Hot Books will feature “fearless authors” on the most burning topics
Tony Lyons, president of Skyhorse Publishing, and David Talbot, the founder of Salon, announced a partnership today to launch Hot Books, a new Skyhorse book imprint that will publish investigative books on controversial issues. Skyhorse will be joining with Salon to create a co-branded digital platform for Hot Books.
Hot Books will seek to ignite national debate on the most urgent problems facing the country, filling the investigative gap left by newspapers and magazines as they cut their budgets for in-depth reporting. Hot Books will feature prominent authors, as well as up and coming literary voices – writers who are not only experts in their fields, but courageous when it comes to exploring the flammable subjects that much of the media avoids.
“I’m thrilled to be co-creating Hot Books with Skyhorse and Salon,” said David Talbot. “I founded Salon in 1995 to be a platform for bold, independent journalism. As corporate constraints and political taboos make it increasingly difficult for reporters to dig deeply into highly sensitive issues, we hope Hot Books will become an important new launch pad for fearless authors.”
Tony Lyons stated, “In a world where those who question the orthodoxy of corporate America are vilified in the mainstream media and persecuted by the government, the book industry is one of the last bastions of hope for whistleblowers and investigative journalists. I’m proud to join David Talbot in leading the Hot Books imprint, a venue free from censorship, where authors can present their alternative ideas.”
“Hot Books and Skyhorse are publishing essential voices on essential topics, and Salon is very excited to partner with them and to help amplify this important work,” said Salon Editor-in-Chief David Daley. “We believe in books and we believe that the most important journalism involves the ideas others are too afraid to approach. It’s a perfect partnership.”
Salon will feature Hot Books content – including book excerpts, investigative scoops and author interviews — on a co-branded web landing page, and will spotlight Hot Books items on Salon’s Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
Among the forthcoming Hot Books titles are:
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Dick Russell. An intimate look at the energy industry moguls and leading politicians who are responsible for blocking climate change progress – and how they explain themselves to their own children.
- American Nuremberg, by Rebecca Gordon, professor of philosophy at the University of San Francisco and author of Mainstreaming Torture. An indictment of the U.S. officials who should stand trial for post-9/11 war crimes.
- The Beastside: Living (and Dying) While Black in America, by D. Watkins, a rising Baltimore writer and commentator who has been featured in The New York Times and Salon, and on NBC’s Meet the Press and National Public Radio. Searing dispatches from the urban zones where African-American men have become an endangered species.
- Spooking the News, by Nick Schou, author of Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb (made into a recent movie starring Jeremy Renner). An eye-opening report on how U.S. intelligence agencies manipulate journalists and spin the news.
- Bravehearts, by Mark Hertsgaard, renowned investigative journalist and author of Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth. Powerful portraits of five whisteblowers who risked everything to warn the public about official abuses in national security, consumer health and environmental agencies – and the terrible prices they paid for their courage.
The Beastside, which will be published in August, will be the first Hot Book title to appear. The other Hot Books are scheduled for Spring 2016. Each book will be relatively short (around 40,000 words) and will be distinguished by its in-depth reporting, strong literary voice and point of view.
Krishan Trotman, Skyhorse Senior Editor, will be working closely with David Talbot to launch the Hot Books imprint.
David Talbot is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Salon, the pioneering online publication. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years and The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government, which will be published in October by HarperCollins.
Tony Lyons is the founder of Skyhorse Publishing and the former publisher of The Lyons Press. He is also an attorney and the co-author of The Writer’s Legal Guide.