Skyhorse Publishing

Skyhorse Publishing is a fast-growing independent publisher. Founded in 2006, it is devoted to publishing books that make people’s lives better, whether that means teaching them a hobby, bringing them a unique and important story, or encouraging them to fight against injustices, conspiracies, or abuses of power.

Founder Tony Lyons, an attorney, has built the company from a small team into an increasingly prominent midsize publisher. He is also a prolific author, with forty-six New York Times bestsellers to his name.

About Skyhorse Publishing

Skyhorse Publishing was founded in 2006 and has become one of the fastest-growing independent book publishers in the United States. The company publishes books in a variety of genres including outdoor sports, adventure, team sports, nature and country living, politics, true crime, humor and literary works.

The publisher has published 48 New York Times bestsellers over the last ten years. Some of its popular authors include Alan Dershowitz, Julian Lennon, Jesse Ventura, Malcolm Nance, Elizabeth Cobbs and Richard Belzer.

A new Vanity Fair article by Keziah Weir brings up more than just the company’s roster of political unsavories: Skyhorse is also home to a toxic workplace culture that may be due for its own reckoning. In interviews with 22 current and former staff members across editorial, publicity, marketing, and HR departments, Weir reports that Skyhorse has long been known for a lack of diversity within the company and its training methods are hardly enlightened.

As part of an effort to unionize the company, employees filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in June 2017, but the campaign was short-lived and ended with a vote of 18 in favor to 28 against. In the months following, several pro-union staff members reported that their accounts were hacked and they received unauthorized access to their personal emails and bank accounts from Skyhorse’s IP address.

During the union process, some of the company’s management, including CEO Tony Lyons, stepped in to help organize the effort and provide training for employees. But despite the presence of a full-time human resources director, a number of Skyhorse’s current and former employees have described harassment and discrimination by management and staff, particularly when involving employees’ families.

In addition, a number of employees have complained that management has been dismissive when it comes to their work. One former editorial assistant said she was told that her reviews of books were not good enough to be published because of a lack of quality control. Others have alleged that they were not given enough time to write reviews and that they have been required to do so in the absence of a formal review process.

Skyhorse’s Imprints

Skyhorse has more than twelve imprints, including Allworth Press, Arcade, Carrel Books, Clydesdale, Gary Null Publishing, Good Books, Helios Press, Night Shade Books, Not For Tourists, Sports Publishing, and Sky Pony Press. Their titles cover a wide variety of subjects, from country living to history, reference, travel, health, art, business, religion, politics, investigative and conspiracy books, to fiction, literary nonfiction, science fiction, fantasy, and children’s literature.

In the midtown Manhattan headquarters of Skyhorse, which is known for its eclectic and maverick list of titles, there are a lot of cool things to see, like books lined up on the floor and even in cubicles. There are also paintings by Mari Lyons, the publisher’s mother (and a fine painter herself), who is influenced by Max Beckman and Cezanne.

Another thing to see is the fast-paced, incredibly organized publishing operation at Skyhorse. In a recent interview with Publishers Weekly, Lyons described his company as a "pod," and each of its six editorial divisions -- Racehorse, Sports & Outdoors, Cooking & Lifestyle, History/Politics/Reference, Fiction/Literary Nonfiction, and Sky Pony Press -- is run by a pod head.

This streamlined process helps authors get their titles to readers, as well as keep the book’s production costs down. Terry Goodkind’s science fantasy thriller Nest, for instance, was published in a record turnaround of just 48 hours, according to Skyhorse. And a recent publicity effort for Roger Stone’s The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution, which had an initial print run of 200,000 copies, was launched when a protest at Trump Tower was reported in early 2017.

These quick turnarounds are one reason why some authors are drawn to Skyhorse. In 2017, for example, bestselling science fiction writer Terry Goodkind pitched his contemporary paranormal thriller, The Nest, to Skyhorse. He expected it would take months to be published at other publishers, but his contract was signed in just a few days.

