I've found a shop!

Can you chip in towards a bookcase?

After months and months of searching and negotiations, I’m very excited to finally be able to tell you that… I’ve found a shop.

I’m actually going to have a bookshop. Hooray!

So please forgive my sending this update ahead of the normal email, but I wanted to share the news with you as soon as I could.

Before

After?

Much, much more on our plans to follow. But, in the meantime, I wanted to ask a big favour…

The start-up costs are rather daunting. Buying and installing 16 bookcases, tables and comfy armchairs, painting the walls and fitting out the counter come to a little more than £20,000. The opening stock is about the same again.

That’s before I start paying the rent - just under £50,000 - or the five-figure business rates.

Given how lovely and supportive you have been over the last few months, I thought I’d set up a crowdfunder to cover some of the initial costs of kitting out the shop. I’d really appreciate it if you feel able to chip in towards the cost of one of the bookcases.

If you can share the news of the campaign with your friends and family, too, that would be hugely helpful.

The link is here. There’s a video that goes into more details about my plans for the shop and gives you a sneak preview of what it looks like at the moment, too.

We’ll leave the crowdfunder up for the next week and I’d be really grateful for anything you feel able to chip in to get Backstory on its way.

Thanks so much,

Tom