Valley of Writers Research found several listings for Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hill We Climb’ on Amazon (May 19, 2021).
On January 20, 2021, Gorman became the sixth and youngest ever poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration in the United States of America. Her poem, ‘The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country’ was published as a book which has been one of the runaway successes in publishing this year.

Here are the book listings we found:
The Hill We Climb, American Edition

- Publisher : Viking Books; First Edition (March 30, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 32 pages
- ISBN-10 : 059346527X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593465271
- Item Weight : 4.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.44 x 0.36 x 7.31 inches
- #99 in Books
- #1 in Black & African American Poetry (Books)
- Customer Reviews at time of publishing: 4.9 out of 5 stars 5,388 ratings.
The first one, a 32 page hardcover edition of the poem with a foreword by Oprah Winfrey, is currently one of the top 100 books on Amazon. It has an Amazon Bestseller Rank (ABSR) of 99 (ABSRs are updated several times a day). It was released on March 30th, 2021, just over two months after Amanda delivered it at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration on January 20, 2021.
It appears in the following two categories on Amazon:
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > United States > African American
- Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > United States > Black & African American
The book retails for $9.59.
How we estimate sales for books
We use figures from Publisher Rocket [affiliate link], an app to help writers get their books found on Amazon. Publisher Rocket offers the following features:
- Find out which keywords book buyers type into Amazon
- Estimated number of times customers type that keyword into Amazon
- How much money the books that rank for that keyword are making
- How many books are competing for that keyword
Using Publisher Rocket, we can estimate that ‘The Hill We Climb’ is currently making approximately US$2,911 a day.
The Hill We Climb, British Edition
- Publisher : Random House UK (March 28, 2021)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1784744603
- ISBN-13 : 978-1784744601
- Item Weight : 5.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.47 x 0.24 x 8.11 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,495 in Books
- Customer Reviews at time of publishing: 4.8 out of 5 stars. 167 ratings.
The British edition of the same book has an ABSR of 16,820.
It’s priced at $14.49 and is currently making about $152 a day.
The Hill We Climb, Other Editions



We also found:
- German (ISBN-10: 3455011780, ISBN-13: 978-3455011784, ABSR: #1,370,110) – approx $20/month,
- Spanish (ASIN: B08Y3VLK6P, ABSR: #260,748) – No figures given,
- Italian – $7/month, and
- French (ISBN-10: 2213720916, ISBN-13: 978-2213720913, ABSR: Not listed) – No figures given
The Hill We Climb & Other Poems
- Publisher : Viking Books (September 21, 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 80 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0593465067
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593465066
- Item Weight : 8.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.22 x 8.25 inches
- #4,391 in Books
- #6 in Black & African American Poetry (Books)
- #673 in Teen & Young Adult Books
It currently ranks 6th in Amazon’s Black & African American Poetry category and 673 in Teen & Young Adult Books.
This is in pre-order and is set for release on September 21, 2021. That’s 124 months away. It has an ABSR of 4,391 and will retail at $14.53. Advance orders are currently bringing in an estimated $355 a day.
So, How Much is that?
So that comes to about $3,500 a day which is about US$105,000/month on Amazon alone. It’s important to note that this is the gross income. Amazon takes 30% of that and the author is paid a commission from what the publisher collects.