Nicole Brown Simpson

One year ago, New York-based Beaufort Books was a small, independent, relatively unknown publisher working to reinvent itself after years of inactivity. By summer, it was caught in the middle of the media firestorm that is O.J. Simpson—catapulted to national recognition and the top of the New York Times Best-Seller List. Its newfound notoriety came in the immediate wake of the announcement that Beaufort would be doing what HarperCollins—and, it was rumored, all of the other major publishing houses—would not. Beaufort would publish the book “If I Did It,” the ghostwritten account of how Simpson would have murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and

New York-based Beautfort Books, founded in 1980, has finalized a deal with the Goldman family to publish “If I Did It,” the O.J. Simpson title that HarperCollins previously rejected. In late 2006, HarperCollins canceled plans to publish the title and destroyed 400,000 copies of it, after a public outcry against the planned publishing. “The team at Beaufort Books will be working closely with the Goldman family to bring this book to the attention of the American public,” says Eric Kampmann, president of Beaufort Books. “We will be working diligently, to not only publish this book well, but to honor the memory of the

In a rare twist in the controversial O.J. Simpson “If I Did It” book saga, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department was assigned earlier this week to conduct a book auction for publishing rights, according to Reuters.com. The Sheriff’s Department is overseeing the auction–scheduled for April 17, because the original publisher, News Corp.-owned HarperCollins, has offices in the California capital according to Reuters.com. According to Reuters, proceeds from the court-ordered auction will help satisfy a $33.5 million civil judgment rendered against Simpson in 1997 for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The news of the auction comes