In November, St. Martin's will rush release a 300,000-copy first printing of O.J.: The Last Word by longtime SMP author and lawyer/pundit Gerry Spence. This latest book on the Trial of the Century is the first under a reported seven-figure, three-book deal negotiated between SMP senior editor Robert Weil and agent Peter Lampack.

And another longtime SMP author, G. Gordon Liddy, has also signed a new seven-figure deal, with editor Michael Denneny, this time for two books-neither about his role in the now-25-year-old Watergate break-in. The first will be the nonfiction When I Was a Kid, This Was a Free Country, set for fall 1998, followed by Don't Be a Victim: How to Protect Yourself, Your Family, Your Property.