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(Bloomberg Politics) — Judging from the plethora of titles now crowding bookstore shelves, it would appear that publishing a memoir has become something of a requirement for politicians hoping to become president.  The urge to make the leap from politician to author makes sense on a number of levels.  Releasing a book can help introduce a regional politician to a national audience, laying the groundwork for a campaign. While the bulk of a first-time effort will be spent on biographical details and formative anecdotes, most eventually veer toward policy positions without actually committing their authors to specifics, giving readers only a hint of how he or she might govern without chiseling a platform in stone.  Of course, once a book is released, it provides its author with the opportunity to head out on a promotional tour. These carefully planned jaunts—surprise, surprise—often mirror the early primary state itinerary of prospective candidates—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and so on. In the best-case scenario, said memoir will result in robust sales that will translate into votes that will then lead to another contract and a hefty advance to pen a second memoir (wash, rinse, repeat … and re-elect).

This year’s crop of as-yet-undeclared candidates has spent no small amount of time crafting books (many with the help of ghost writers or credited co-writers). Here’s a sampling of their output. Timing is Everything

For many politicians, the publication date of a memoir is the real clue as to whether he or she will soon be declaring his or her candidacy. In general, if a memoir comes within a year or two of the start of campaign season, there’s a good bet that its author will be a part of the festivities.

Mike Huckabee

Just as he did the last time he ran for president in 2008, Huckabee is prepping the ground for a run with a memoir. In 2007, the former Arkansas governor and contributor John Perry released Character Makes a Difference: Where I’m From, Where I’ve Been, and What I Believe.This year, Huckabee is back with the more streamlined God, Guns, Grits and Gravy,  appealing to a larger national audience generated by Huckabee’s Fox News television show, and his first attempt at becoming the Republican presidential nominee. A New York Times best seller, the four G’s finds the social conservative taking on the American cultural and partisan divide by going after the likes of Beyoncé. Huckabee knows his audience, and his book tour was largely centered in the south, with notable stops in Iowa.

Carly Fiorina

Like Huckabee, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive has timed the release of her two memoirs to the start of political campaigns. Her first effort, Tough Choices: A Memoircame out in 2007, as Fiorina was preparing to face off against Democrat Barbara Boxer in her ill-fated attempt to win the latter’s California senate seat. Unfortunately, the basics of her story about her time at HP ended with Fiorina’s well- publicized firing, a biographical note that didn’t inspire a majority of voters in the state to support her. This year’s offering, due out in May, is Rising to the Challenge: My Leadership Journey, and according to its promotional materials, is aimed at broadening the Republican party’s appeal. “Fiorina believes that politics, like business, is primarily about people,” a press release reads. “She shows how conservatives can reach out across the usual barriers of gender, race, income, and party affiliation to craft a message that appeals to a wide range of Americans.”

Hillary Clinton

The former secretary of state selected a title for her latest book, Hard Choices, that is eerily familiar to that of Fiorina’s first. Released in June of 2014, Hard Choices follows 2004’s Living History, and 1996’s It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us.The takeaway message from the latest book, and one likely to be repeated should Clinton MISSING WORDS HERE,  is she possesses a wealth of foreign policy experience. “A subtle, finely calibrated work,” critic Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times,”Hard Choices is a statesmanlike document…with succinct and often shrewd appraisals of the complex web of political, economic and historical forces in play around the world, and the difficulties American leaders face in balancing strategic concerns with ‘core values.’ The tone is calm and measured, with occasional humorous asides, like describing an offer by Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian leader, to take Bill Clinton along on a polar-bear tagging expedition.”

Marco Rubio

In 2013, two years after Rubio entered the U.S. Senate, he released An American Son: A Memoir, which tells the story of the senator’s immigrant Cuban parents as well as his own political rise in Florida. Sticking with the themes developed in his debut, Rubio released his second non-fiction effort, American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone in January, just a few months before he is expected to announce whether he will mount a White House run. On Twitter, one of Rubio’s potential rivals in 2016 gave his latest book the thumbs up.
https://twitter.com/JebBush/status

While book tours give prospective candidates a forum in places where voters may not yet know then, they also present risks.  Rubio recently was heckled by immigration activists during a book signing at Miami Dade College.

Ted Cruz

The Texas senator’s much anticipated literary debut is scheduled for June 30, by which time more than a few presidential hopefuls will have formally declared their intention to run for the White House. Cruz’s book comes with a rather unique title, Uni Ted Cruz,but little other information has been made public about the 256-page title. “The first book from controversial Senator Ted Cruz whom many consider the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016,” the promotional copy reads.

Jeb Bush

Co-authored by conservative writer Clint Bolick, Bush’s one and only political memoir is 2014’s Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution.As the title suggests, the book deals with one of the thornier issues for politicians hoping to navigate the Republican primary season. Along with his support of Common Core educational standards, immigration is considered one of Bush’s liabilities in the primaries as many in the party see any accommodation for the millions of undocumented immigrants currently in the country as “amnesty.” Bush’s approach to the topic may well resonate with voters in the general election, however, as it did with the Wall Street Journal’s Vincent J. Cannato. “About as sensible a look at immigration policy as one will find these days,” Cannato said of the book.