The UK’s only brick-and-mortar fantasy bookshop has opened in Wirral and business so far has surpassed its owner’s expectations.
Paper and Word opened its doors just under two months ago.
Abby Munro, who founded the small independent shop, says that custom has been stronger than she could have ever imagined.
She said: “By the time we actually opened the doors back in November, the queue was right down at the end of the road. It stayed like that for three days!”
“It was about a three-hour wait for those days; everyone just absolutely ransacked the place. We were bookless by Tuesday. It’s insane.”
Paper and Word are members of the Booksellers Association, which confirmed to them that they are the only physical bookshop to purely sell fantasy genre books.
Abby said that every single book on their shelf was fantasy, but they have subgenres such as epic, romantic, cosy, and magical realism.
Abby joined Kickstarter last January to help crowdfund the money she needed to transform the century-old building on Church Road.
Their goal was £25,000, which Abby said felt insane to ask, majority, strangers for that much money. “But everyone got behind it, everyone was really excited.” She added.
She added, “We already had a bit of a community because we’ve been online for about seven years.
“We had a few TikToks just really take off without any intention, which really helped.”
On the very last day of funding, they managed to exceed their desired goal and reach £26,000.
Backers of the project were offered to have their names on the ceiling in golden constellations. Including them in the foundation of the bookshop.
For Abby, seeing her labour of love become something tangible “felt a bit crazy, but actually, then it very quickly made perfect sense”.
Paper and Word’s choice not to diversify but to instead specialise exclusively in fantasy was a bold one, but one that has so far paid off.
Abby added: “I would have struggled with the non-fantasy books in terms of … recommendations, even just my enthusiasm.
“Whereas, every book on the shelf, I’m excited about in here. That passion is part of what makes this a good bookshop.”
@merseynewslive First fantasy only book shop in the UK. Paper + word located on Church Rd in Wirral. #books #fantasy #bookshop #Wirral #independant
