Get THE LAST PRESIDENT For FREE This Week (STORY52 No. 10/52)

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The final short story of the year is published. You can get “The Last President” for free until Friday on Amazon:

America stands before the most important decision of its political future: Democrats or Republicans? Who is better suited to lead a nation into an era in which artificial intelligence shapes the world of work?

A satirical short story about political power in the age of AI – by Michael Brig, approx. 1,000 words.

US Version | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GCSHZD1P
German Version | https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0GCSCNMZP

As always there might be some delay with the free promo on Amazon depending on the country that you live in, but it should be set to free within the next couple of hours until the promo runs out on Friday.

If you liked it, please leave me a review on Amazon, thanks.

Christmas Giveaway 2025 – Free Books to Download

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Merry Christmas!

To celebrate, I’ve made some of my books available for free until Friday. Grab a copy here:

Like a Rolling Stone (US)

17 1 like rolling stone kindle cover

Like a Rolling Stone English Version

4 Bullets (US/DE)

Book Cover of 4 Bullets by Michael Brig

4 Bullets (Englisch Version | German Version)

World War IV (US/DE)

World War IV by Michael brig Book Cover

World War IV (English Version | German Version)

Free STORY52 Short Stories

In case you’ve missed previous giveaways of my short stories, grab the following issues here:

  • #1 Black Market Dreams (US – DE)
  • #5 Those who go to war (US – DE)
  • #6 The Red Button (US – DE)
  • #7 The Asylum (US – DE)

If you like the stories, please give me a review on Amazon, thanks.

I’ll take a break for the holidays and start fresh in 2026. Until then, enjoy your time with family and friends, and I hope to see you again next year.
– Michael Brig

My Social Media Plan for 2026

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I’ll stick to two main platforms: YouTube and X. I still have my Instagram handle secured, but I don’t really know what to post there to grow an audience. With X and YouTube, at least I have a clear idea of what could be interesting and sustainable.

YouTube

I’ve already made some changes to my YouTube presence. I’ve essentially reduced everything to two main channels.

Tutorial Channel

Last year, I finished two large 12-hour courses, which took up a huge amount of time. Now that those courses are done, that time is freed up for more writing and shorter tutorial videos.

On my tutorial channel, I’ll focus on:

  • Photoshop
  • CapCut (video editing)
  • Adobe Illustrator

I’ve also decided to publish my author project videos on this channel too. Initially, I wanted to run a separate channel called OnPaper, but YouTube seems to have shadow-banned my account. Thus, new channels literally get zero views. When I upload the same videos to my tutorial channel—which has around 12,000 subscribers—I at least get some traction.

I also want to explore more AI tools for comic creation and video production. Whenever I feel I’ve properly learned a tool, I’ll add a video about it.

On a personal note, I’m eager to finally learn high-end photo retouching this year. It’s something I’ve kicked down the road for years. My Photoshop skills are decent, but not advanced—time to change that in 2026.

StoryLines

This is my video essay channel. I don’t get many views here either, for the same reason as above, but I genuinely enjoy talking about movies. It’s more of a passion project or hobby than anything else, and I want to keep it going for my own pleasure.

My goal is one new video per week, published on Mondays.

Personal Channel

I tried for a while, but I realized I don’t have the time to fully commit. Without views, there’s also very little motivation to continue, so I’ve put it on hold.

There’s still that dream of making videos about riding motorbikes, traveling the world, adding drone shots, meeting other YouTubers, and talking about movies, books, and life for a large audience. But that won’t happen anytime soon. There simply isn’t enough time, money, leverage, or health for me to pursue it properly right now.

X/Twitter

Some people still call it Twitter. Others make fun of you if you don’t call it X. Call it whatever you like—I’ll be active there next year.

No Politics

I won’t post about politics. It’s too risky to talk politics outside of the US online. Just last month, someone was arrested for stating that bones from corpses can be used to identify the two genders in Switzerland. In Germany, someone received a police visit for calling government employees “parasites.” And recent events at Bondi Beach led Australia to further tighten its already extreme hate speech laws.

At this stage of the Western world’s decline, it’s safer to stay out of politics, make your cut, and prepare for an exit. The last thing you want is to be in jail over a stupid meme when things truly fall apart.

What I’ll Post on X

  • Movie-a-Day Reviews
    This year, I want to watch one new movie every day and post a short review the following day on X. At the end of the year, I’ll also make a ranking video of the best movies and shows I’ve seen.
  • Daily Author Project Updates
    Daily word counts, progress reports, mistakes, setbacks—and hopefully some wins and victories.
  • Album-a-Day
    I want to expand my musical horizons, so I’ll work through the 1,001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list, along with new releases I know nothing about (for example, I’ve never listened to a full Taylor Swift album). I’ll write short thoughts about each one.
  • Sharing
    I’ll continue sharing links to my videos and blog posts. There will also be links to books that I regularly give away for free.
  • Networking
    If you’re an author or blogger yourself, feel free to reach out on X. I want to build a network of indie authors who support each other. We can share free book giveaways so readers benefit as well. I’ll need to be proactive and actively look for indie authors who blog, post on X, or make YouTube videos. If I can find even a dozen, that could be enough to get things moving.

