Beaufort to Publish ‘Jewel of Medina’  

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 9/5/2008 7:45:00 AM

Beaufort Books will be the U.S. publisher of The Jewel of Medina. Beaufort, a New York independent publisher which typically gives authors no advance but splits royalties, had a big hit last year when it published O.J. Simpson’s controversial book If I Did It after it had been dropped by HarperCollins. Now the house is hoping lightning will strike twice.

Beaufort publisher Eric Kampmann was unavailable this morning to confirm if Beaufort will take on Jewel, but sources said Kampmann and his sales force have been soliciting orders, aiming for a pub date in late October. An independent publicist hired to promote Jewel, Michael Wright, also wouldn’t confirm that Beaufort is the publisher, but said an announcement about who will publish the book will be made Monday. After PW Daily's report, Kampmann confirmed to the AP Beaufort will publish the book later this fall.

Jewel, which was originally scheduled to be released in August by Ballantine, is the first novel by Sherry Jones and depicts the life of A’ishe, the prepubescent seventh-century wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ballantine dropped the work after it was advised that the book took liberties with the historical record and might be offensive to some members of the Muslim community, possibly leading to violence by radicals. Jones got the rights back from Ballantine and her agent, Natasha Kern, has made several deals abroad, including selling the U.K. rights to Gibson Square Publishers, which plans to release the book in mid to late October.

Although Beaufort usually does not give advances, it did so for If I Did It; that book went on to sell about 100,000 copies. Beaufort has just released a paperback edition of  If I Did It with an epilogue by Peter Haven, the attorney for the Goldman family, that “tells the story behind the book.”