You’ll need to sign up for the mailing list again to get the free book (sorry!).

by Leave a Comment

I apologize to everyone who already subscribed, but Mailchimp restricted my account because I refused to give them my phone number. As a result, I no longer have access to the old list and can’t import it into the new email provider I set up yesterday.

So, if you were already subscribed and you’d like to get the free book, I can’t send it to you directly—you’ll need to re-enter your email address using the form here: Newsletter. Once you do, you should automatically receive an email with the book.

Sorry again for the inconvenience.

The bottom line:
Having a mailing list is just another thing you don’t truly own. The provider controls it, and they can do whatever they want with it. It’s like social media—your account can be banned and years of work can vanish in an instant, leaving you no way to reach your audience.

That’s the reality of much of the internet today.

Setting up a mailing list is painful

by Leave a Comment

Oh boy, setting up a mailing list turned out to be a huge pain in the butt. It was an odyssey I didn’t need.

I remember doing it more than 10 years ago, and back then it was pretty easy. I used Mailchimp, which was intuitive and even offered fair free plans for beginners.

So naturally, my first impulse was to return to Mailchimp. But wow, things have changed. The backend is such a mess that just finding your way around is so consuming. Sure, designing forms and emails comes with way more options nowadays, but beginners don’t need all that. Give us a simple, clean interface to get started—don’t confuse us with dozens of options we can’t even use on a free plan anyway.

Yet, what really killed it for me was that Mailchimp no longer offers autoresponder emails on free plans. Since I wanted to give away a free book to new subscribers, this was the one feature I needed most. I don’t have an audience yet, no big mailing list to import—I’m literally starting at zero. So why would I pay right away for a service that won’t make me money in the foreseeable future? Once the list grows, I’ll gladly pay. But not before.

And then came the final straw: they told me today that unless I hand over my phone number for two-factor authentication, I won’t even be able to sign in anymore.

Give us your money. Give us your data. Give us your soul.

So yeah… adios, Mailchimp.

Next, I tried Kit (formerly ConvertKit). At first, things looked promising. The interface was so much better—clean, intuitive, perfect for beginners. And they even offered autoresponders in the free tier. I thought I had finally found my service.

But not so fast, kiddo. Just an hour after setting everything up, most of my account functions were suddenly disabled. The only way to unlock them? Go through a forced conversation with support about how their service could “elevate my business.”

Excuse me? I don’t have a business. I’m an indie author starting from scratch. I don’t want to buy—I just want to try. Maybe in a few years this will turn into more than a hobby, and then sure, I’ll pay. But not before I even get my first subscriber.

So after wasting two hours building a mailing list with an autoresponder, Kit basically locked me out unless I sat through a sales pitch I never asked for.

Therefore: Goodbye, Kit.

For now, I’ve moved on to a smaller service called MailerLite. They seem to allow free autoresponders, at least until you hit 500 subscribers. Who knows, maybe in an hour, tomorrow, or two weeks from now they’ll pull the same nonsense as Kit and Mailchimp.

But at the moment, the mailing list is working. I’ve tested it myself. If you haven’t subscribed yet, go check it out—you’ll get a free book in return for your email address.

And if MailerLite also starts annoying me, well… the odyssey will continue. And I’ll definitely keep you posted.

Get My Latest Book “Endless” For Free

by Leave a Comment

I finally finished setting up my newsletter form. It’s been quite an odyssey, and I’m still not 100% sure if it will remain stable in the future. But I tested it today, and it definitely works for now.

If you sign up with your email here: https://michaelbrig.com/newsletter/ you’ll automatically receive an email from me with a link to my latest book, which you can download as a free PDF (in English and German).

I hope you enjoy reading it!

Best regards,
Brig

Starting is Always the Hardest Part

by Leave a Comment

The more new things I try, the more I realize that everything works the same way. Whatever you do, it’s not the doing that’s difficult—it’s the starting.

