If I Did

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

You only have so many titles to market to the public. How do you choose the right ones and how do you further their cause? It’s never an easy decision. One title you might acquire reads beautifully, but where’s the platform for marketing it? The author doesn’t exactly seem television-interview friendly. Another title has a famous person behind it, but it’s missing a little thing called substance. These are the dilemmas publishers face every day, and although choosing a title is certainly not easy, several publishers with a number of best sellers under their belts say that there are certain steps you can