If that sounds interesting, you can follow me here: @michael_brig

What I’m Going to Blog About in 2026

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I’m going to stick with daily blogging. It’s fun, it helps me collect my thoughts, and it keeps me accountable.

What it doesn’t do—at least not very well—is increase blog traffic. As expected, the traffic spike I saw last month was mostly caused by scammers adding my site to their bot comment databases. I receive plenty of suspicious emails and replys about AI tools I should “recommend” to my readers, as well as automation services that promise to send me traffic and make me famous as easily as snapping a finger.

It’s all nonsense.

Real traffic is probably only about a third of what I saw last month.

Still, I’ll continue writing daily, as I enjoy daily tasks. Establishing a routine is basically half the battle. And blogging is a mostly free way to market my books—even if, for now, I’m only marketing them to a handful of regular readers.

Topics I’ll Write About Next Year

I’ll stick to the topics I’ve already started:

  • Blogging basics
  • SEO basics
  • Movie and TV show reviews
  • My author project

I’ll also publish regular updates on my goals for 2026:

  • Writing 12 books in 12 weeks (expect weekly updates)
  • Reading 52 books in 52 weeks, with a weekly book review
  • Monthly “Author in Progress” reports, sharing all my numbers in real time

In addition, I want to share my experiences with freelancing. I’ve been doing it for over a decade, and during that time I’ve had to reinvent myself more than once. For example, I used to make most of my income as a translator in the beginning. Around three to four years ago, translation work dropped by about 95%, largely due to ChatGPT and other AI tools. Still, the core principles of freelancing remain the same.

Adding Images and Graphics

In general, I need to think more about adding graphics and photos. I’m a writer first, so the text should always be the main focus. But an image here and a graphic there can make longer pieces easier to digest and give readers a much-needed break from pure text.

Tracking

In my report posts, I want to expand what I track. Especially with writing, it could be interesting to see how many words I can produce in a given amount of time. How long does it take to edit a 60,000-word book? How long does translating that same book take?

These are interesting questions to answer.

I’d also love to include numbers for book sales and Amazon KENP (Kindle Unlimited page reads). But to be honest, I’m not selling many copies right now, and there are usually only a handful of KENP readers each month.

So there isn’t much to report yet. If that ever changes, I’ll add it to the reports.

Reading a Book a Week Again

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This year, I must have read less than at any point in the last 20 years. I haven’t even counted properly, but it must have been only around ten books. Last year I read about 60, and the year before that it might have even been close to 80.

There’s a giant stash of unread books on my shelf. I also didn’t make enough use of Kindle Unlimited to justify paying €12 a month. Even when it comes to comics, I didn’t read as much as I wanted to.

So one of my main projects for 2026 will be to read and review one book per week again. I did this years ago on Medium, on X, and on a German site I used to own. It motivated me to read even on busy days. And since next year is going to be busy, I’ll need that motivation.

Fifty-two books in fifty-two weeks is a nice challenge. I’ve seen it on many websites, and it’s always enjoyable to read about. Ideally, this will be a project that improves both my life and my blog.

Books I need to finish

  • The James Bond novels (I must be about halfway through Fleming’s originals. Goldfinger is next on my list.)
  • Harry Potter (I haven’t started yet, but I already own the books.)
  • Reacher, Miss Marple, and Poirot (I used to read one book per year from each of these series.)
  • Chuck Palahniuk (There are still a few works left before I’ve completed his entire bibliography.)
  • Philip K. Dick (I have a massive short-story collection of his that I need to finish.)
  • Robert A. Heinlein (Along with Dick, he’s one of my favorite authors. Unfortunately, his earlier works are hard to find in German.)
  • Bible Reading (I’ve been working on that for years. I’m still not through as a lot of books in the bible are just painfully boring.)

New reads to try

  • I’m open to exploring indie authors. If you’re an indie writer and you’re reading this, leave a comment and tell me what you write. I might check it out.
  • I enjoyed The Walking Dead comics. The same author also wrote Invincible, which I want to try this year.
  • Mystery reads: One idea I have is to look for books on Kindle Unlimited with bad covers and no reviews, and give one a chance each month. Maybe I’ll find some hidden gems.

BookTuber books

Something that could also help my own book marketing is reading books by people with an existing reach—whether through a big blog, YouTube, or X—and then writing a review. Afterward, I’ll send them a tweet letting them know I wrote about their book. Maybe they’ll check out my work or at least retweet the link to my review.

Yes, that’s marketing—but I don’t want this project to be only about marketing. I won’t write glowing reviews for bad books just to get a retweet. Still, I need to find ways to get some attention for my work, and this feels like a fair approach.

Your recommendations

Finally, I didn’t create this website only to find readers—I also want to find great books. Let me know in the comments what you’re reading. Maybe I’ll discover an amazing author I’ve never heard of before.