When you want to write a book, reaching 60,000 words feels like an impossible mountain to climb. But all it really takes is sitting down and writing the first sentence. Then, somehow, the next ones follow. Before you know it, you’ve finished your first page. If you keep at it every day, writing a full novel in a month or two no longer seems like a huge challenge. It becomes the natural result of habit.

The same thing happens when you look in the mirror and notice your belly is a bit bigger than it was in your twenties. “Oh, boy, I’m getting fat. I need to start hitting the gym.”

That moment—the choice to get off the couch and move—is what separates people who never lose the weight from those who get in shape. You don’t need to spend three hours a day in the gym. All it takes is committing to five minutes of exercise daily. Once you start, those five minutes often turn into a full 30-minute workout. Again, the habit then creates the result of being fit and in shape.

Writing (and publishing) this blog post took me half an hour. At first, I hesitated. I have a novel to finish, a mailing list to update, a YouTube video to produce, a workout to do, clients to deal with, and my apartment to clean. But as soon as I opened my word processor and typed the first sentence, the rest appeared almost effortlessly. The inner voice telling me to procrastinate and write that post tomorrow went quiet.

With everything I ever did, I realized that doing is easy—once you’ve done the hard part: starting.

Author In Progress Report – August 2025

by Leave a Comment

I’m still working on setting up the system I have in mind for everything. As a result, most of August was spent finishing a free novelette that I plan to give away as a “freebie” to mailing list subscribers. Everything else moved a bit slower this month.

Website

I only wrote a handful of blog posts, since I focused most of my time on the mailing list project. Once that’s fully set up, I’ll get back to posting more regularly. Still, I’ve promised myself that no matter what, I’ll always write at least these monthly updates.

Newsletter

This was my main project for August. My goal was to finish it before September, but I didn’t quite make it. The good news: I’m almost done. Writing and editing of the novelette are finished, and the translation is about 60% complete. After that, I still need to design the cover and switch to a better mailing list provider. I’m confident I’ll wrap it up fully in September.

Free Books

My STORY52 project continues, though in August I only published two new short stories:

  • Book 5 | Those Who Go To War (US – DE): German 14 – English 11
  • Book 6 | The Red Button (US – DE): German 21 – English 7

Writing

My main goal for 2025 is to establish a system that allows me to write (and publish) a new book every month in 2026. The writing system is already in place. For the pulp genres I usually write in, 50–60K words is a good target for a novel. That translates to about 2,000 words a day—something I can already handle comfortably.

Alongside that, I’ll be focusing on a single series, and I want to limit myself to that before diving into additional multi-novel projects.

Projected releases:

  • Endless – free novelette for mailing list subscribers | Writing: finished | Editing: finished | Translation: 60%
  • October release: 17 (Book 1 of my new series) | Writing: finished | Editing: 75%
  • November release: Therapy (a thriller-satire) | Writing: finished | Editing: 15%
  • December release: Crowley (a thriller) | Writing: 85%

The overall release plan: about 9–10 standalone titles each year, plus 2–3 installments of the ongoing 17 series. That would give me a new release on the 1st of every month starting in 2026.

X / Twitter

I’m still following people to build up some refollows, but I’m not sure yet what kind of content I should post. Without an audience and interaction, Twitter feels pretty dull.

For now, I share the occasional movie review when I watch something. If I ever build a small audience there, I might also post writing updates and progress. At this point, it’s mainly just a place where I’ve secured my handle.

Instagram

Same story here—I’ve reserved my handle but don’t have a clear long-term strategy for content yet. At the moment, I’m posting the book covers I design. In the future, there’ll be more, but I’m still figuring out what.

YouTube

This month I had some health issues that cost me my voice, so I couldn’t record many videos. I should be back on a regular schedule soon, though.

My tutorial channel now has 11K subscribers, but I don’t expect huge growth from here on.

To Conclude

August was a slower month, with most of my energy going into behind-the-scenes work. Still, the system I envisioned is gradually taking shape.