I somehow managed to attract scammers from all over the world this month to leave comments on my site—yippie!

On a more serious note, some real-life issues at the beginning of the year took up most of my time. It was a rough start, but I’m recovering now.

Website

As expected, the traffic increase I saw at the end of last year wasn’t genuine. It was mostly scammers who vanished as soon as I deleted their spam comments. A few are still hanging around, though, posting casino links in English, Russian, and—for some reason—even French.

I also couldn’t write until January 18th, which was a real bummer. I really wanted to stick to daily articles, but real life got in the way. Since then, however, I’ve managed to publish something every day.

One good project I’ve started is writing about book marketing once a week. It forces me to invest more time in a topic I’ve neglected for far too long. Writing books is one thing—selling them is a completely different animal. Let’s see if I can tame it.

Newsletter

I think I’ve got some real subscribers now—though it’s fewer than a handful. Still, I’m happy about every single one. So thanks to the few of you who joined. You da real MVPs!

If you want to join as well, you’ll get a free e-book and an update email whenever I give away free books on Amazon. Sign up here: Endless by Michael Brig.

Free Books

I published the next short story, The Wheel, a week ago. Two people already reviewed it with 4-stars. Thank you!

As always, I gave the story away for the maximum of 5 days on Amazon. The English version got 30 downloads, the German version 20.

That brings the total to 11 out of 52 short stories published.

The next one is already in progress on Amazon, and I have another handful ready for publishing. I’m confident that by the end of the year all 52 of the series will be available.

Writing

I messed this one up. The goal was to write 12 novels in 12 months this year, but due to personal issues I quickly realized that this just isn’t realistic—at least not this year.

My focus now is on completing my short story project STORY52 first. I also want to get back into AI comic creation using different tools and solutions. When I started this website, my long-term goal was to publish four novels per year. I think that’s a manageable and realistic target for 2026.

Project Updates 2025

• STORY52 – 11 of 52 published. The goal is to release the remaining stories in 2026.
• Therapy – Editing is 90% complete; translation is next. Planned release: March 2026.
• Crowley – Writing is finished. Planned release: 2026.
• Smash the Patriarchy – Writing is 25% complete. Planned release: 2026.
• [New Title] – Concept is 50% complete. Planned release: 2026.
• 17 Part II – Final draft is 20% complete. Planned release: December 2026.

If everything goes according to plan, this would result in five novel releases this year. At the same time, I’ll continue writing new stories for a 2027 release.

Comics

I checked out Midjourney again to work on an update about AI comic book creation. ChatGPT, Nano Banana, and even Grok are also tools I plan to test for my AI comic project, The Last Superhero.

If all goes well, I’ll post the next part in February and an update on AI comic book making in general.

X / Twitter

I had plans for X at the start of the year, but time is limited—and my reach there is abysmal anyway. For now, I mostly post links to my blog articles and the occasional movie review.

If I ever find an audience on the platform, I’ll invest more time into it. For now, that’s not the case.

That said, I still use Twitter daily to read and stay informed. You can follow me here: @michael_brig

Instagram

No real changes here—I’m still just posting book covers for now.
Follow me here: Michael Brig IG

YouTube

I’ve started making tutorials again after taking almost a month off. Currently, I’m working on tutorials for Photoshop, Illustrator, CapCut, and Affinity. I’ll also add AI tutorials whenever I feel confident that I’ve learned something well enough to teach it (e.g., AI comic book making).

I also decided to publish my author progress videos on my tutorial channel. Since YouTube has put my account into what feels like a sandbox, new channels get virtually no views. On my tutorial channel, I at least get some exposure for these videos.

My video essay channel about movies will return in February as well.

• StoryLines | Video Essays About Stories (YouTube | Rumble)
• Michael Brig | Tutorial Channel (Only on YouTube)

Conclusion

A bad start to the year—but I’m getting back on the horse.

See you next time,
BRIG

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Instagram

No real changes—I’m still just posting book covers for now.
Follow me here: Michael Brig IG

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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)

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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.

Things have been improving — both personally and for my online projects. Writing is on track, my next big YouTube course is almost finished, and the numbers are going up. We’re getting somewhere.

