MSI Press Blog

  Black History Month: Honoring Black Musicians, Then and Now Black music is the heartbeat of American history. It has been a balm, a battle cry, a blueprint for survival and joy. From spirituals sung in bondage to hip-hop verses echoing through city streets, Black musicians have always done more than entertain—they’ve testified. Then: Architects of Sound and Spirit The roots of American music are tangled with the genius of Black artists who turned pain into poetry and rhythm into resistance. Mahalia Jackson lifted gospel into the heavens and carried the Civil Rights Movement on her voice. Louis Armstrong transformed jazz into a global language of improvisation and soul. Billie Holiday sang “Strange Fruit” with a haunting clarity that forced America to confront its sins. Nina Simone fused classical training with radical truth, declaring that an artist’s duty is to reflect the times. These musicians didn’t just shape genres—they shaped generations. Now: Innovators and ...

  Today's Publisher's Pride is  Since Sinai  by Shannon Gonyou, which reached #43 in biographies of Judaism.  Since Sinai  has appeared in Amazon best-selling categories nearly every week since its release. Book Description: Raised in a heavily Catholic suburb of Detroit, Michigan, Shannon grew up focusing on two things: how to do enough good deeds to get into heaven and how to stay pure enough to escape hell. In college, she followed many of her peers into an Evangelical church known for guitars, drum, religious-based shame, and the idea that without Jesus she was nothing. But when she encountered Judaism on that same campus, a spark ignited within her and refused to be put out. Judaism felt obvious, familiar. After a falling out with her biological mother and two miscarriages, she found the courage to send the most important email of her life: she asked the local Jews by Choice program to accept her as a student. Honest and unflinching, Shannon's story of comi...

  Every few months, an author will tell me—often with great confidence—that “marketers say a free Kindle promotion sells more books than a Kindle Countdown Deal.” It’s a claim that sounds bold, counterintuitive, and exciting. It’s also a claim that refuses to die, even though Amazon’s ecosystem has changed dramatically. So, let’s talk about it plainly. The short answer: Free promotions generate more downloads . Countdown Deals generate more sales . Downloads and sales are not the same thing, and Amazon does not treat them as the same thing. Where the myth came from: There was a moment in Amazon’s early KDP Select era (2011–2014) when free days could catapult a book into the Top 100 Free list, and that visibility sometimes spilled over into paid sales afterward. Marketers who built their playbooks during that period still speak as if nothing has changed. But the platform has changed. The algorithms have changed. Reader behavior has changed. And the relationship between fre...