Barnes & Noble won’t stock O.J. Simpson’s new book

By HILLEL ITALIE

AP NATIONAL WRITER

NEW YORK — If you’re hoping to buy O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It,” don’t expect to find a copy at Barnes & Noble.

Citing a perceived lack of customer interest, the chain said the book would only be available by special order or for purchase online through Barnes & Noble.com.

“Our buyers don’t feel there will be enough of a demand to carry it in our stores,” Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

A rival chain, Borders Group Inc., said Tuesday that it would stock “If I Did It,” a fictionalized account of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. But spokeswoman Ann Binkley said Borders “will not promote or market the book in any way.”

The book’s history

Simpson’s book was originally scheduled to be published last November by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, with an announced printing of 400,000. But “If I Did It” was dropped in response to widespread outrage. ReganBooks founder Judith Regan was later fired and her imprint disbanded.

Last month, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded rights to the book to Goldman’s family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful-death judgment against Simpson.

Beaufort Books, a small New York-based publisher, is reissuing “If I Did It” in October, with Simpson’s original manuscript intact and commentary included. The Goldman family is calling the book Simpson’s confession — the same description Regan offered in justifying the original publication.

Denise Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister, has accused Goldman’s father, Fred Goldman, and other family members of hypocrisy for publishing a book that he had called “disgusting and despicable” when Simpson first planned to publish it.

Simpson has maintained his innocence in the 1994 killings in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. The former football great, who now lives near Miami, was acquitted of murder in 1995.