Turmoil in the House

I just returned home from a July 4 weekend spent with my brother in Portland, Oregon, to find news about a surprise business development at Wisconsin-based publisher Bleak House Books:

Ben LeRoy and Alison Janssen announced today that they will leave their positions at Bleak House Books (a division of Big Earth Publishing) and begin a new venture, Tyrus Books.

LeRoy began publishing crime and literary fiction in 2001, with John Galligan’s Red Sky, Red Dragonfly. Titles bearing the Bleak House banner started in 2003, and to date, the company has published over fifty titles. In 2005, Bleak House Books was acquired by Big Earth Publishing, a “family of independent publishers.”

With LeRoy and Janssen at the helm, Bleak House Books titles have garnered much critical attention and praise, including seven starred reviews in trade publications, inclusion on several “Best of the Year” lists, and over a dozen nominations for prestigious awards in the mystery community. In 2008, three Bleak House titles were named finalists for the Edgar® Awards--a first for a small, independent press.

On its Web site, Tyrus says it expects to launch its first set of new titles in August. Three forthcoming books are already being advertised: Silver Lake, by Peter Gadol; Double Exposure, by Michael Lister; and Beyond the Dark and the Daylight, edited by Ed Gorman and Martin Greenberg.

Of the new venture, Janssen has been quoted as saying: “We’ll of course be sticking with what we know: tight, affecting, honest fiction dealing with crime and its repercussions. I’ll always be interested in stories of men and women making mistakes, and seeking redemption in some form or another. Our name is changing, but our commitment to quality storytelling remains the same.”

LeRoy (who, in 1995, co-founded what would become Bleak House) and Janssen (who joined Bleak House in 2003) have shepherded to print books by several well-recognized authors in the crime-fiction field, including Reed Farrel Coleman, Jennifer Jordan, Craig McDonald, and Anthony Neil Smith. This publishing pair seem to have worked very well together, earning plaudits from a number of their authors. And when LeRoy was nominated earlier this year for a Spinetingler Award in the Best Editor category, a post in the Bleak House blog remarked:

It says “Ben LeRoy of Bleak House” but really, anybody who knows a thing about this company knows that nothing gets done (or done well, at least) without the hard work and genius of Alison. She’s the one who works with the great Bleak House authors to polish the books, while Ben plays solitaire and goes golfing. A vote for one is a vote for both (but secretly a bigger vote for Alison).

More information about LeRoy and Janssen can be found here.

We look forward to receiving more news about the future plans of both Tyrus and Bleak House.

UPDATE: After receiving word of these departures, blogger-critic Sarah Weinman fired off a few questions to Ben LeRoy, among them being this one:

What happens to the Bleak House backlist--is it staying with Big Earth, or coming with you both?

The Bleak House backlist will stay with Big Earth. Titles will continue to be available for order from Big Earth/Bleak House. We’re very proud of those books and authors and have left them in good hands. BE/BH will continue to publish books, including Libby Fischer Hellmann’s Doubleback, Victoria Houston’s Dead Renegade, Mark Coggins’ The Big Wake-up, and Randall Peffer’s Seahawk Hunting.

Read all of Weinman’s short interview with LeRoy here.

READ MORE: “Bleak House Moving Forward as Founder Moves On,” by Claire Kirch (Publishers Weekly); “Bleak House Founder, Editor Start New Firm,” by Doug Moe (Wisconsin State Journal).