Publications orders
Everything you need to know about buying books from DSC.
How to place an order
Delivery and postage and packaging
Overseas orders
Downloadable books
Trade orders
Bulk discounts
Change or cancel your order
Access to DSC books for customers with specific requirements
Terms and Conditions
How to place an order
It’s quick and easy to place an order for a book or download online.
Simply find the book(s) you would like to buy and add them to your cart by clicking on the ‘add to cart’ icon. When you have added everything you would like to order, simply click on ‘Checkout’ to enter your delivery and payment details. You will then receive an email confirmation of your order.
Please note that orders for less than £50 or from non-UK customers require payment by card at the checkout.
For orders of more than £50 we would be happy to invoice you. Simply choose ‘Invoice’ as the method of payment and we will send you an invoice when your order has been processed.
If you are having technical difficulties placing your order or if you aren’t able to find the book you would like, you can contact our Customer Services team in one of the following ways.
Unfortunately we cannot ship to the EU at the moment unless you have bulk order but contact CS@dsc.org.uk if you are in any other country and need help ordering.
Email cs@dsc.org.uk
Send us the full details of your order or enquiry, and our Customer Services team will get back to you and deal with your order within 24 hours. Don’t forget to include your full contact and delivery details so we can confirm your order.
Call us on 020 4526 5995
Our team would be happy to take your order by telephone. Our lines are open from 08.45 – 17.30 Monday to Friday.
If you choose to pay by phone you are automatically accepting our terms and conditions.
By post
Simply complete the (book order form) and post it to Directory of Social Change, First floor, 10 Queen Street Place, London, EC4R 1BE.
You can provide credit or debit card details, enclose a cheque payable to the ‘Directory of Social Change’, or request an invoice if your order is over £50.
Delivery and postage and packaging
Your books will normally be dispatched 24 hours after we receive your order.
We aim to deliver all orders as quickly as possible by Royal Mail or a signed-for courier delivery service. Please allow 3-5 working days for delivery within the UK. All orders that weigh 1kg and over or of £50 retail value and over will be sent by courier and cannot be delivered to a PO Box address.
If you need your books urgently, please contact us and we will do our very best to help.
Advance orders
If the book you require is not in stock or has not yet been published, in most cases you will be able to pre-order a copy by all of the usual ordering methods. We will give you an estimated delivery date and as soon as the books are published or come back into stock we will dispatch your copy. If you choose to pay by card for your pre-order, payment will be taken at the time of ordering.
Postage and packaging charges
For orders of more than £100 we offer a free delivery service. For all other orders our delivery charges are as follows.
| Order value | UK p&p rate | Europe | Zones 1+2 |
| Up to £7.99 | £1.75 | £12 | £15 |
| £8 to £19.99 | £2.75 | £17 | £25 |
| £20 to £29.99 | £3.75 | £18 | £27 |
| £30 to £49.99 | £5.50 | £20 | £30 |
| £50 to £99.99 | £6.75 | £22 | £32 |
| Over £100 | FREE | N/A | N/A |
Where orders are not delivered owing to a fulfilment error on our part, we will aim to rectify the problem and redeliver as soon as possible after notification by the customer.
We charge for redeliveries where orders have not reached their destination owing to incomplete or inaccurate delivery information, if the address is changed by the customer after their order has been despatched, or if the customer is unavailable at their address and the order has been returned to the distributor. Charges for re-delivery will be made in line with our postage and packing scale or for orders over £100 at cost price.
Overseas orders
- If you are ordering from outside the UK you can place an order online, by email, phone or post.
- Please email cs@dsc.org.uk if you would like to receive an invoice for your purchase.
- Payment must be made and processed before we are able to dispatch your books.
- We accept payment made by any of the following methods:
Credit or debit card
Sterling cheque drawn on UK bank,
Sterling bank draft drawn on UK bank
Cheque payable to ‘Directory of Social Change’
Overseas delivery
Delivery times for overseas orders depend on your final destination.
Generally delivery to Europe will average 6-10 days, and 10-30 working days for the rest of the world depending on destination. An expedited service can be requested for overseas orders at an extra cost.
Note though, unfortunately we cannot ship to the EU at the moment unless you have bulk order but contact CS@dsc.org.uk if you are in any other country and need help ordering.
