The Bookseller.com

20th November 2008

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Clinton vs Obama: the book sales battle

14.02.08 Philip Stone

The race to become the 44th US president is hotting up tills on both sides of the Atlantic. During the week before "Super Tuesday" (ending 3rd February), Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope shifted an impressive 1,226 copies through UK shops, thanks to Canongate's recently-released paperback edition; last week it sold another 1,478 copies. That compares favourably to Living History (Headline), by rival Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, which sold just 62 copies through BookScan the week before "Super Tuesday". UK life sales of Living History now total just under 130,000 copies.

In the US, regional sales patterns of the books seem to mirror Democratic voters' preferences. Simon & Schuster, which paid a reported $8m to secure the rights to Living History, has sold almost 1.4 million copies of the book through BookScan US since records began in 2004. During the week prior to "Super Tuesday" the $16 paperback sold 519 copies. Clinton's highest sales came in New York (9.4% of her total week's sales), Los Angeles (9.8%) and San Francisco (6%)--cities that reside in states which saw her crowned as the overall winner in recent primary elections.

Although some of the highest proportions of Obama's weekly sale of 12,740 occurred in the same cities, he experienced a much higher proportion of sales than Clinton in the regions of Denver (3.2%) and Chicago (2.8%). Both the Illinois primary and Colorado caucus saw Obama crowned the winner.

This week's primary in the District of Columbia saw Obama achieve approximately 75% of total votes--a pattern that book sales figures support via a BookScan analysis. Within the Washington DC region, Obama enjoyed 5.8% of his total book sale during the week ending 3rd February, while Clinton received a much lower 3.5% of her total sale.

US political commentators are suggesting Clinton must capture the Texas and Ohio primaries on 4th March to stay in the race. Sales patterns in these states suggests the results could go down to the wire. In the Dallas-Fort Worth region, during the week under analysis, Obama outsold Clinton by 135 copies to four copies, while in Cincinnati just a single copy of Living History was sold, compared to 68 editions of The Audacity of Hope.

Retail Bestseller News US Simon & Schuster headline Barack Obama Hillary Clinton Philip Stone