And, speaking of ’08 candidates …

NEW YORK (AP) — Demand is high for the books of presidential contender Barack Obama.

The Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., has ordered an additional 50,000 copies of Sen. Obama’s million-selling policy book, “The Audacity of Hope,” and 10,000 more of his million-selling memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” Both have been selling strongly in the past few weeks as campaigning intensified, with “Audacity” in the top 20 on Amazon.com and “Dreams” in the top 60.

Obama, an Illinois Democrat, was narrowly defeated in last Tuesday’s New Hampshire Democratic primary by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Clinton, a former first lady, has also written a million-selling memoir, “Living History,” for which sales have increased, although at a slower pace than for Obama’s books.

According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of industry sales, “Living History” averaged around 1,000 sales a week in December and early January, compared with more than 7,000 a week for “Audacity” and more than 2,000 for “Dreams.”