--- title: 2016 Presidential Race: Hillary Clinton Leads in Book Sales description: The candidates ranked by how their books are selling canonical: https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-30T19:45:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:03.654Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Here's Who's Winning the Presidential Race in Books og:description: The candidates ranked by how their books are selling og:url: https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Who's Winning the Presidential Race in Books twitter:description: The candidates ranked by how their books are selling twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's Who's Winning the Presidential Race in Books ## Video: Watch Second Democratic Debate in 4 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Second Democratic Debate in 4 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/i2uvWN4w.m3u8) (3:31)  _Published 2015-11-15. CBS Democratic Debate in 4 Minutes_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 30, 2015 7:45 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Nov 30, 2015 7:45 PM UTC Polls and PAC dollars aren’t the only ways to analyze the 2016 presidential race: there are book sales. And while the candidates have been battling at debates, their books having been facing off on Amazon and in indies across the country**.** The most recent figures available show Republican Ben Carson gaining on Democrat Hillary Clinton (granted, her _Hard Choices_ has had a year and four months than Carson’s _A More Perfect Union_ to nab readers). Donald Trump’s _Crippled America_ hasn’t reached blockbuster status, nor have his sales been compounded by the August re-release of _Time to Get Tough_. While most candidates have only published one book in this time period, others have been busy: Carson’s sales cover four titles, including a book for teens and a shorter adaptation of his memoir, called _My Life: Based on the Book Gifted Hands_. Most of the other candidates have seen their sales figures languish at a fraction of these heavy hitters. See the chart below for more. These figures represent total units sold, from the date of release until late November, but only for books published since the beginning of 2014, when chatter about the candidates started to pick up in earnest ahead of the midterm elections. That means older bestsellers like Trump’s _The Art of the Deal_ (1987) are not included. The data includes both print and e-book sales where possible; print information comes from Nielsen BookScan, while e-book information comes from PubTrack Digital and only goes through July 2015\. Data for books that are digitally self-published are not included, such as Lindsey Graham’s _My Story_ (June, available on his [website](http://www.lindseygraham.com/))_._ Data for Jeb Bush’s [_Reply All_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1515149048/?tag=timecom-20) (October, paperback and e-book) is not yet available. Book sales in the chart above include data from only the following books: [_A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591848040/?tag=timecom-20) by Ben Carson; [_One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America’s Future_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1595231226/?tag=timecom-20) by Carson; [_You Have a Brain: A Teen’s Guide to T.H.I.N.K. B.I.G._](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0310745993/?tag=timecom-20) by Carson; [_My Life: Based on the Book Gifted Hands_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0310344514/?tag=timecom-20) by Carson; [_Hard Choices_ ](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1476751471/?tag=timecom-20)by Hillary Clinton; [_A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062365614/?tag=timecom-20) by Ted Cruz; [_Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591848032/?tag=timecom-20) by Carly Fiorina; [_God, Guns, Grits and Gravy_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250060990/?tag=timecom-20) by Mike Huckabee; [_Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1455549568/?tag=timecom-20) by Rand Paul; [_Our Presidents & Their Prayers: Proclamations of Faith by America’s Leaders_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1455535737/?tag=timecom-20) by Paul; [_American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143109030/?tag=timecom-20) by Marco Rubio; [_Outsider in the White House_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1784784184/?tag=timecom-20) by Bernie Sanders; [_Bella’s Gift: How One Little Girl Transformed Our Family and Inspired a Nation_ ](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0718021959/?tag=timecom-20)by Rick Santorum; [_Blue Collar Conservatives_ ](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1621572390/?tag=timecom-20)by Santorum;[ _Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again_ ](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1501137964/?tag=timecom-20)by Donald Trump; and [_Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again_](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1621574954/?tag=timecom-20) by Trump. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/"},"headline":"Here's Who's Winning the Presidential Race in Books","datePublished":"2015-11-30T19:45:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:03.654Z","description":"The candidates ranked by how their books are selling","url":"https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/","keywords":["politics","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/","name":"Here's Who's Winning the Presidential Race in Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Second Democratic Debate in 4 Minutes","description":"CBS Democratic Debate in 4 Minutes","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/i2uvWN4w/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-11-15T05:26:14.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/i2uvWN4w.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/","duration":"PT3M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4124438/2016-presidential-race-books-hillary-clinton-ben-carson/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```