Help A Novel Idea Stay Open

Hi, we are Christina and Alex, the owners of A Novel Idea on Passyunk. We first opened our doors in December 2018, and over the past 4.5 years, we have become a staple of the East Passyunk community and the Philly literary scene. We are known for our dedication to local authors, presses, artisans, and educators. We host upward of 150 events per year, with most of them being free to the public. We pride ourselves on making literature accessible for all.

We are so grateful to have weathered most of the pandemic, even seeing large growth in 2021. However, in the last year and a half, we've seen zero growth and a decline in sales. We've talked several times about closing in the past year, however, each time we were able to make it through the rough patches. Unfortunately, we've hit one that we're not sure we can weather without your help.

Summer is always slow at the shop, but this one has been particularly so and is following a slow winter and spring. We are behind on payments to publishers, credit cards, and at the moment, we don't have enough money in our account to submit the shop's next order. We have applied for several grants and were just denied a major one we were counting on.

The one bright side is our landlord is allowing us to reup our lease without raising our rent. But for us to sign this lease on August 1st and continue this fight, we need assistance.

Anything you can donate to help us through this is very much appreciated! However, donations alone are a short term fix. We need folks to support A Novel Idea as often as possible. Buy books in store! Buy books online! Preorder books! Order special order titles! Join our book clubs! Come to our events and purchase literally anything!

This isn't just a passion for us, but our livelihood. Many of you know us as a couple and have seen firsthand what we offer the East Passyunk and Philly community. We're the type of people to grit our teeth and figure it out, but we're out of options.

We thank you for your support.