The project is still alive! I haven’t forgotten about my plan to write and publish 52 short stories on Amazon so that I can share a new one each week. I’m also consistently working on my novels.

However, due to some personal issues, I haven’t published anything new for the past few weeks. For those waiting for the next release: I’ve already written 23 short stories, even though only 7 are currently available in the STORY52 project. I’m working almost daily to complete the remaining 29 stories in the series while also finishing my next novel.

Once all short stories are written, I’ll be able to maintain a more consistent publishing schedule — ideally releasing one every week next year. I’m still determined to complete the project in 2026.

Running Tests on Amazon

Amazon allows me to offer each Kindle story for free for up to five days within a three-month period. Since the first stories were published already more than three months ago, I could run some experiments with them.

In these, I set the price to free for the maximum of five days — without announcing it anywhere. I stayed completely silent on social media, my blog, and even among friends and family. My goal was to see how many downloads the stories would get through Amazon alone.

The results were disappointing: Normally, when I announce a free promotion, I get around 20–30 downloads. But when I didn’t tell anyone, the stories only received about 5–10 downloads.

As another experiment, I offered my last novel Forever for free over a five-day period — with similar results. So far, there have been only 31 downloads of the German version and fewer than five of the English one. When I ran a free promotion in July (right after the release) with announcements, I got more than 700 downloads.

What I’ve Learned So Far

These tests lead me to two main observations:

1. My reach on social media and this blog is still limited — but it already makes a noticeable difference in download numbers.
2. Amazon seems to promote newly published books more effectively than older releases. It’s possible that new titles receive a temporary ranking boost or better placement in the “Free” category through the algorithm.

There’s still a lot to learn about how Amazon works for indie authors and how best to leverage social media and my website. But with every test I run, I’m getting a clearer picture of how the system works.