Black Hills State University alumni and Spearfish residents, Elizabeth and Dylan Mattson, share a dream of founding a locally-owned and community-funded bookstore.

Henry’s Books, named after the couple’s son, was tentatively scheduled to open at the beginning of December pending a successful fundraising campaign run through Kickstarter.

The Mattsons set out to raise $45,000 during a 30-day fundraising even that began on Sept. 5.

“We had over 70 backers contribute just over $12,000,” Elizabeth Mattson said. “Our goal was $45,000, so we fell short.” The couple must now essentially start over financially. According to the Kickstarter guide page, fundraising campaigns on Kickstarter are “all-or-nothing,” which means those who placed donations to fund the new bookstore were not charged.

“We don’t consider this a failure or loss at all,” Elizabeth Mattson said. “We are really excited by the momentum that we gained from this campaign. So, while we didn’t hit our goal, we are still many steps ahead in our journey.”

Henry’s Books is not out of the question yet. The Mattsons, in the event of a failed initial fundraising campaign, conceived a secondary strategy.

“Now that our campaign has ended, we are going to move forward with phase two,” Elizabeth Mattson said. “We’re going to
change things up on our website. All the sponsorship options that were available on the Kickstarter campaign are going to be available [on the website] in the exact same amounts and with all of the same bonuses.”

The Mattsons made the additions to the Henry’s Books websites on Oct. 16.

“Instead of a donation to our campaign, it will be considered as a nonrefundable purchase,” Elizabeth Mattson said.

In addition to the option of sponsoring a book that will be carried at the store for its lifetime, the Mattsons are now including options to sponsor plants, genres, shelves, tables, seating furniture and technology in the name of the donor’s choosing. Henry’s Books also
offers signed cards, enamel pins, t-shirts, stickers and book bags for smaller donations.

The sponsorship and donation options will remain available indefinitely. However, they may be subject to change after the store
opens.

Although the initial fundraising campaign didn’t turn out to be completely successful, the Mattson’s schedule for Henry’s Books remains relatively unchanged.

“We’re going to continue to move forward with pursuing opening the store sometime between now and early spring of 2024,” Elizabeth Mattson said. “It all depends on when we hit our funding goal and what retail space is available downtown at the time.”

However, generating sufficient funding for a downtown retail space in Spearfish may prove difficult with rising real estate costs and a lack of returning sponsors from the Kickstarter campaign. The Mattsons are hoping the new website offerings will entice the donors from the original Kickstarter campaign to recommit to their vision of an independent, crowd-funded bookstore.