Last month things improved again, but I’m still not sure whether I’ve reached the point where steady growth is guaranteed as long as I keep doing what I’m doing. I’d describe the current state as a kind of internet limbo.
Website
I kept my daily blogging streak going for another full month. It did lead to an increase in traffic, but I’m not convinced it’s real traffic. Lately, I’ve been getting spam comments, so maybe my URL just ended up in some scammer database, causing an influx of bot traffic.
Numbers for November:
- Pageviews: 468 (+37%)
- Total users: 239 (+11%)
On some days, there’s a nice spike in traffic. Today, though, it dropped. I hope that daily blogging will help and bring consistent growth every 30 days, but again: it’s hard to interpret the data when I don’t get many real comments.
Maybe once the scammers move on—since I delete all their comments—traffic will drop again. We’ll see.
Newsletter
This is why I’m not convinced the traffic increase is real: I didn’t get a single new newsletter subscriber in November. I checked the signup form with different browsers and systems—it should be set up correctly.
But if everything works and the traffic increase is genuine, why aren’t any new subscribers signing up?
If you’re reading this, please consider joining the newsletter here: Endless by Michael Brig. You’ll get a free book and an email whenever I give something away for free on Amazon.
Free Books
I published another short story collection last week called Killtime (US – DE).
It turned out to be my biggest success so far in the STORY52 project, where I give away short story books for free on Amazon to attract new readers.
I had 45 German and 8 English downloads. Nothing spectacular, but hopefully some of those 50 readers will check out my website or YouTube at some point.
This makes it 9 out of 52 stories already published.
Writing
Total, massive, unadulterated success. I finished writing my STORY52 project, which means I can focus on full-length novels next year. So far, I’ve published 9 of the 52 short story books; the rest will come out whenever I find the time to edit, translate, and design covers for them. But the first drafts are done and I can guarantee more releases regularly now to have all 52 stories published in 2026 (maybe 2027).
With this project wrapped up, I might attempt to write 12 novels in 12 months next year. That’s an average of only 2,000 words per day—something I might be able to manage, as I already wrote that much in sum (novels + short stories).
Project Updates 2025
- Forever – Released in July (US / DE)
- Endless – Free book for newsletter subscribers; released in September (get it here)
- 17 Series – Editing of Part 1 is 95% done; translation and cover design are next | target release: Christmas 2025
- Therapy – Written; planned release early 2026
- Crowley – Written; planned release summer 2026
- Influencer – Still outlining; goal to finish writing early 2026
- Smash the Patriarchy – New novel I’ll write in December; goal: 2K words per day to see if I can complete it from idea to first draft in one month
While I jumped ship on my Influencer book for a bit, I also had an epiphany about writing. I’m currently defining iron writing rules for myself—rules I must follow no matter what. One of them will be: never start a new project until the previous one is finished.
Publishing Part 1 of the 17 Series this December is still my main focus for the next 31 days.
X/Twitter
I share my links and write movie reviews whenever I feel like it. But I avoid everything else because of the heavy censorship in Germany. Last month, the police actually raided someone for calling government workers “parasites.” No joke—that really happened in the land of the not-so-free Germans.
Still, I use Twitter daily to read and stay informed. You can follow me here: @michael_brig
No real changes—I’m still just posting book covers for now.
Follow me here: Michael Brig IG
YouTube
My tutorial channel is running smoothly. Things look promising for 2026.
The other channels, though… I get almost no views due to shadowbanning. It’s really demotivating, and I think I’ll simply do less on YouTube next year, as there’s currently no real potential for growth within the system.
- BRIG | Personal Channel (YouTube | Rumble)
- StoryLines | Video Essays About Stories (YouTube | Rumble)
- OnPaper | Author-in-Progress Project (YouTube | Rumble)
- Michael Brig | Tutorial Channel (Only on YouTube)
Conclusion
Overall, things are improving, but when it comes to finding readers for my books, I still feel like I haven’t made much progress. Sure, 2025 was meant to be a year of testing and experimenting, but I secretly hoped to at least find a handful of readers who would follow my work regularly—and I don’t think I’ve achieved that yet.
One more month to go in 2025, and then my first full year of trying to become a real author begins in January 2026.
I hope you’ll stay with me on this journey.
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