Lyra's Books

They did have it when they sold Coraline, and it was a really big mess because there were errors with the checkout when you used Paypal. (It showed people that the purchase hadn't gone through when it actually had. I made a second order with my credit card as a result, as did others.) I know that another small publisher stopped using Paypal due to issues like that, but I don't know if Lyra's has reached that point or not. If it's really important for you to know this in advance, I'd write them an email.

That can be a real problem when buying online internationally since Paypal has been so problematic for a few (though not many) companies that they already don't use them anymore or are considering that step. If it's an issue and important enough for you to buy from such a seller, I'd recommend looking into a credit card that doesn't charge fees. There are a few with no yearly fee and no fee for the currency conversion, which is important for international purchases. You can find them with google - I have one myself. Just look at the smallprint and reviews, the conditions can vary quite a lot. Such a credit card is also cheaper than Paypal since they have (hidden) fees for the currency conversion. Paypal just add a percentage to the actual conversion rate during payment, which a completely free credit card doesn't.

But as I said above, this may not be an issue with Lyra's. I just don't know what the current situation is, only that there were problems during the Coraline sale and that another small publisher stopped using Paypal after truly idiotic issues that were entirely the fault of Paypal in that case. I've witnessed checkout issues with them more than once, which can be a real nuisance, worse so if they affect the seller. It's best to ask Lyra's directly by email if you want to know for sure.

The problem with Paypal and the business model we have is that we pre-order so we can have the cash to finish the books, which is often 90% of the monies for the books, but if there is a lot of money collected, Paypal won't release the money for up to six/eight months, sometimes more, with no recourse to getting that money which actually puts us in a really difficult position. Four publishers that I have spoken to have the same issue. Although it is easy for buyers, we just don't know when we get the money to complete the books production.

>5 marceloanciano:

It's unbelievable that they just keep your money like that. Do they give any reason for that? I remember that this was the problem when I pre-ordered The Case of Death and Honey from you and couldn't believe what Paypal was doing there. How is any business supposed to work like that?

>5 marceloanciano:
>6 SF-72:
That is unbelievable and if that's common practice I can't believe there hasn't been a class action lawsuit yet. On the other hand, there are plenty of merchant services that will get the money to you quickly.

>6 SF-72: Their reason is that they pay when we deliver the books, we said to them, fine, keep 10% for the undelivered books and to deal with the people who complain and want their money back from paypal. They wouldn't accept that, working on the premise that 100% could want their money back. Even though we all had done a couple of books with no complaint.

>7 SDB2012: There are, a few which we are looking into. Paypal are probably great if you have a trickle of buys, but the
amounts we bring in within days and then no business for months puts up some sort red light.

>9 marceloanciano: genuinely curious - how on Earth does PayPal know when you deliver the books?

>11 AlexBookshelfFrog: Paypal holds the money in escrow between buyer and seller until the sale can finalize.

>8 marceloanciano:

Thank you, that's interesting to know. Interestingly enough, their buyer protection doesn't cover nearly the length of time they want hold that money back from you or other sellers, so their reasoning kind of falls flat beyond a certain point. It does make me wonder to what degree they make money with your money by investing it for a while. I could be mistaken, but I read about such schemes elsewhere.

Either way, it's fine with me if I can't pay with Paypal as long as I trust the seller, which is absolutely the case with you. And with such long-term pre-orders, their buyer protection wouldn't help anyway if that weren't the case.

>14 AlexBookshelfFrog: I can't recall, I think we send them a shipping notice but it's something that Phil deals with, I'll ask him in the morning.

>16 AlexBookshelfFrog: The other advantage of a credit card is exchange fees. My credit card has a 1.75% fee on currency exchange (there are cards without fees). The exchange fee at Paypal is 4%, which can add up quite quickly.

Edit: You could still pay using PayPal and pay in the original currency and let your credit card company do the exchange.

So, it turns out that PP don’t release money based on shipping or even proof of purchase. We had one PP buyer wanting their money back in the last two years and they took the money from the bank account details, not even from the thousands they were keeping. There is no rime or reason for them retaining the cash. We have had 90 days, kept and changed to 180 days without explanation, some publishers have had their money kept for nearly a year. They say that after a couple of years they will release money in a timely fashion, but if you produce one or two books a year, they don’t recognise that sort of economic activity.

>18 marceloanciano:

It really sounds like they're just keeping and working with people's money if it's not even based on when something is shipped. Unbelievable.

>18 marceloanciano: Your money is being held in another bank drawing interest for PP. This is a common practice in the banking world. Even your local bank does this: every night, they electronically transfer millions to another bank where it draws interest for the night, then it is transferred back to the originating bank. Miniscule interest on millions adds up. PP is apparently doing this with many millions and not just overnight. They're using your money to earn a profit for themselves. Unethical, maybe, but legal.