Other authors, including Wilson Casey and Malcolm Nance, have similarly experienced swifter turns. Casey’s book 101 Reasons to Vote for Hillary and Nance’s The Plot to Hack America - How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election both hit the shelves in less than two weeks.

Skyhorse’s Authors

The name Skyhorse conjures up images of the outdoors, with a focus on fly fishing and hiking guides. But the company also has a diverse library of books in outdoor sports, team sports, nature, country living, politics and true crime.

In the last year, Skyhorse has published a string of controversial books. Its latest slate includes a Woody Allen memoir that Hachette imprint Grand Central Publishing dropped after a staff walkout, a Philip Roth biography withdrawn by W.W. Norton after a series of allegations about author Blake Bailey, and a Norman Mailer anthology that Random House declined.

Amid these controversies, one of the most intriguing aspects of Skyhorse’s approach to book publishing is its willingness to sign up authors the mainstream industry has distanced itself from. Those include authors whose work is not necessarily the best or most accessible to mainstream audiences but are nevertheless regarded as important to American literature and culture, such as Woody Allen, Blake Bailey and Garrison Keillor.

These authors, whose books are often viewed as inflammatory or out of step with contemporary society, have been portrayed by the company in public media, primarily via interviews with Skyhorse executives and staffers who have worked at the company. Those interviews, combined with emails and former and current employees’ written testimonies, reveal some of the challenges facing a company that is committed to publishing an aggressive number of books while keeping a small staff.

One staff member, who declined to be named, says a key challenge is how to train new editorial assistants who have little or no experience working in the publishing world. She says training techniques tend to be a hamster wheel: new employees are given a series of tasks to perform. For instance, an editorial assistant may be expected to acquire a certain number of books each year, which they have to turn around and edit before they can move on to other tasks.

Another staff member, who has worked at Skyhorse for two years, recalls that she and other editorial assistants were given a list of books to promote that were assigned by management based on which ones were selling well and which ones might sell poorly. This, she explains, is an “ineffective way to promote books.”

Other staff members say that it is hard to determine what kinds of books are best to publish because many of the most successful ones have already been published by other companies. They also have to deal with authors who are not able to negotiate their contracts, and they have to make decisions about whether to continue or end an author’s relationship with Skyhorse.

Skyhorse’s Marketing

Skyhorse Publishing has a diverse roster of books and imprints. It publishes books in genres such as outdoor sports, adventure, team sports, nature and country living, politics, true crime, humor, and literary works. It also publishes fiction and nonfiction, including children’s titles.

Founded in 2006, Skyhorse Publishing has published 48 New York Times best sellers and is one of the largest independent publishers in the US. Its books have been translated into multiple languages and are available in more than 150 countries.

The company has 14 imprints, including Hot Books, Racehorse Publishing, Allworth Press, Arcade Publishing, Good Books, Sky Pony Press and Talos Press. The company is also a major distributor and sells its books in all major bookstore chains.

In recent years, Skyhorse has been struggling with workplace toxicity and inappropriate behavior from some of its authors. The publisher has been accused of sexism, workplace harassment, and more, and employees have criticized the company’s emphasis on quantity over quality.

Employees have said they were given books to read and pushed to buy more than 100 per season, often with no guidance on what to look for. They say that editorial assistants were told to take on their own books without any help from management, and that publicity and marketing assistants were given more than 100 books per year.

Some staff members believe that the company’s emphasis on quantity over quality led to a high rate of burnout among the employees. They also argue that the company’s all-white, all-male management has made it more difficult for women to advance in the organization.

The company has also been embroiled in labor disputes. In October 2017, a group of 12 pro-union employees filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, calling for a union at Skyhorse. The petition was rejected by the Board, but pro-union employees say they were disproportionately targeted for layoffs.

On the company’s Glassdoor page, there are a number of one-star reviews. These comments cite an emphasis on quantity over quality, sexism and harassment, and burnout.

While many of the company’s books are reissues, they do occasionally reprint well-known authors with controversial stances. Roger Stone, for example, was convicted of obstruction of justice and witness tampering before his book was reprinted by Skyhorse in 2019. The book was also accused of containing inaccurate information.