WASHINGTON — For Supreme Court justices, books deals have become a highly lucrative way to shape the public narrative of their lives and legacies.

The money brought in by those deals, one of the few ways that they can supplement their income, often far eclipses their salaries, roughly $300,000.

A majority of the current justices have published books, most recently Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her memoir, “Lovely One,” which traces the arc of her family from the segregated Jim Crow South to her rise to the Supreme Court, was released last week and shot up Amazon’s bestseller list.

Six of the nine justices have written books or have book deals.

Jackson joins Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas in publishing moving accounts of their childhoods and paths to the court. Sotomayor has also written several children’s books.

Justice Neil Gorsuch has focused on the law, publishing books describing the ethical and legal issues raised by assisted suicide and euthanasia. His most recent, published this summer, is a series of stories drawn from court cases that he uses to focus on what he sees as administrative overreach.

Two of the newest justices — Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh — have book deals in place. Barrett’s book has been described as her views about keeping personal feelings out of judicial rulings.

The amount of money justices receive for their books varies widely.

Some have received multimillion- dollar book deals and reap royalties for years, while others see smaller advances and count royalties in the hundreds of dollars.

Much of the available information is cobbled together from industry insiders aware of the deals and the justices’ required annual financial disclosures, which offer a delayed, sometimes incomplete, view.

One point is clear: The money that justices receive from book deals often far surpasses their income from the court. The annual salary of an associate justices this year is $298,500, and that of the chief justice is $312,200.

When Thomas received a $1.5 million advance for his 2007 memoir, the deal was reported to be the highest ever paid for a book by a sitting justice. Originally called “From Pin Point to Points After,” a reference to the tiny outpost where he was born in the coastal lowlands of Georgia.

A number of the justices have since landed multimillion-dollar book deals, including Jackson, who received one in her first few months on the court. It was worth about $3 million, according to people familiar with the agreement. She reported receiving part of her advance — $893,750 — in her latest financial disclosure.

Barrett received a reported $2 million book deal shortly after joining the court, and her financial disclosures say she has been paid $425,000 so far.

Kavanaugh has disclosed $340,000 from his publisher, according to his 2023 financial form. Gorsuch, in his most recent disclosures, has reported several hundred thousand dollars from his various books, most recently a $250,000 payment from HarperCollins.

Over the last several years, Sotomayor has reported receiving about $3.7 million total for her memoir and children’s books.