When independent press Skyhorse Publishing announced in April that it would launch an imprint under the direction of conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, it confirmed some editors’ fears that extremist voices were taking over the conservative publishing space.

Eric Nelson, executive editor at Harper and VP and publisher of Broadside, had been among the first to warn about far-right books gaining traction. In 2021 he expressed concern at a U.S. Book Show panel that large publishers were inadvertently driving conservative authors to fringe publishers by deplatforming them. That same year, Carlson was published by Simon & Schuster, whom he derided as a “censor” in his book’s opening pages.

Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons is known for publishing controversial titles, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2021 bestseller The Real Anthony Fauci, Woody Allen’s 2020 memoir Apropos of Nothing, and, most recently, a biography of J.K. Rowling by a 22-year-old historian named Solomon Schmidt. Lyons says he’s drawn to Carlson’s contrarianism, rather than his particular beliefs, adding that the pundit, who earlier this year interviewed white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast, shares his affinity for “people who have really provocative ideas.”

Lyons also doesn’t define Skyhorse as a conservative publisher. “If readers have a healthy level of skepticism and curiosity, if they question authority, then they clearly believe that there’s something to learn,” he says. Skyhorse readers should be “excited about the things that they don’t know. And that’s not conservative or liberal, that’s having a healthy level of intellectual curiosity.”

But Skyhorse’s no-holds-barred approach to free speech is far from the only spirit animating today’s political publishing landscape.

Across the Big Five and beyond, right-of-center publishers are trying to forge a path forward for “serious” conservative nonfiction, in the words of Thomas Spence, editor of Hachette’s new Basic Liberty imprint. Spence cites Regnery—the storied house that was founded in 1947 and made its name with authors like William F. Buckley and George Gilder—as inspiration for its model of publishing conservative books with academic appeal, rather than titles motivated only by partisan politics. Currently, he has authors working on books for the imprint about “why experts fail,” “the managerial regime,” the politics of technology, and postliberalism, he tells PW.

The growth of the far right has led many conservative imprints to prioritize the most outspoken authors, however. Spence notes that even Regnery was forced to change over the years, putting out an increasing number of “red meat” books—titles offering provocative, partisan perspectives on current events, including Ted Cruz’s Unwoke: How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America and Rand Paul’s Deception: The Great Covid Cover-Up. Regnery was then acquired by Skyhorse in late 2023.

Currently, each of the Big Five except Macmillan has at least one imprint devoted to conservative-leaning nonfiction. Penguin Random House’s Sentinel was founded in 2003, Simon & Schuster’s Threshold Editions was launched in 2006, and Hachette’s Basic Liberty debuted in 2024, joining its preexisting Center Street imprint. HarperCollins—whose parent company, News Corp, is owned by Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch—has Broadside Books, which launched in 2010, and assists with Fox News’ book publishing program.

According to Nelson, dedicated conservative imprints emerged because corporate publishing wanted to sell books written by polarizing pundits without harming their larger brands.

The advent of BookScan galvanized this shift. “Everyone could suddenly see how many copies of books were selling,” he says. “It overturned this assumption that red state readers are illiterate or lack access to bookstores.”

These imprints have largely stayed true to their original purpose: to sell books by and about people red state voters care about. Among some recent popular titles from across the Big Five are Trump’s Triumph: America’s Greatest Comeback by Newt Gingrich (Center Street) and How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will by Sen. John Kennedy (Broadside). Sentinel, whose frontlist is the leanest, offers such titles as Allie Beth Stuckey’s Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.

As these titles suggest, conservative publishing, both corporate and indie, has thrived by leaning into its contrarianism in a liberal industry.

“Conservative publishing as a whole tends to work better when conservatives are out of power and Democrats and liberals are in power,” says Keith Urbahn, president and founding partner of D.C.-based literary agency Javelin. “There’s more energy on the outside.”

But since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, conservative publishers have felt free to explore new models, given the weakness of the Democratic establishment and relative cultural and political strength of red America. Urbahn cites the proliferation of titles about faith and “metaphysical understanding” as one direction the space is moving in. Broadside offers a strong example of this in its publishing partnership with Fox News Books, which has become known for conservative Christian titles like Shannon Bream’s Women of the Bible Speak.

Urbahn is also banking on books that cater to the interests of right-leaning readers but offer a nonpartisan “framework of understanding” of the political moment. Javelin represented several authors whose books in this vein are publishing in the lead-up to America 250. In many cases, as with Ballantine’s recent We the Women: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America by Norah O’Donnell and Kate Andersen Brower, Big Five imprints that aren’t strictly conservative are picking up the rights.

Urbahn added that humor is a much larger factor for success than it used to be—John Kennedy’s recent book, for instance, “rode a wave of viral clips” of the senator’s sometimes outlandish comments on Capitol Hill.

The nostalgia for the conservative publishing ecosystem fostered decades ago by Regnery, among editors like Spence and Nelson, is the other prevailing force. However, it’s unclear whether such a model is possible anymore. Urbahn says conservative factionalism has made it more difficult for authors to appeal to a broad swath of the right.

Perhaps even more importantly, publishing is becoming more tolerant of the types of controversial figures who, at one point, may have had trouble getting in the door. In 2017, employee walkouts and protests forced Simon & Schuster to cancel a book deal with Breitbart pundit Milo Yiannopoulos—whom Carlson has said he’s now planning to publish at Skyhorse. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault, now reportedly has a memoir deal with Center Street—which might have sparked serious pushback in the #MeToo days.

For Urbahn, corporate publishing’s more inclusive approach to conservative voices in recent years has been unmistakable. Historically, he says, “conservatives have had a case of double standards, and more barriers to publishing than folks on the left. I am less convinced that that’s true today.”