexpensively

But with regard to artists books, as someone pointed out in the comments, these are usually handmade, so the question more is where to 'distribute' them and how to promote them.

Concerning distribution, it depends on the theme/style of the work and also on whether one wants to sell them, or merely distribute them for free (this could be for promotional purposes).

Alternatively, there are numerous online marketplaces for example Etsy, Folksy, Squarespace where you can build an online shop. These usually charge a listing fee as well as take a commission on sales.

For books other than artists books there are various online sites where you can upload images which are then made into physical books.

There is some useful advice in this video on how to organise and sequence a book, the importance of choosing the most suitable paper etc.

this is a site that specialises in printing zines - flexible in all aspects of zine printing
They have an exciting and inspiring promotional video here

Another option is to sell digital books. Sites such as
allow you to upload a .pdf which can then be distributed digitally. You can make use of an InDesign plugin as part of the process.

allows you to upload a .pdf and create online flipbooks which can be distributed by embeddable links. This is one I made in Year 1

A fundamental requirement of self-publishing is self-promotion. One of the most accessible ways to do this is to use social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok etc.

There are various self-help videos, tutorials etc. on how to gain followers and this forms a large part of the whole self-publishing process.