Help Mysterious Galaxy Bounce Back

Hi, my name is Matt. In January 2020, my partner Jenni and I took over Mysterious Galaxy. When our favorite independent bookstore was at risk of closing forever, we couldn't imagine our children growing up without it. Unfortunately, six weeks after we took over and opened our new location, the world shut down. We had to learn a new business that was changing every day, and our new store stayed closed until June 2021 except for online orders. Along with interruptions to normal operations, events and conventions --which comprised a large portion of our business--also stopped. Combined with a higher rent from when we had to move to a new location, new costs associated with running a business virtually, and rising costs generally, it has been a hard two years financially. We were committed to providing the best version of the store and ensuring our staff was taken care of.

This GoFundMe will help us address the losses of the last two years and move forward as we planned to in 2020. Now that things are opening up, we’re so excited to return to all of the festivals and conventions. The return of these events has highlighted the need to replace and upgrade our technology and other offsite resources. It’s a large set of expenses. Although the expense is intimidating for us to ask for help, it would allow us to put our best foot forward as we work hard to get to a financially stable position, and these events play a huge role in that.

We've stayed afloat these two-plus years thanks to the dedication of our booksellers and the commitment of indie-loving book readers and authors. We've always put our staff first throughout this challenging time, keeping everyone on and pooling our talents to discover new ways to run an independent bookstore during lockdowns and a new normal.

Your donations would help us to complete many of our planned improvements that we've foregone to ensure the business could continue normal operations, such as

Donations would also help us weather the highs and lows while allowing us a little freedom to explore new ways to deliver bookish goodness. We know better times are ahead, but we could use some help getting there. We're committed to the store's long-term success and are confident that the creative and caring team we have will help us make everything you love about the store even better.

Thank you to everyone who's bought a book, watched an event or followed us on social media these last few years. Any donation ultimately helps us continue our mission of helping readers discover the weird, the fantastic, and the unexpected.