If book sales were votes (and if the UK could vote in the American elections) then Barack Obama would be the next president.
Obama's two autobiographies, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream and Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, have sold over 130,000 copies between them, according to the UK's book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan.
McCain, by contrast, barely tops 2,000 with his Hard Call: Heroes Who Made Tough Decisions and Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir.
Online book retailer The Book Depository estimates that of the 350 US election books it has sold lately, 96% have been Obama titles. "According to The Book Depository's global book-buyers: Democrats read, Republicans don't; Palin isn't popular, Biden is invisible. If The Book Depository's customers were voting it would be an Obama landslide," said Mark Thwaite, managing editor of the site.
He's right: official figures show just six – six! – copies of Kaylene Johnson's Sarah Palin biography have sold in the UK (to be fair it's only just out, but other titles about the foreign relations expert don't even register). I'm not sure how Meghan McCain's book about her dad is doing, but I'd imagine not great.
It's not all good news for the Democrats though: Joe Biden's Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics has sold 13 copies in the UK, says Nielsen.
I don't have equivalent sales for America, but this cunning site is tracking sales of everything related to the candidates – books, masks, coffee cups, badges etc – and Obama's out in front there too (although Hilary Clinton's doing OK as well …)
What can we glean from this? Very little, I'm afraid, other than that politicians of all stripes and hues can be relied on to provide godawful titles.
