Last week, Publishers Weekly reported that Skyhorse Publishing will pay cash to acquire backlist books from publishers with financial issues.
Skyhorse acquired the assets of Arcade Publishing in July. The company paid $548,000 at auction, adding works by Octavio Paz, Samuel Beckett and Elie Wiesel to their list. According to Publishers Weekly, Skyhorse has acted similarly in acquiring the authors of Allworth Press and Sports Publishing.
In an interview with Publishers Weekly, publisher Tony Lyons explained: “It’s a very tough publishing environment at this time. We feel that bankruptcy is inefficient for everyone involved. The rise of e-books and the demise of Borders have rocked the publishing world. So we hope this program will help vendors get paid and allow publishers to continue operating.”