Skyhorse Publishing has announced an unusual program under which it will pay cash to acquire the backlist of publishers with cash flow problems. Skyhorse sees the program as a way to help struggling publishers deal with cash flow issues while adding more titles to Skyhorse's list. Price will be determined by a title's average net sales for the current year and the prior three years. Interested publishers would be required to assign the original author contract for each individual title over to Skyhorse and would immediately receive payment.
In 2010, Skyhorse acquired three publishers, Allworth Press, Sports Publishing, and Arcade Publishing, the latter two of which were bankrupt.
“It’s a very tough publishing environment at this time,” said Tony Lyons, publisher of Skyhorse. "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.”
