Black Bed Sheet Books publishes horror, and science fiction & fantasy, and have been publishing since 2008. Their primary focus is horror. They were founded and are still run by Nicholas Grabowsky, a horror writer. You can learn more about the publisher here, but sections of that page appear to be fairly out of date, so please take that into consideration. According to the masthead and distribution information, they do work with a fair number of editors and they have some international distribution. They do their own wholesale work within North America.
The website in general is overwhelming, poorly organized, and appears to be haphazardly updated. There is a fair amount of contradictory information on the site along with some misspelling. Their covers are very genre-appropriate though, which is always a good sign, and the website is focused on recruiting readers.
Part of the less than ideal website organization is that it is hard to figure out which books were most recently released. Their header at the time of this update says: “Spring releases are hopping out in a plethora of thrilling new releases and special sales you’ll only find direct from this publisher!”, but many books listed under that were published a long time ago (although it is clear they are still currently active because I was able to find at least one book published in 2024). They do helpfully list the publication date on the sales page.
I had a hard time getting a feel for how well books had sold, and the few I looked up elsewhere didn’t seem to have many reviews, but that might have just been the luck of the draw. Horror is not a genre I am particularly knowledgeable about.
On their submission page they say that they are accepting submissions for publication in late 2024 and beyond, which is a quick turnaround time, and doesn’t seem to align with much editing. On their about page they say they usually publish books up to one year after acceptance, with an average of 6-8 months. They are open to full-length novels, novellas, short story collections and horror genre related work, but are also open to science fiction, fantasy, and urban fantasy. They are open to young adult work, and thrillers, anything that leans toward dark.
The only thing they disclose about their contract, they share on their about page, and it is that their contracts “average of 15% royalty on wholesale price for print books, 18%-50% on ebooks”.
They are accepting shorter work for their ebook-only lines. They try to respond to submissions within 9 months. They receive an average of 2,500 submissions a year.
They ask that authors query first via email. To learn more, go here.
Emily Harstone is the author of many popular books, including The Authors Publish Guide to Manuscript Submissions, Submit, Publish, Repeat, and The 2024 Guide to Manuscript Publishers. She regularly teaches three acclaimed courses on writing and publishing at The Writer’s Workshop at Authors Publish. You can follow her on Facebook here.
