It’s that time again! We have a new title coming for you this month as part of our Lyra’s Press imprint. This book has been three years in the making, so it is wonderful to finally share it with you all. I have been talking about it a bit and sharing photos on social media over the last couple of weeks but, to be absolutely clear and official, the title is…
THE ALCHEMIST
by
Paulo Coelho
First published in 1988, The Alchemist has gone on to become one of the best-selling books of all time. It is a beautiful little parable about a young Andalusian shepherd who goes on a remarkable journey, both physically and spiritually, in search of a hidden treasure at the Egyptian pyramids. Coelho’s blend of spirituality, magical realism and folklore has become a cultural and publishing phenomenon. Since its initial publication, it has gone on to be translated into 88 languages and has sold over 150 million copies worldwide. Across all of his titles, Coelho has sold a staggering 320 million copies.
We have teamed up with our old friend Gary Gianni once again. Many of you will remember his work from our previous edition of A Christmas Carol, as well as for Arete Editions’ The Case of Death and Honey (among lots of other amazing things). Gary has wanted to illustrate this book for many, many years and he’s really put his heart and soul into it! The work he has produced is just absolutely stunning. He has provided us with 10 full-page colour paintings and 14 full-page black ink line drawings. Many of these images spread across onto the page opposite and we also have a number of spot and half-page illustrations scattered throughout. This is only a short book so we have ended up with a very richly illustrated edition!
As always, Phil Abel at Hand and Eye will be letterpress printing the text and myself and our bindery – Ludlow Bookbinders – will be handling the hand binding of these editions.
THE BINDINGS
The Alchemist is presented in three editions – the Lettered, the Numbered and the Standard.
The Lettered edition is limited to 26 copies and is bradel bound with a leather spine and leather boards. The leather used is extremely high-quality goatskin from Harmatan’s ‘Finest’ range and Russell’s ‘Oasis’ range. The front and back boards feature cut outs, revealing hand marbled pyramids beneath. Endpapers are hand marbled and all three page edges are gilded. The book comes in a solander box which also contains a portfolio of signed and numbered prints. All copies of the book are signed by the author, as well as signed and remarqued by the artist. As always, our rights holders will be contacted first and will get the opportunity to purchase their copy before the books go on sale. Any copies not taken by current rights holders will be available by lottery only.
The Numbered edition is limited to 200 copies and is bradel bound with a goatskin leather spine and double panelled cloth boards. These copies have hand marbled endpapers by Freya, top edge gilding and a marbled cloth capped slipcase. All copies are signed by the author and artist. Copies numbered 1 – 150 are reserved for current Lyra’s Press rights holders who will be contacted first. After the rights holder period has ended, the remaining 50 copies, plus any not taken by rights holders, will be available by lottery only.
The Standard edition is limited to 500 copies in total and is quarter bound in cloth and marbled paper. All copies are signed by the artist. We have decided to split this edition into two colourways – Ochre and Gold. One version has an ochre cloth spine with a gold buckram slipcase (the Standard Ochre edition) and the other version has a gold buckram spine with an ochre cloth slipcase (the Standard Gold edition). Copies will be available by lottery and, should you be successful, you can make your choice of colour at the time of purchase. There will be NO live sale for this edition.
Please visit the Project Page as well as the Shop Page for more information on the editions.
THE SALE
Current Lyra’s Press rights holders will be contacted first regarding the Lettered and Numbered editions (see dates below). These are the customers who have rights carried forward from the sale of Coraline.
Rights holders currently have the rights to purchase all 26 Lettered edition copies.
Rights holders currently have the rights to purchase the first 150 copies of the Numbered edition (numbers 1-150). There will be a further 50 copies available for general sale which do not carry rights to future titles.
There will be lotteries for any Lettered copies that become available, and a lottery for any available rights copies (1-150) and non-rights copies (151-200) of the Numbered edition. If you are successful in the Numbered lottery, you will be informed as to whether your copy comes with rights to the next title or not before you make your purchase. If there are any books remaining after the lotteries, they will be placed for sale on the website.
Simultaneously, for the first time, there will also be a lottery for the Standard edition. There will be no live sale of this edition. The winning notification emails will go out a little later than the notifications for the Numbered and Lettered editions. This is a lot of invoicing so I need to space things out a little! You will be able to choose the colour you want at the time of purchase. There will be a limit of one copy per household in place. If we don’t sell all copies through the lottery then you will be able to buy what remains on the shop page and all limits will be removed.
Everyone who purchases a Lettered or Numbered edition will be given the opportunity to purchase ONE copy of the Standard edition at the same time. They may choose which colour they want at the time of ordering. This is how it has worked for the two previous Lyra’s Press titles, so this is how we will continue to do it.
Please visit the FAQ page for more info on how the rights system works across both of our imprints.
Rights holders will be emailed on Wednesday the 30th of October and will have until Sunday the 3rd of November to make their purchase(s).
The lottery form for the remaining Numbered copies (and potentially a lottery for any available Lettered copies) will open on the product pages in the shop at midday GMT on Monday the 4th of November and will be open for entries until midday GMT on Wednesday the 6th of November. The lottery for the Standard edition will open at the same time as the lottery for the Numbered and Lettered editions, but I will send out the winning emails AFTER I have done the majority of sales for the other two editions.
For more detailed information on how each individual edition will be sold, please visit the appropriate product page in our Shop and scroll down to the ‘Pre-Order Details’ section.
Please note that all times given here are GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).
To recap, here are the dates for the sale of The Alchemist –
- Wednesday 30th October – rights holder emails go out
- Sunday 3rd November – rights holder period ends
- Monday 4th November at 12pm GMT – lottery forms for all available editions open on the website
- Wednesday 6th November at 12pm GMT – lottery forms close for all available editions on the website
- Thursday 7th November – lottery winner emails go out for Lettered (if any) and Numbered editions
- Week beginning Monday 11th November – lottery winner emails go out for Standard edition
As ever, please bear with me over the next few weeks! All of the emailing and manual invoicing will be done by myself only so I will be very, very busy. I’ll go as quickly as I can, I promise!
Cheers!
Rich
