PRESS RELEASE OF THE DAY: The publicists for American Mourning have hit on a novel approach, comparing its Amazon ranking with that of Cindy Sheehan’s book, Peace Mom. Excerpt:

Most compellingly, “American Mourning” offers a potrayal of another American family that lost a child in the war on terrorism – Joe & Jan Johnson of Rome, Georgia. Their son, Justin, dies one week after Cindy Sheehan’s son, Casey, died. And to make things more amazing – Justin and Casey were best buddies in the U.S. Army.

But unlike Cindy Sheehan, Joe & Jan Johnson honored their son and his sacrifice for his country. In fact, Justin’s father, Joe, re-enlists in the Army at the age of 43 and goes off to Iraq to fight the Islamic militants who had killed his son.

Is it any wonder then, why Sheehan’s “Peace Mom” is getting clobbered in the sales charts by Morgan & Moy’s inspirational “American Mourning?” Check out the sales ranks for yourself – it’s not even close. And for the past few weeks, even though their book had yet to be released, Morgan & Moy were still outselling Sheehan’s “Peace Mom.”

Cindy Sheehan’s book, Peace “Mom” (ranked # 155,717 as of 7:00 PM Sunday 10/15/2006)

Melanie Morgan’s & Catherine Moy’s “American Mourning” (ranked # 836 as of 7:00 PM Sunday 10/15/2006)

As I post this, the gap’s actually widened a bit. It’s possible to make too much of Amazon rankings, and people often do, but this is a big difference, and it’s a cleverer-than-usual press release. And I get enough of them to judge . . . .