Downloadable books
Many of our books are available as downloadable versions, and we are continually looking to increase the number of books that we have available in this format.
- Downloadable book titles must be purchased via the DSC website and payment can be made by credit or debit card only.
- Once you have purchased your download, you will be able to find and download it by logging in to Your Account. See (Your Account) for help on finding your download.
- Once you have purchased a download your purchase is subject to our (Terms and Conditions).
Trade orders
If you would like to make an order for bookshops or trade please directly contact our trade distributor on the details below.
Central Books Ltd, 50 Freshwater Road, Chadwell Heath, London, RM8 1RX
Tel: 020 8525 8800
Fax: 020 8599 2694
Email: orders@centralbooks.com
Bulk discounts
If you would like to order multiple copies of a single title to one address, contact our Customer Services Team (see below) as DSC operates a bulk discount scheme on its print format titles and for voluntary sector customers only on its self-published titles. Our Customer Services will process the orders manually for you. Titles that are not published by DSC and not eligible for discount will have the publisher details marked against them in the specification on the product page. Discount is on the full advertised prices on our website and not available with any other concurrent offers. Our bulk discounts are as follows:
| No. of copies | Discount |
| 5+ | 5% |
| 10+ | 10% |
| 25+ | 20% |
| 50+ | 25% |
| 100+ | 30% |
P&P inclusive within the UK
For more information or to place a bulk discount order, or for rates for multiple copies delivered to multiple addresses, please contact the Customer Services team on cs@dsc.org.uk or call 020 4526 5995.
Change or cancel your order
We may be able to change or cancel your order before it is dispatched if you inform us immediately. Call us on 020 4526 5995 to speak to a member of Customer Services.
However, if you have received an invoice by email this means that your order has already been dispatched and you’ll need to follow our (Returns Procedure) in the event of any unwanted products.
Refunds and exchanges
Books
We want you to be happy with your purchase. If you are not completely satisfied with your order for any reason, or change your mind after you have received it, return it to us in saleable condition (unused and undamaged) within 14 working days, and we will exchange, refund you or credit your account with the full cost of the publications. So as not to invalidate your request for an exchange, refund or credit and to protect yourself against loss or damage we ask you to:
- photograph the pristine copy of the purchased book(s) from all angles
- enclose a copy of the photograph with the completed returns form for authorisation by DSC before posting
- return the goods with a copy of the authorised returns form using the original packaging materials where possible. Protect all book edges with card or bubble-wrap – books returned with damaged edges are not saleable and we will not be able to credit your account in full.
- use a delivery service similar to the method of the original delivery (note for all orders that we send out that weigh 1kg and over or are of £50 retail value and over we use couriers and below that level royal mail
- declare the full value of the return package contents for your insurance purposes
Returns will undergo a quality check by our distributor on receipt and then refunds will be made to the person who originally placed and paid for the order. Refunds for orders not paid for by card will be made by cheque. If returned books are not deemed saleable we will need to subtract the production value of the product. Refunds in these instances will be at 75% of the invoiced goods.
We hope that you will understand that since we are a charity it is our policy not to refund return postage in these circumstances.
If we have made a mistake with your order, or if you have received a damaged book, simply photograph it to show its condition within one working day of receipt and then return it to us (with the completed returns form) and we will replace it and refund the cost of your return postage.
Downloadable books
If you are not completely satisfied with your download for any reason, or change your mind after you have received it, please contact Customer Services within 14 working days of making your order. We will then refund the debit/credit card from which payment was taken.
In order to receive your refund, you must:
Recover and remove all copies of the download(s)
Dispose of any printed copies of the download(s)
Make no further attempt to access the specific download(s) from your account
Access to DSC books for customers with specific requirements
If you are visually impaired or have a particular requirement that would help you access our publications, we would be very happy to discuss your needs. We are committed to providing as many as possible of DSC’s own titled books in a downloadable format to those with visual impairment or a specific access need.
In some cases for some of our larger books, this may not be possible but please contact Customer Services to discuss your requirements. We’ll do our very best to help you get the information you need, in a way that is suitable for you.
In order to receive a downloadable version of a DSC book, you must purchase the publication at the current sale price, or provide proof of purchase of any current edition bought online or in our bookshop.
Terms and conditions
Please click here to read our full terms and conditions for publications.