This fall, the publishing industry returns to a quadrennial tradition: releasing books written (or “written”) by presidential candidates as quickie campaign tie-ins. Random House imprint Three Rivers Press just published the trade paperback Change We Can Believe In, a collection of Barack Obama’s speeches and policy proposals. HarperCollins isn’t rushing out a new John McCain collection but is repackaging his bestselling 1999 memoir, Faith of My Fathers.

The campaign-book genre is hardly a sure bet: John Kerry and John Edwards’ Our Plan for America (2004) sold just 12,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. And Random House printed 400,000 copies of Bill Clinton’s 1996 policy book, Between Hope and History, but sold just 120,000. Still, such titles are relatively low-risk: Candidates rarely take advances or royalties. (Obama’s earnings will go to an unspecified charity, as will McCain’s; he splits Faith royalties with co-author Mark Salter.) Some books even become surprise hits, like Ross Perot’s September 1992 bestseller, United We Stand.

John Tewsley, Borders’ buyer for ­political titles, predicts strong sales for both McCain and Obama. So which author is poised to win the bestseller battle this season? Tewsley demurs: “I would hesitate to go out on a limb and make a prediction.”