Making money off of a side hustle as a member of the U.S. House or Senate — save for some strictly limited employment as, say, a university lecturer — is generally prohibited by congressional rules.
But there’s one giant loophole: book writing.
In 2024, about two-dozen federal lawmakers made extra cash from their authorship gigs, according to a NOTUS analysis of new congressional financial disclosures.
In three cases, the money from senators’ book-writing rivaled the value of their $174,000 annual salary.
Most lawmakers appear to pocket their earnings, although a few donate the money to charity.
Some are bolstered by a built-in sales machine: Friendly super PACs and political party committees, which buy lawmakers’ books in bulk, juice sales and vault their books onto bestseller lists.
In 2025 alone, political committees have purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of books, often as “donor mementos,” “colleague gifts,” “supporter acknowledgements,” “party fundraiser auction items” or “thank you gifts,” according to Federal Election Commission records.
Here’s a run-down of which federal lawmakers are making the most money — and the least — off their books:
Six-Figure Club
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia
No member of Congress reported earning more from book royalties or advances during 2024. The author of “MTG,” released in 2023, Greene made $178,229 in book royalties from Winning Team Publishing, a publishing house co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. Greene’s earnings distinguish her as the only member of Congress to report making more money last year through book income than through a congressional salary.
Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania
Last year, Fetterman earned $172,500 — just short of his Senate salary — in the form of an advance for the “publication of an untitled book” from publisher Penguin Random House. The royalty agreement was signed in January 2024.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia
Warnock reported a $150,708 payday in 2024 from “advances and royalties” from Penguin Random House, which has published four Warnock books this decade: “A Way Out of No Way,” “We’re in This Together: Leo’s Lunch Box” and the upcoming “We’re All in This Together 2” and “The Crooked Places Made Straight.” Warnock also received $535.43 in royalties from a 2014 book titled “The Divided Mind of the Black Church: Theology, Piety and Public Witness.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont
Sanders earned some notable scratch in 2024 — $148,750 — from Penguin Random House, which published his most recent book, “It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.” Sanders is the author of several other older titles including “Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In,” published in 2016 following his first of two presidential runs. Sanders has earned six-figure book payouts in previous years, too. He also maintains a royalty agreement for a 1987 spoken word and folk album “We Shall Overcome,” which has earned him a few dollars in recent years but none in 2024.
Sen. Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas
Cotton has three active royalty agreements for the books “Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery,” “Only the Strong: Reversing the Left’s Plot to Sabotage American Power” and “Seven Things You Can’t Say About China.” During 2024, Cotton earned $107,500 from book-related income. Cotton even maintains a limited liability company, TBC Books LLC, to manage his book engagements.
Five-Figure Club
Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky
The libertarian senator reported receiving a $90,000 royalty payment from Regnery Publishing, which published Paul’s recent book “Deception: The Great COVID Cover-Up.” Paul also retains book royalty agreements with HarperCollins and Center Street for three other titles from the 2010s, including “Taking a Stand,” “Our Presidents & Their Prayers” and “The Case Against Socialism.”
Sen. Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina
Scott, a presidential candidate in 2024, made $85,000 from his upcoming book “One Nation Always Under God: Profiles in Christian Courage.” Scott has previously written several other books including “America, a Redemption Story,” “Opportunity Knocks: The Story of How Hope and Opportunity Can Change Everything” and “Unified,” but he reported no income from them in 2024.
Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia
Kaine, the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate in 2016, received a $66,667 advance in 2024 for an upcoming book being published by Harper Horizon. Kaine also wrote an outdoorsy memoir in 2023 titled “Walk, Ride, Paddle” although he reported no related income from the book in 2024.
Sen. Katie Britt, Republican of Alabama
Britt made $63,750 last year from royalties from her 2023 book “God Calls Us to Do Hard Things: Lessons From the Alabama Wiregrass,” published by Grand Central Publishing of the Hachette Book Group.
