Short Summary
Wildlings Bookshop is a new bookshop, mostly for kids, that is inspired by a love of nature, art, dreaming, and everyday magic. With your help, we are bringing this lovely little indie bookstore dream to the cozy Kenwick neighborhood and its bungalows, busy sidewalks, and nearby schools, shops, and restaurants.
We believe that our communities need more places for kids, more bookshops, and more children’s books! Our mission is to highlight different voices and perspectives and connect with our community, sharing tales of kindness, acceptance, curiosity, creativity, and fun.
Our collection of books, paper goods, toys, art kits, and supplies for creating colorful crafts is picked to encourage new adventures. We plan to partner with other local groups doing things we believe in and focusing on the things we love: reading, making, art, music, movement, and play. We also plan to have kid snacks, coffee and tea, gift wrapping, and lots of things to add fun and ease to your days.
And most of all, we want to give this community a welcoming space for kids and their grown-ups that will be a beacon of light and positivity in our community, for the littlest among us to stop on their little daily journeys and find some everyday magic.
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The Impact
Why are we doing this?
Children's books are magic! They tackle things like how to just be in this world. With imagination and love and open hearts and minds. They remind us as adults that we were once learning how to maneuver our way through lives. Still are. Books define our childhoods, and they're infinitely better held in little hands rather than on a screen.
We need more places for kids! With our own wildlings in tow, we believe that we need more welcoming places in our community where kids are celebrated. Parents and caregivers need this too; casual spaces that can easily fit within the rhythms of our daily life.
We need more bookshops! Indie bookshops create community, resist censorship, and keep money out of the pockets of billionaires and instead back into our communities. Bookshops pull us out of our busy worlds for a few minutes to take a breath, meet up with friends, chat about lovely books, find something unexpected, find a sweet gift. They also get us out of the house for events that bring us together for more stories, more dreaming, and play!
Wildlings Bookshop will give us a place to step out of our busy lives, get together for some silliness, some coziness, some new adventures. So let's slow down for a minute. Let's build this space together. Let's chat with coffee and kid snacks over delightful illustrations and unexpected storytelling and crafty art supplies and paper goods and all of those simple things that make our world beautiful. Let's find some gem of a toy for your "forever" collection.
And let's let it be a love story to the little wildlings in your lives, and ours.
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Risks & Challenges
There are many risks and challenges in creating anything new, especially a small business, especially a bookstore. Books have notoriously low margins. Large online retailers undercut these already low margins and often lose money on books to increase sales elsewhere. Book bans continue to be an increasing threat in the publishing industry. How are we planning to work with these challenges?
By fighting back! We will give our community another great place to shop locally, where an estimated 3X more dollars are directed back to the community versus shopping with online and chain competitors (48% vs 14%, according to an economic impact analysis by the American Independent Business Alliance). Indie bookstores around the country continue to grow, after major post-Covid industry increases. Children's books have especially shown stability and resilience during economic fluctuations, with recent growth in segments such as picture books, graphic novels, YA, books featuring diverse voices and with STEM and STEAM themes. Bookshops are run by real people, who can make real suggestions for your wildlings and make decisions on titles that we carry that reflect real people and give a voice to the children and families in our community.
By learning! Wildlings is a member of the ABA (American Booksellers Association), with access to tons of resources and an active and supportive booksellers community.
By branching out and doing fun things! We are planning to support our bookselling with other fun items such as art kits, paper goods, crafty supplies, toys, as well as snacks, coffee and tea from local and specialty suppliers. We will be exploring additional things that we think our community will love such as story times, gift wrapping, subscription services, book clubs, craft kits, pop-up events, store events, mini jams with local musicians, workshops, and guest classes focusing on topics like creative writing. Future possibilities include in-house activity sessions and additional space for play and crafts.
By collaborating! We believe we are stronger together, and plan to engage with other like-minded local organizations including ArtPlay Kids (www.artplaykids.com), the Bright Spot (www.thebrightspotky.com) and others focused on music, movement, play, learning, and community building. We will have a natural collaboration with Wilson's Grocery, which has deep roots within the community, and we’re excited to continue building on those relationships with local suppliers such as Honeyshine Pies (@honeyshinepies), Girls Girls Girls (www.girlsgirlsgirlsburritos.com), Nourished Folks (www.nourishedfolks.com) and many, many more. We are working with exciting new partners such as Packed (www.lunchispacked.com) to bring an expanded selection of kid snacks and meals to our customers!
