Hi everyone,
It’s been almost half a year since I had to last sit down and write one of these emails, so we managed quite a while. Since the last time, we’ve had the release of our special editions of The Incandescent by Emily Tesh, An Education in Malice by S.T Gibson, Immortal Game by Allison Saft, Botanical Horror Sets by C.G Drews and An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole.
Not only have we released quite a few special editions, we’ve also had our Summer Merch Drop and are anticipating that our Autumn Merch drop will launch later this month! We’ve even been able to hire three new team members who are doing an amazing job and working in our warehouse.
But, as you all know, I don’t often sit down to write these newsletters unless Meg is on holiday or if we’ve been given not particularly great news by printers or publishers. Unfortunately, today is the latter. Please be assured that, as usual, we’ve already spoken as a team about all of these elements and have made plans on how to manage these delays which I’ll detail below.
Publishing is a peculiar industry, often moving incredibly slowly when you don’t want it to and then speeding past you at times when you’d appreciate it going a little slower. However, with each year we’re in the business, LitPins are learning, and we’re already making plans for 2027 to prevent any disappointment with delays by factoring time between our estimated delivery dates and when our announced shipping date is. We’re hoping this will allow us more time to account for possible delivery delays without having to disappoint you all and provide the team adequate time for quality checking as well.
Now, before I get into each of the remaining special editions we’re due to release, a quick note regarding two relevant things that have played a part in the delays.
Firstly, the EU has implemented yet another rule and piece of legislation for paperwork we’re required to supply in order to ship into the EU. Needless to say, we weren’t informed fully about the extent of the paperwork needed until the legislation came into effect. This means we have a temporary pause on EU shipping for the next week or two while we finalise the relevant paperwork. If you’re based in the EU, please be assured your order won’t be cancelled and we’re more than happy to hold it until we can ship again.
Secondly, did you know in the UK that there are two printers that handle the majority of the UK publishing printings for books - not just special editions but every single book? If you’re thinking that that seems like a disaster waiting to happen then you’d be correct, and we’ve been informed that some of the delays we’re experiencing in receiving stock is due to machine breakdowns which has prevented books from being printed. From what we understand, repairs have been made and the printers are back up and running but they are behind schedule and obviously are focusing on fulfilling the larger orders first before smaller orders. As our print runs are a lot smaller than others, it has meant we’re a little further back in the queue than we’d like, but these things happen and we hope you all understand that there’s nothing to do to change this.
Now, it’s time to buckle in because I have a LOT of information to share and as always, we want to be as transparent as possible and provide the full explanation on what is going on behind the scenes.
Unsigned Botanical Horror CG Drews Sets
With the delivery of the Botanical Horror sets, the entire team forgot the amount of time quality checking slipcases by hand can add to the quality checking process… Combine this with the first lot of EU regulations which meant that we weren’t able to ship anything to the EU for a while and had a whole mountain of paperwork to complete, it ended up not being until mid-October we’d managed to ship out all of the signed sets! Thankfully, they have all now been shipped which has allowed us to count our overstock of signed sets.
We have about 150ish signed sets of A and B grade quality, so currently myself and Lizzie are going through those who ordered unsigned sets to offer an upgrade to signed. As we’re doing these in small batches to ensure that we don’t over-upgrade, it has caused a delay in the unsigned sets going out and I do apologise for this. But we are getting there and with each confirmed upgrade we’re having those shipped out as soon as possible. If all goes to plan, I should have managed to offer 150 upgrades within the next week, depending on if people take them or not.
However, if you have ordered an unsigned set and are content with the unsigned set please feel free to reply back to this email and let us know - this will mean we can take you off the list to be contacted allowing us to get your order out sooner.
If all goes to plan, by the end of this month all orders should be shipped and we want to thank everyone for their patience. Working on this set has been an absolute joy and working with CG Drews has been incredible but it’s also been a fantastic opportunity to learn and identify that we needed more people to join our team, and we now have three wonderful team members who will be assisting with quality checking going forward so delays during this part of the process will be dramatically reduced.
A Market of Dreams and Destiny Special Edition
From file corruption issues to misprints during the mock up and testing phase, to the printers breaking down just as these were meant to go to print, this edition has certainly had its fair share of problems… A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey has been one of two projects significantly impacted by issues with printers despite the design aspect of the project going quite smoothly.
However, we are pleased to say that we’ve been informed that these are now in print, and we’re due to have them delivered around the 20th of November. As always, we quality check every book by hand before dispatching them but we’re hoping with the new team members, we’ll be able to quality check and get orders shipped out by the end of the month.
