Publishers are lining up to release special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report as a book – if and when it is made public.

The investigation into alleged collusion between Moscow and Donald Trump’s campaign for the US presidency will be delivered by Robert Mueller to the new attorney general, William Barr, who will decide how much is made public. Last week, independent press Skyhorse Publishing said it would release a book version of the report once it had access to the documents, telling Publishers Weekly that “we know that making the Mueller report instantly available will be both a public service and good business”.

Now major publisher Simon & Schuster has also announced that it will publish the Mueller report immediately, “when and if” its findings become public. Along with an introduction from investigative journalists Rosalind S Helderman and Matt Zapotosky, the book will include the special counsel’s “most pertinent filings (including criminal indictments)” and a timeline of significant events. The S&S edition is expected to be published this month.

The publisher said the report was “one of the most urgent and important special investigations ever conducted in US history”, and that the investigation “looms as a turning point in American history, which will make the Mueller report essential reading for all citizens concerned about the fate of the presidency and the future of our democracy”.

Publisher Nan Graham said: “The Mueller report is the most anticipated investigative document of this century, and its findings are of vast importance to the US and to the rest of the world.”

Skyhorse said that there had “never been a more important political investigation than that of Robert S Mueller III’s into President Donald Trump’s possible collusion with Russia”.

“The Mueller investigation will join Watergate, and the Mueller report will join the 9/11 Commission report, the Warren report, and the Starr report, as one of the most important in history,” said the publisher. Its version of the report will be introduced by lawyer and academic Alan Dershowitz, if and when it is published.