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A Publisher’s Conversation with Authors: Do Free Kindle Promotions Really “Sell More Books”?

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  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...
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How the Vietnam War Shaped the Lives of Young Men in the 1960s

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  For young men coming of age in the 1960s, the Vietnam War wasn’t a distant headline. It was a countdown clock. It shaped their choices, their friendships, their sense of safety, and the very architecture of adulthood. Whether they served, resisted, or found themselves somewhere in between, the war pressed itself into the grain of their lives. A Generation Raised on One Promise, Delivered Another These were boys raised on the mythology of World War II—clear enemies, clear victories, clear heroes. Their fathers came home to parades and mortgages. Their teachers told them America always fought for freedom. Their churches prayed for the nation’s righteousness. Then Vietnam arrived with no such clarity. Suddenly, the same institutions that had shaped their moral compass were asking them to fight a war that many couldn’t explain, justify, or even locate on a map. The Draft: A Sorting Hat With Consequences The draft didn’t just send men to war—it sorted them by class, race, geogra...
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Mindfulness and Longevity

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  Mindfulness isn’t about sitting on a cushion or trying to empty your mind. At its core, it’s the practice of paying attention to your life as it’s happening—your thoughts, your breath, your sensations, your reactions—without immediately judging or resisting them. That simple shift, practiced over time, has profound effects on how we age. Chronic stress is one of the most powerful accelerators of aging. It raises cortisol, inflames the body, disrupts sleep, and wears down the immune system. Mindfulness interrupts that cycle. When you learn to notice stress as it arises, instead of being swept away by it, your nervous system recalibrates. Cortisol drops. Muscles unclench. The body stops bracing for impact. Over months and years, that reduction in physiological wear and tear becomes a form of protection—one that shows up in better cardiovascular health, steadier blood pressure, and a calmer baseline. Mindfulness also strengthens emotional resilience, which becomes increasingly impo...
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