Help us save moon lane books!
Who We Are
Moon Lane Books opened in 2018, looking to bring our founding ethos of diversity and inclusion in children’s books to Catford and the wider Lewisham area.
We have absolutely loved serving our loyal customers over the past seven years, seeing baby bookworms blossom into confident readers, steering children and their adults towards books that allow them to happily continue their reading adventures, as well as allowing adults to reward themselves from our selection of adult books.
Why is Moon Lane Books Important?
Moon Lane Books is not only a bookshop but a community hub. We offer a safe and welcoming place for parents to meet and build connections while participating in fun and interactive storytelling sessions or relaxing baby/toddler classes. We provide spaces for external workshops and classes, and support local authors by hosting book launches and events. We also aim to showcase diversity through the authors, illustrators and stories we hold on our shelves - a diversity that reflects London itself - while remaining true to our ethos of celebrating inclusivity in children's literature.
How Will Your Donation Help Us?
With your help, we plan to offset these issues by investing in marketing to reach the new faces moving to the area and joining the community. With a strong and sustained marketing drive we hope to reach a wider audience and introduce them to not only the books we offer, but the events we hold as well! Speaking of events, we plan to expand our program of in-store workshops and events to attract a larger audience and increase footfall to the shop.
We also plan to allocate funds to cover our more significant monthly outgoings, such as rent and other related overheads.
Why Do We Need Your Help?
As some of you may know, the past couple of years have been a struggle for us. Like many independent retailers, we have been hit by the concurrent economic crises and the rising cost of living, which have affected people’s spending power. Shrinking school budgets have also reduced a key revenue stream for the business, with a noticeable reduction in school orders in recent months. We are eager to strengthen the business by reconnecting with our community.
£25,000 will allow us to cover rent, business rates, and other overheads for 12 months. Without the pressure of these expenses, we will be able to move forward on a more stable footing, allowing us to focus on running more community projects.
£6,000 will enable us to run monthly free in-store events over a 12-month period. We will pay authors and illustrators to run fun and engaging workshops and events for children of all ages. Those who work in the arts are often undercompensated for their time, and they deserve to be paid fairly for events like these. As we have always endeavoured to support authors and creatives from underrepresented backgrounds, this particular goal is all the more important for us because people are often pushed out of the creative industries when they are not adequately paid for their work and time.
£500 will go toward running a monthly book club for both children and adults, with a discount on the author's book for that month.
The remaining funds will be allocated to promotional and targeted marketing campaigns to increase our visibility in the wider community. We also plan to invest some of your donations in refurbishing the shop (including fixing our beloved train!)