Lizzie and I will be sending out address checks in the next few weeks for this edition. We’ll also offer you a chance to claim a number for the edition and add other items to your order so that you can save on shipping costs as well as providing a sneak peak at some of the new merch coming to our site later this month.
Vicious Reprint, and Signed and Unsigned Vengeful Special Editions
Another set of editions that were caught up in the mock-up failing and machines breaking stage… Unfortunately, we’ve only been made aware of these situations which is why we weren’t able to share sooner. However, we now have a delivery date of the 30th of November!
Admittedly, it’s not as soon as we’d like given we were meant to have these editions in hand in September but we’ll take it. We’re also going to add 100 bonus points to everyone’s accounts who had ordered these books to apologise for the delay but we’re hoping to have all these orders shipped during the start of December.
Lizzie and I will be in touch shortly for address checks, and we’ll be showcasing the new merchandise for Vengeful and offering the chance to add them to your order if you didn’t purchase the collector’s box, along with any other items from the shop!
We’ll also be asking if you’re on the waitlist for the Vicious reprint but have purchased Vengeful to let us know, as in this case we can hold back your order in case of overstock so that, if offered, they can be shipped together for you.
And, if you ordered a signed Vengeful and had purchased our original printing of Vicious all the way back in 2024, you’ll be able to confirm the number copy you received and we’ll do our best to make sure that you receive the same numbered copy of Vengeful.
Scorpion Deep By C.G Drews Special Edition
Remember the mention of the printers breaking…? Yep, well unfortunately Scorpion Deep got caught in the chaos which means we’re no longer due to receive our stock on the 15th of November but it will now be delivered the 10th of December! We’re aware that this is close to Christmas, which means that with the postal systems being overloaded that there could still be some delays and we are so sorry about this. We have asked to be put in line for an earlier slot if possible but it is a waiting game, if not we will get the stock in December.
Our plans are to have the whole team come down to HQ to assist Roshni, Bertie, Jamie and the warehouse assistants in numbering and grading as quickly as we can and getting your orders out to you as soon as we physically can.
Lizzie and I will be in touch over the next few weeks for address check confirmations, and again we’ll be offering the chance to add any items from the new merch drop to the shipping of your order. If you’d purchased a numbered set of the Botanical Horror, we’ll also confirm which number you got and attempt to provide the same for Scorpion Deep.
We’ll also be asking if those of you who purchased unsigned stock are happy with unsigned as we may have some overstock of signed but won’t know the precise amount until quality checking is completed. If you are happy with unsigned and do not want to wait to see if you might be offered a signed copy upgrade, as it isn’t a guarantee, and are happy with just receiving your unsigned copy then also let us know as we’ll mark you down on the system for your order to go out ASAP!
Tomes and Tea Special Edition Set
The final casualty of delays is our Tomes and Tea special edition set by Rebecca Thorne and unfortunately, due to the time of year with Christmas and delays with the printers themselves, our printing slot has been moved to the end of January which means we won’t receive these books in our warehouse till mid-February.
We can only apologise for this, but hope everyone understands. We do have some proof of life though, as we have seen the trial print of the sprayed edges and they are looking divine! We can’t wait to have the finished copies in hand, and we’ve also been offered the chance to trial anti-scuff on the printed covers for this set to make it less likely to be scratched when reading. It’s very exciting stuff and as soon as we have the delivery date for Tomes and Tea, we’ll be shouting it from the rooftops.
Artemis Fowl Legacy Edition Set
We’ve been informed that Artemis Fowl is still on track with the printers and will be delivered to us just before Christmas! As many who have known us for a while will remember, we do tend to shut down operations between the 15th of December and 15th of January to allow the team time with friends and family during the festive period whilst also catching up on all the backlog and admin work that often gets forgotten about.
However, once back in the warehouse, the team will be quality checking as quick as they can and we aim to get all sets dispatched by the end of January. Keep your eyes peeled in your inboxes when we return on the 15th of January as Hannah and Lizzie will be doing the usual address checks and offering the chance to add to the order to help save on the shipping costs.
*Deep sigh of relief*
Well, that’s all the shipping updates, unless I’ve forgotten something but if I have I’m sure that Meg will have let me know and corrected anything missed. We do want to say from all of us at LitPins&Co that we are so sorry for these delays - we’re just as frustrated as all of you but will endeavour to keep everyone up to date with information as we receive it.
We also want to thank everyone for a brilliant 2026 and for all the love and support we’ve received, from old and new customers, none of us would be where we are today without you all, so thank you.
Hannah
Chief Operations Officer