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Website

This was my first full month of daily blogging. After 31 articles, my views increased by 53%, and my user count went up by 94%.

The site is still small — I’ve only received a handful of comments, and it’s not like I’m selling many books through it — but the increase in traffic shows that writing more really helps.

I’ll keep writing daily for as long as I can, and as long as people stay interested. Maybe this daily approach is what will finally help me build a decent audience for my writing.

Numbers in October:

• Pageviews: 338 (+53%)
• Total Users: 213 (+94%)

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Newsletter

The setup is done, but no one has really signed up yet. I need to find a way to get this moving.

Offering a free book to anyone who joins the list, plus weekly notifications about free Amazon book promos, should be enough incentive to subscribe.

Anything more would feel spammy — and I don’t want to be that guy. The internet already has enough spammers.

If you’d like a free book and want to stay updated on weekly free Amazon downloads, sign up here: Endless by Michael Brig

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Free Books

I managed to get somewhat back on track with this project in October, although a strict weekly schedule turned out to be unrealistic due to other commitments.

STORY52

I’m still determined to publish all 52 short stories by the end of 2026. These stories will also serve as free weekly promos for years to come.

So far, I’ve written 38 stories — 8 of them are already published and available on Amazon. The plan is to write the remaining 14 stories in 2025. Editing, translating, and publishing all of them will then become a weekly task for 2026.

This month, I published Protocol Twilight (US – DE).

If you haven’t grabbed it for free yet, add it to your Amazon wishlist and wait for the next promo in a couple of months.

Protocol Twilight – Free Promo Downloads: Promo period from Monday, Oct 27 to Friday, Oct 31

• German version: 13 downloads
• English version: 4 downloads

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Writing

I focused mainly on short stories this month — I think I wrote around 20 of them.
That focus, however, came at the expense of my novel writing and editing.

My goals for 2025 remain the same:

• Finish writing another novel (working title: Influencer)
• Release the first part of my 17 series (working title: Like a Rolling Stone)

Project Updates 2025

• Forever – Released in July (US / DE)
• Endless – Free book for newsletter subscribers, released in September (get it here)
• 17 Series – Part 1 is 80% complete; target release before Christmas 2025
• Therapy – Written; planned release early 2026
• Crowley – Written; planned release summer 2026
• Influencer – Currently outlining; goal to finish writing by end of 2025

I also plan to release a few more short stories this year — not weekly, but around 3–4 more should be manageable.

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X / Twitter

This month’s Twitter updates brought even more censorship — especially in Germany. That made me rethink my efforts on the platform.

I’ll still share links to my articles and videos, and I’ll continue posting movie reviews whenever I watch something new. But for now, I won’t invest time in commenting, sharing, or creating unique content there.

There’s no point writing for Twitter when shadow banning buries your posts in oblivion.

But you can follow me here: @michael_brig

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Instagram

No real changes here — I’m still just posting my book covers for now.

Follow me here: Michael Brig IG

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YouTube

A better month overall!

I’m almost done with a 12-hour course about the new version of GIMP, which I’ll release for free on my tutorial channel. I also managed to produce almost daily Photoshop tutorials.

In addition, I created more video essays and launched a new personal channel:

• BRIG | Personal Channel (YouTube | Rumble)
• StoryLines | My Video Essay Channel About Stories (YouTube | Rumble)
• OnPaper | Videos about my author in progress project (YouTube | Rumble)
• Michael Brig | Tutorial Channel (Only on YouTube)

OnPaper follows my author journey — perfect if you’d rather watch and listen than read my articles.

StoryLines is a video essay channel focused on storytelling in film and TV. The latest video covered the two Judge Dredd movies; next up is Disney’s Star Wars.

BRIG is my new personal channel — just for fun. I plan to share thoughts and ideas for now. Later drone shots, bike rides, AI experiments, travel clips, and creative projects are planned. It’s simply a space to keep the creative energy flowing.

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Conclusion

October was a much better month overall. The website grew, I started another YouTube channel, and the STORY52 project is back on track.

Compared to September, my health has also improved. I’ve got a few doctor’s appointments next week — hopefully things continue getting better from here.

Wish me luck!

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.