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Welsh indie bookshop Book-ish has achieved its crowdfunding target in just 10 days, raising £25,000 and securing its future after customers, publishing figures and authors donated money.
Emma and Andrew Corfield-Walters, who co-own the store in the Welsh market town of Crickhowell, launched a GoFundMe page after their landlord decided to sell the property, offering the bookshop to the pair. However, due to the past "horrific" 18 months, the award-winning store was struggling with funds, and appealed to the public and book community.
The pair originally wanted to raise £30,000 to secure the property, but raised £5,000 through on an online auction in addition to the crowdfunder, which now stands at £25,670. The campaign hit £22,500 in seven days, after a number of high-profile authors—including Elizabeth Day, Sara Cox, Pete Paphides, Julie Owen Moylan and Neil Gaiman—retweeted the appeal. Booksellers, literary festival directors and publishers across the UK also came out in support of the shop.
Among those who donated to the crowdfunder were Cox, actor Michael Sheen and authors Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Katie Fforde. There was also a £2,000 anonymous donation.
Emma Corfield-Walters told The Bookseller she was "absolutely overwhelmed" by the support and will be looking to raise the rest of the money she needs before New Year's Eve.
She said: "I can’t believe we have hit our target in only 10 days. We exchanged contracts on Friday so the race is now on to secure the rest of the funding by 31st December. It’s looking doable now, whereas it was looking really unattainable before we started the crowdfunder.
"I’m so thankful to everybody who has supported us, donated, shared and sent messages of support."