Tucker Carlson to launch publishing imprint with books by Russell Brand and Milo Yiannopoulos

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is set to launch his own imprint and publish books by the likes of Russell Brand and “alt-right” commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.The imprint, Tucker Carlson Books, will be part of the US-based publisher Skyhorse. “I think most people don’t read books anymore because they’re too absorbed in all the other available media,” said Carlson, according to the Wall Street Journal. He added that those who do “tend to be disproportionately influential in policy conversations and conversations about ideas”.Among the titles set to be published by Carlson’s imprint is Brand’s How to Become a Christian in Seven Days, described by Skyhorse as a “testimony and guide to a timeless, yet zeitgeist-capturing, grounded, yet psychedelic encounter with Christ”.The former BBC radio host turned influencer is currently facing charges of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault in the UK, to all of which he has pleaded not guilty.Carlson’s imprint will give “a platform to things that would, in many cases, be shut down, be censored, and be covered over by propaganda”, said Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons. Carlson said Lyons is “just looking for books that nobody else will publish”.Carlson, a former Trump supporter and promoter of right-wing conspiracy theories, was reportedly fired from Fox News in 2023. He soon launched his own media company, Tucker Carlson Network. The imprint is being launched in partnership with the network.Carlson’s imprint will also publish Yiannopoulos’s book, Ex Gay. Yiannopoulos has previously been shunned by publishers, with one insider calling his 2017 memoir, Dangerous, a “toxic book”. Its publication was subsequently cancelled by Simon & Schuster after footage surfaced in which he made comments that appeared to condone sex between adult men and underage boys. Yiannopoulos denied endorsing child abuse and said the video had been “selectively edited”.Previous publications by Skyhorse have included Woody Allen’s memoir Apropos of Nothing, and US secretary of health and anti-vaccine activist Robert F Kennedy Jr’s The Real Anthony Fauci. The publisher, which is distributed by Simon & Schuster, launched in 2006. On its website, it claims to be one of the fastest-growing independent book publishers in the US.Existing imprints include Good Books – which it says focuses on cookbooks, country living titles, craft books, Amish and other Christian titles, justice and peace-building – and War Room Books, which published Trump’s Time to Get Tough in 2024.