You did it.

As of 11:30 this morning, Uncharted Books officially met its $10,000 goal. It took about 7 days, 200 backers, and an astonishing amount of support from the community. Retweets/reblogs from Neil Gaiman, Wil Wheaton, and Superchunk didn't hurt either.

Thank you.

I want to thank everyone who has pledged so far. I can't express how much this means to me personally, not to mention to the local independent community. Your support and enthusiasm has surpassed anything I could have hoped for. Fully funding a Kickstarter in a week is nearly unheard of. If this isn't a mandate, a statement from the people that indie bookstores continue to be viable and in demand, I don't know what is.

But we're not finished yet.

We have 23 days left on this Kickstarter, and I intend to use every second of it. We met our $10,000 goal, which means no matter what happens, everyone who pledges gets their reward and we get that precious, precious funding. There's no cap to how much money we can raise. We hit the minimum, but there's no limit to this thing except the public's generosity.

Here are some of the improvements your pledges from this point forward will contribute to:

• Larger, more complete inventory
• Quicker start to social programs
• Extra rewards for backers
  
• Improved construction -- higher quality, more attractive shelving, flooring, ceiling, etc.
• Actual payment for contractors and artists -- I can pay them in cash instead of in Papa John's and PBR!
• Preview day extravaganza -- we can make the backer-only preview day a real event to remember: catering, homemade baked goods from Piebird, and, if we raise enough, an open bar
• Upgraded technology -- credit card processors (instead of cash-only), more robust back-end tech, and (eventually) online sales
• And most importantly, wiggle room -- we won't start out completely strapped for cash, which allows us to be more experimental, to branch out more and try new things right out of the gate instead of worrying about making the first few months' rent
  

If you have more suggestions, especially for literacy projects that need a home, please leave a comment or shoot me an email at tanner@unchartedbooks.com.

Keep following our social media push on Twitter (@unchartedbooks), Tumblr (unchartedbooks.com), and Facebook (facebook.com/unchartedbooks), and keep retweeting and reblogging. We couldn't have gotten this far without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Help me push this all the way through to November 18th, and let's bring an even better bookstore to Logan Square!

Thanks again,

Tanner