>20 Glacierman:

Legal for up to almost a year?

>21 SF-72: You would have thought so wouldn't you? We've just decided to not use PP.

>23 SF-72:

That's definitely the best decision in this case.

>21 SF-72: Well, not being a banking law guru, I can only say that I am sure their lawyers are all over this and have figured out a way to do it w/o overtly breaking the law. Skirting the edge, maybe, but not crossing the line. Corporate lawyers are good at that kind of thing.

>22 marceloanciano: Venmo?

>20 Glacierman: Overnight banking isn’t what’s going on here - they are simply holding on to these funds for many months, and of course they’ll invest it, even at fractional interest rates.

They simply view these short bursts of activity as risky, given they are payments for goods not to be delivered for many months, and use that to justify holding onto the funds.

It’s not right, as there’s a history with Arete and Rich at this point, but that’s what it is.

>26 What_What: Overnight banking isn’t what’s going on here - they are simply holding on to these funds for many months, and of course they’ll invest it, even at fractional interest rates.

Yes, that was what I was getting at. And of course, the longer they hold those funds, the more money they make from them. It would seem that from this poilicy, PP is not a good option for certain business models.

Just to be clear, regular merchant processing companies that process credit cards directly can also decide to hold funds in "reserve" if they see a huge spike in sales from a bookseller or other vendor (such as might happen during a new product launch) or if they see a sudden surge in refund requests, and they can even decide this retroactively and draft the funds directly back from the merchant's bank account! However, PayPal is known to be especially arbitrary (some might even say abusive) and non-transparent about these situations.

>28 whytewolf1: The difference between credit card and PP is that you can call, explain what is about to happen and get it all ok'd before the sale.

>29 marceloanciano: Having run a business that took credit cards directly and took PayPal, I don’t disagree. And I wasn’t defending PayPal but was just pointing out they’re not the only miscreant out there, just the worst among them.

New teaser language for Lyra’s next title. The accompanying pictures on FB showed a couple good looking images of St. Mark’s square. Any guesses as to the title?

Hello all!

Phil is just finishing up the printing of The Alchemist, so we should begin binding in the next week or so, all being well. When we get started, I’ll share pics and short videos as we go.

In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek of our next title (Lyra’s Press).

Ah, Venice! One of my favourite stories set in one of my favourite places.

This book is the same size as the Frozen Hell numbered edition by Arete Editions (300 x 200mm), so quite a bit bigger than a normal Lyra book. It will be limited to just a numbered and lettered edition.

The text is letterpress printed by Phil at Hand and Eye and the distinctive artwork is by our pal, the award-winning artist and publisher, Leslie Gerry. Leslie has provided 21 full page illustrations, comprising 18 single pages, 2 double pages and 1 triple page fold-out. All colour prints are hand fed by the artist himself, one at a time, on his flatbed printer. This means that he can only print around 5 books worth of images per day. A very slow process but the colours achieved are phenomenal.

We also have an afterword by movie director, writer and producer, Mike Flanagan. All copies will be signed by both Leslie and Mike.

The letterpress printing of this title will be finished before we do the sale. The sale is expected September/October with delivery around February 2026.

Have a guess what it is! There's not too many stories set in Venice to choose from!

More details soon.

Ta!

Rich

Don't Look Now?

>32 Chemren: Good guess.

The Talented Mr. Ripley is also partly set in Venice IIRC.

>31 jsg1976: A Lyra's Press title limited to just numbered and lettered editions, so pretty much zero chance of landing a copy.

Death in Venice? Illustrations look a bit too contemporary for that maybe.

>35 Opinacus: was thinking that, but it’s more of a Lyra’s Classics title? And the illustrations do indeed look more modern than that.

I immediately thought The Thief Lord, although that's not likely - looking forward to the reveal!

Invisible Cities is a guess I see on the Facebook group, where someone has also posted a clue that the city is like a character in the novel.

>38 Opinacus: I would be delighted if it Invisible Cities, but Rich said “one of my favorite stories set in one of my favorite places,” and it’d be a stretch to say Invisible Cities is set in Venice.

The choice of afterword at least suggests a movie connection. Don't Look Now has a well known movie adaptation. Death in Venice a lesser known European adaptation. Invisible Cities has an IMDB entry but is a 5000 dollar budget entry that may not exist, so seems unlikely by this criterion. Talented Mr. Ripley got a successful adaptation with Matt Damon so could be it.

>40 A.Godhelm: Don’t Look Now would be a dream.

