Bleak House Books is an imprint of Big Earth Publishing. Before being acquired by Big Earth in 2005, Bleak House began as an independent publisher, releasing its first book in 2001. Bleak House is a publisher of hardboiled

Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...

/noir books with real type protagonists, focusing more upon the people in them and the way they live in the world.

Bleak House Books also keeps a blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 and produces podcasts in which various authors and other members of the publishing community are interviewed.

Apart from publishing the majority of its books simultaneously, available upon publication date in both hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

 and paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

, Bleak House Books also releases a limited collector's edition option called the Evidence Collection which includes:

• a police booking sheet complete with the author’s vital information
• signature
• fingerprint
• date
• colored endsheet
• number (1-100)

Prizes and Awards

2008 Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 Nominees

Best Novel: Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman

Best First Novel by an American Author:Head Games by Craig McDonald

Best Short Story: "Blue Note" from Chicago Blues by Stuart Kaminsky

Recent Press

Bleak House Scores With Edgars, Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

"To nobody's surprise, when the Mystery Writers of America announced the finalists for the 2008 Edgar Awards last week titles from the large New York houses dominated the eight (out of a total of 13) categories dealing with books. But one small Wisconsin press is more than holding its own among the 35 books and five short stories selected as this year's Edgar Awards nominees. Three of the 15 titles released this past year by Bleak House Books in Madison, an imprint of Big Earth Books, have been nominated for 2008 Edgar Awards in three different categories: Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman (Best Novel), Head Games by Craig McDonald (Best First Novel), and "Blue Note" by Stuart M. Kaminsky from the Chicago Blues collection (Best Short Story)..."

External links