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What We Need & What You Get
Here's how you can help us get this sweet little haven off the ground.
We need about $50K to get started. We are planning to share a space with Wilson's Grocery, a Kenwick neighborhood cornerstone, which is owned and run by my husband, Matt. We think the two businesses together will have a nice flow and connection, while keeping our initial costs as low as possible. Here’s how the funds will be spent:
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$21,000 Initial Inventory (42%)
- Books
- Toys, Paper Goods, Art Supplies and kits, etc.
$6,000 Operations, Business Expenses (12%)
- POS
- Bookstore specific Inventory management software
- Computer
- Permits, licenses, memberships, professional services
$11,000 Marketing (22%)
- Website
- Advertising
- Crowdfunding rewards and fees
- Logo and Illustrations
$12,000 Space: Furniture, Fixtures, Renovations (24%)
- Bookshelves
- Wall/Table Display
- Check-out Counter
- Tables, chairs stools, seating area, kids seating
- Cabinets for small coffee area
- Lighting
- Rugs, Wallpaper
- Signage
- Paint and minor repair
- (3) New windows that were previously boarded up
- Minor bathroom work (flooring, lighting, functional accessories)
Ready to help make Wildlings a reality?
We would love to have you as part of our community! Here are some perks supporters will receive:
- Fun Wildlings supplies: Bookmarks, Stickers, Tote Bags, Hats, and more.
- Custom Hand-Picked Book Gift Boxes
- Handmade local ceramic mug
- Books! Coffee!
- Celebration and recognition online and in our cozy shop
*As you're reviewing the tiers please note that most include more than what's described in the title! For details please click through each tier that catches your eye.
Then... once the work is done, come and join me and my wildlings for some silliness, some coziness, some adventures to take with you on your journeys.
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Other Ways You Can Help
Whether or not you can contribute financially to the future of Wildlings Bookshop, we are honored to have you in our community, and we need your help! Here's what you can do:
Bookshop.org: If you are purchasing books online, purchase from https://bookshop.org/shop/wildlingsbookshop and select Wildlings Bookshop as your bookshop! Bookshop.org has provided over $37M to independent bookshops since its creation in 2020. If you select us as your recipient, we receive a generous commission!
Social: Find us on instagram (@wildlings_bookshop) and follow along with our progress. Share us with your friends and help get people excited!
Share our campaign: Share this campaign directly from the IndieGogo site with anyone you know that has kids, grandkids, godkids, friends, other family, or just wildlings in their lives that they know and love. Share with teachers, librarians, anyone that loves reading, and anyone that loves to support local businesses and would enjoy a space like this in our community.
Libro.FM: Purchase your online audiobooks from https://libro.fm/wildlingsbookshop and select Wildlings Bookshop as your shop!
We are thankful beyond words for your support, and can't wait to share this little love story with you!
XOXO Jill
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Your Wildlings Team:
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Jill Bastin is a BA/MA graduate from the University of Kentucky School of Interiors and has lived in Lexington since 2001. She is a KYCID licensed and NCIDQ Certified Interior Designer and has a forever love for books, bookshops, and designing magical spaces. Her own magical spaces are filled with magical messes made with her own two wildlings.
Matt Bastin is an ideas-man who has a hard time with everything else. He currently owns and runs Wilson’s Grocery and Bastin Guitar Company.
Emily Giancarlo holds a Bachelor's Degree in Photography from the University of Kentucky, professionally pursuing photography since 2015. When she and Jill aren’t busy scheming all things colorful, fun and creative for Wildling's, she enjoys a good book herself, crafting with her girls and antiquing.
Mona K is the illustrator behind Wildling’s sweet and delightful graphics. Mona has a fascination with all things charming and cozy, woodland creatures and their quaint little lives. She tends to draw what she makes in the real world and imitate her drawings; she finds it to be a nice trade with her illustrated characters! Mona also illustrated the lovely 5-minute Nature Stories (written by Gabby Dawnay), and can be found at www.ghostpuff.com and @ghost_puff on instagram.
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