My money would be on Don't Look Now, which would fit both the Venice theme and the movie/Flanagan connection. It is very short though, so I would imagine a treatment along the lines of Arete's Death and Honey or Benjamin Button - a heavily illustrated short story. The only other options people have mentioned can be eliminated I think: Death in Venice (illustrations too modern and should be in the Classics range anyway), The Talented Mr Ripley (Venice is only in the last few chapters if I remember correctly, so couldn't reasonably be described as 'almost like a character in the story', and Invisible Cities (illustrations don't really fit, nor does the tiny snippet of text we see next to one of the illustrations.

Is there any chance it might be Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers? (Edit: I suppose Venice isn’t almost a character, it isn’t even named.)

>41 Shotcaller: In Lyra’s case, do any of the numbered copies ever make it to the public release after the private pre-sale? I would love to get it if it's indeed "Don’t Look Now"...

>43 GusLogan: Possibly, but I think it's unlikely given the Flanagan connection and the fact that it's not author signed. Doesn't really strike me as a Lyra's pick either.

>44 drizzled: There will be some, as they'll produce more than the number of copies with rights. They'll most likely be sold via lottery.

>42 Levin40: It is, indeed, Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier. I checked the online text, and the snippets produced a definite match.

>46 supercell: Haha, good detective work! I wanted to do that but couldn't find a full free version online.

Today’s update from Rich:

Hi everyone,

There are a few exciting developments to share with you today! While more details are on the way, here’s a look at what’s coming up from both of our imprints.

Without further ado…

LYRA’S PRESS

Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier
The next title from our Lyra’s Press imprint will be Daphne du Maurier’s celebrated short story Don’t Look Now. This edition will feature:

21 illustrations, including 1 triple-page fold-out and 2 double-page spreads, by our friend, the award-winning publisher and artist, Leslie Gerry.
A newly commissioned afterword by acclaimed writer and director Mike Flanagan, known for his exceptional work in horror cinema.
Signatures from both Leslie and Mike on all copies.
Available in a Numbered edition of 275 copies and a Lettered edition of 26 copies only.
Our edition has the full and enthusiastic support of the du Maurier estate, including the author’s children. This will be the first time this story has been published as a standalone edition. We are proud to bring you this richly illustrated, hand-bound, letterpress edition – in a larger format than our previous titles.

We’re aiming to launch the sale in mid to late November, with delivery expected in the first quarter of 2026. The text pages are already printed and with us at the bindery, and Leslie has begun printing the colour images. We’ll start work on the binding of this title as soon as The Alchemist is delivered.

We will be sharing photos and edition details, including pricing, over the coming weeks.

LYRA’S CLASSICS

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Next up in our Lyra’s Classics imprint is a title that we have already announced. Carmilla is booked in for letterpress printing in January/February and we expect to put this title on sale shortly after the printing is completed. Again, the plan is to be well ahead on production before launching the sale. Our edition will include:

14 colour plates by Hugo award-winning illustrator Abigail Larson.
A newly commissioned afterword by author and academic Professor Roger Luckhurst.
Signatures from Abigail and Roger on all copies.
Available in a Numbered edition of 275 copies and a Lettered edition of 26 copies only.

Now is probably a good time to let you know what else is in the pipeline for the Classics imprint. We are currently working on editions of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It isn’t clear which will come first at this stage but these are the titles most likely to be released next. The first will likely be for sale in the latter half of 2026. We had hoped to release The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle by now but we have had to find another artist for this. It’s still going to happen – just quite a bit later than we had hoped!

EXPANSION OF NUMBERED RIGHTS

Lastly, an important update regarding our Numbered edition rights:

Beginning with the releases of Don’t Look Now (Lyra’s Press) and Carmilla (Lyra’s Classics), we’ll be increasing the number of rights copies from 150 to 200 across both imprints. This means there will be 50 additional rights copies available in each of the next two sales.

Thank you all for your continued interest and support. We’re incredibly excited about all of the above and can’t wait to share more details with you soon!

Cheers!

Rich

Some clear must-buys here. Exciting announcement.

>48 BorisG: Thanks for the info, I’ll be on the lookout for Don’t Look Now.

Still no date for Alchemist. I wonder if that’ll be in our hands by the end of the year.

>50 Nerevarine:
If you didn't see the post it seems like it'll be shipped within the next few weeks:
"We are getting close to shipping The Alchemist. If you have placed an order and since changed your address, please send me an email - contact@lyrasbooks.com

The Lettered and Numbered editions are totally done. We have about 100 Standards to finish, so Dulcie @mostlyflat and I are spending the weekend helping Freya @paperwilds to make the final few marbled sheets (I'm only washing them down and hanging them up to dry - I don't have the talent to actually marble them!)."

>51 AstulTheShepherd: Thanks, that was great news to read indeed.