Sen. John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana
Kennedy last year received a $60,000 advance for a yet-to-be-released “nonfiction” book published by HarperCollins, according to the senator’s financial disclosure. Kennedy signed the publishing agreement in May 2024.
Sen. Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon
For an “untitled memoir” yet to be published, Wyden received a $35,416.95 advance in 2024. But the senator’s book connections don’t end there: His wife, Nancy, is a bookseller, with seven-figure holdings in Strand Book Store Inc. and Bass Book Trading Inc.
Sen. Mike Lee, Republican of Utah
Lee took in $34,375 worth of royalty payments last year from Hachette Book Group, which published his 2002 book “Saving Nine: The Fight Against the Left’s Audacious Plan to Pack the Supreme Court and Destroy American Liberty.” In December 2024, Lee signed an agreement with HarperCollins that included undisclosed “royalties from sale of a book to be published in June 2026.”
Sen. Dave McCormick, Republican of Pennsylvania
The newly minted senator earned $31,875 from “book proceeds” in 2024 after having written “Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America” in 2023. McCormick also co-wrote the 2025 book “Who Believed in You: How Purposeful Mentorship Changes the World” with his wife, Dina Powell McCormick. Financial information is not yet available for the latter book.
Sen. James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma
Lankford reported receiving $28,332 in royalties last year from Humanix Publishing, which in April published his book “Turnaround: America’s Revival.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts
Warren hasn’t written a book in four years. But the 2020 presidential candidate still earned a combined $27,919.90 from the illustrated kids book “Pinkie Promises,” memoir “Persist” and about a dozen other books she’s written or co-written since the mid-1980s.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, Republican of Missouri
Schmitt in 2024 earned $13,333.05 from a “partial advance payment” for “The Last Line of Defense: How to Beat the Left in Court” published by HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Republican of Texas
For his 2020 book “Fortitude: American Resilience in the Era of Outrage,” Crenshaw reported earning between $5,000 and $15,000 in royalties during 2024.
Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky
Comer reported forming a limited liability company, Gamaliel Stargazer LLC, “to own any future royalties from upcoming book sales from “All the President’s Money: Investigating the Secret Foreign Schemes that Made the Biden Family Rich,” a book he released earlier this year. Comer valued the LLC at between $1,001 and $15,000 but in 2024 did not report any income directly tied to the book. But FEC records show that money appears to be coming in from at least one familiar source: Comer for Congress, Comer’s congressional committee, purchased $3,178.94 worth of books from HarperCollins, which published Comer’s book, in June.
Clearance Sale
Sen. Adam Schiff, Democrat of California
In 2024, the freshman senator reported earning royalty income of $8,339.75 for his 2021 book “Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could,” a political insider’s telling of President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Rep. Adam Smith, Democrat of Washington
Smith earned $4,425.09 in 2024 after his book “Lost and Broken: My Journey Back from Chronic Pain and Crippling Anxiety” was published in 2023.
Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona
Kelly earned $3,888.32 in royalties from Simon & Schuster, which has published several books he’s written including “Gabby,” about his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, and the “Mousetronaut” series of children’s books, the protagonist of which — a mouse named Meteor who at one point saves Earth from an asteroid. In March, Simon & Schuster signed an agreement for Kelly to “receive book advance and royalty payments based on usual and customary terms for the publication of an untitled book.”
Rep. Sharice Davids, Democrat of Kansas
Davids reported making between $2,501 and $5,000 last year from her 2021 illustrated children’s book “Sharice’s Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman,” which was published in 2021.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon
Merkley earned $1,593.75 in book royalties in 2024 after publishing “America Is Better Than This: Trump’s War Against Migrant Families” in 2019 and “Filibustered!” in 2024.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, Republican of Montana
Sheehy made $1,053 in 2024 from royalties associated with his 2023 book “Mudslingers: A True Story of Aerial Firefighting.” He reported that he donated the royalties to charity. But the book caused trouble for Sheehy during his 2024 Senate campaign after the Daily Montanan reported that the book contained passages that appeared to be plagiarized. Sheehy went on to defeat incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat.
Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio
Jordan reported an ongoing royalty agreement with Post Hill Press for his 2021 book “Do What You Said You Would Do.” For it, he reported royalty income of less than $1,000 in 2024. He received less than $200 in royalties for a sports nutrition and training book he wrote in 1994 titled “Victory at the Training Table: A Guide to Sports Nutrition.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota
Klobuchar, who ran for president in 2020, took in $982.69 worth of book royalties last year. The senator continues to have royalty agreements stemming from her writing of several books over the years, including her two most recent: “The Joy of Politics: Surviving Cancer, a Campaign, a Pandemic, an Insurrection and Life’s Other Unexpected Curveballs” in 2023 and “Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power From the Gilded Age to the Digital Age” in 2021.
Free Table
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida
Luna disclosed receiving no royalties last year from her 2023 children’s book “The Legend of Naranja,” which she co-wrote with her husband, Andrew Gamberzky. The story, published by conservative publishing house Brave Books, is loosely based on the results of the 2020 presidential election. Anthropomorphic fruit play various characters, including an orange that bears resemblance to Donald Trump and a banana based on Joe Biden that has a penchant for sniffing other fruit.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky
The former Senate majority leader has an active 2015 royalty agreement with Penguin Publishing imprint Sentinel, which entailed “$325,000 in compensation” and a schedule of royalty payments for his 2016 book “The Long Game.” But McConnell reported no book royalty income in 2024.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York
Gillbrand’s two books from last decade — “Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World” and the illustrated, kid-focused “Bold & Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote” — reportedly earned Gillibrand no royalty money in 2024, although she maintains royalty agreements with the books’ publishers.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri
In 2023, Hawley wrote the book “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.” He reported no book-related income for 2024. Hawley disclosed a royalty agreement with Regnery Publishing for “advance and royalties” related to a “book to be published,” but did not disclose terms.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas
Cruz has scored six- and seven-figure paydays from a trio of books he’s either written or is writing this decade, according to his 2024 financial disclosure. That includes an “advance of $1.1 million for two books payable in four installments” from a royalty agreement he signed with Regnery Publishing in 2022. But Cruz did not report receiving book royalties during calendar year 2024.
Sen. Angus King, independent of Maine
King earned a rather modest advance — $2,000 — for his 2018 book “A Senator’s Eye: Celebrating Maine, Washington and the Joys of Scraping the Windshield,” with the understanding that King would pocket 15% of any book sale after 5,000 were sold, according to his contract. The book wasn’t much of a seller in 2024, however, as King reported no book royalty income.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island
Whitehouse wrote a book in 2022 titled “The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.” But it’s not earning him much cash these days. “No royalties were received in 2024,” the senator reported.
Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut
Of late, Murphy has become a prolific writer on Substack. But he also wrote a book, “The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History Of An Ongoing American Tragedy,” in 2020. He reported no royalties from it in 2024.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado
Hickenlooper maintains a royalty agreement with Penguin Press, which published his 2016 book “The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics,” but he received no royalties in 2024.
Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa
While Ernst maintains a royalty agreement from her book “Daughter of the Heartland,” published in 2020 by Simon & Schuster, she received no royalty payments from it in 2024.
Sen. Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado
Bennet received no royalties in 2024 from his 2019 book “The Land of Flickering Lights: Restoring America in an Age of Broken Politics,” for which he maintains a royalty agreement.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois
Duckworth maintains a royalty agreement with Hachette Book Group for her 2021 book “Every Day Is a Gift: A Memoir,” but she reported no royalty payments from it in 2024.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, Republican of Texas
Jackson received a $50,000 advance in 2020 to write what became the 2022 book “Holding the Line,” with “standard royalty payments to be made on actual sales.” Jackson reported no book royalty income for 2024.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado
Boebert wrote “My American Life” in 2022. But in 2024, she reported no income from the book or the existence of any royalty agreement with the publisher, Bombardier Books — or any other personal assets, either.
This story has been updated with information from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 2024 financial disclosure.