Book Biz Insiders See O.J. Tell-All Bombing

SPOILED JUICE Simpson O.J. Simpson's forthcoming quasi-memoir, If I Did It, was the talk of the National Book Awards Wednesday night—but not for the reason its publisher, Judith Regan, might have wished.

The consensus among the assembled publishing types was that the book, in which Simpson reportedly describes how he hypothetically might have murdered his ex-wife and her lover, is destined to bomb.

"Everybody thinks it'll have a great first couple of days and that's going to be it," says one industry macher, who requested anonymity to avoid angering the notoriously rage-prone Regan. "People are just not that interested. Most people have him guilty in their minds already, and find him repellent."

The source predicts that a Fox Television special meant to arouse interest in the book will end up satisfying most viewers' curiosity rather too well. "He'll be out there talking, talking, talking, and there won't be a real need to read the book."

Another editor puts it more bluntly: "The O.J. book is going to go the way of the Jayson Blair book." (Blair, the disgraced New York Times plagiarist and fabulist, published an instantly remaindered memoir, Burning Down My Master's House.)