September wasn’t the greatest month in many ways. I got sick and couldn’t work as much as I wanted. Still, I managed to complete the most important project I had planned for the month, which is something. In terms of overall growth, though, I didn’t make much progress.

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Website

After wrapping up my mailing list project, I finally freed up some time to invest in this website. For about a week, I focused on publishing a new article every day. I think continuing with daily posts here is a good idea to steadily attract more readers.

Metrics are slowly climbing: the blog currently gets around 200 views and 100 readers per month. It’s a start.

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Newsletter

A major project is finally done. Finding the right provider took longer than expected, but I ultimately settled on MailerLite. The key for me was offering something in exchange for signing up: a free novelette called Endless.

If you just want the book, you can sign up, download it, and unsubscribe. But if you stay, I’ll keep you updated on future free book giveaways on Amazon – another good incentive to join the list.

You can find it here: Endless by Michael Brig

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Free Books

This part of my growth strategy came to a complete halt in September. I couldn’t find the time to publish new short stories. I’m still working on my STORY52 project (writing and publishing 52 short stories on Amazon KDP, with one free story given away each week), but I couldn’t keep up this month due to illness and other obligations.

The good news: I’ve already written 18 stories, with 7 published so far. New content is coming soon, and I’ll complete STORY52 within the next two years at the latest – that’s a promise.

Giving Short Stories Away (Without Announcing It)

One experiment I did manage: I set some of my already published stories to “free” on Amazon without telling anyone. Normally, I use this website and Twitter to spread the word – the newsletter will also help with that in the future.

The results? Downloads were noticeably lower without announcements. So even my small reach on Twitter and this blog makes a difference. Relying only on Amazon’s built-in system is not a good idea.

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Writing

I still envision a system where I can release a new book every month. For now, my realistic 2025 goal is quarterly releases.

Writing itself is the easy part – editing and translating are much harder for me. Still, I should be able to publish at least one more book this year, ideally two.

Project Updates

• Endless – Finished and published in September. The one big success of the month.
• 17 Series – Part 5 is 90% written. Editing and translating the first release in the series is at 80%. Guaranteed release in late 2025 (November or December).
• Therapy – Another finished novel. If things go well, I’ll edit and translate it in 2025.
• Crowley – Finished in September, but a release is more likely in 2026.
• Influencer – Currently outlining. Writing planned for 2025, release in 2026.

Once STORY52 is done, I’ll have more time to focus on novels. At first, I thought I could juggle weekly short stories and monthly novels, but that was overly ambitious. A more realistic target is 4–6 full novels per year, with short stories on the side.

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X/Twitter

I want to become more active here. Since Twitter is mostly about politics, I’ll dive back into the mud – shitposting, clout farming, and riding viral trends included.

Still, I have to be careful: the German government loves suing people for criticism. (That’s life in a communist bureaucratic country.)

My target: around 10 tweets or comments per day to see if I can grow a following. Follow me here: Michael Brig on Twitter

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Instagram

No changes.

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YouTube

A bad month overall. I barely touched my channels. I need to get back on track with YouTube, even though the platform’s shadowbanning and censorship make it frustrating.

Alternatives like Rumble and Odysee just don’t compare in terms of reach. If they did some day, I’d go all in. But until another major censorship wave pushes more people off YouTube, I’ll have to keep dealing with its nonsense.

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Conclusion

September was a slow month, mostly due to personal setbacks. But the mailing list is finally set up, and with that foundation in place, I’m ready to move forward with other projects.

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.

My first real month as an author is officially done. I published my debut novel at the start of July and gave it away for free to more than 600 readers. A handful of people purchased it afterward, and I’ve been getting about one new reader per day via Kindle Unlimited (KENP). Not exactly a bestseller success story—but it’s a start.

Here’s a breakdown of how everything went:

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Free Book Giveaways

As I’ve mentioned before, my strategy is to give all my books away for free in order to build a readership. Being free is really the only “selling point” I have as an indie author trying to break into an oversaturated market where nobody knows who I am. So, free it is.

STORY52

This is my weekly short story project where I release a new short story ebook on Amazon which allows me to give it away from Monday until Saturday. Here are the download numbers so far:

• Book 1 | Black Market Dreams (US – DE): 18 German – 10 English downloads
• Book 2 | The Last Portrait (US – DE): 19 German – 16 English downloads
• Book 3 | The Companion (US – DE): 16 German – 6 English downloads
• Book 4 | Statues (US – DE): 8 German – 3 English downloads

Amazon’s KDP system allows me to offer books for free for 5 days every 3 months. After a year, I’ll have enough content to give away a new short story each week, every year—until I get old and wrinkly.

The goal is not to make money from short stories, but to create promotional material that gets readers interested in my other work at no cost. Frankly, I don’t think it’s even possible to earn anything substantial with short stories on Amazon.

My First Novel: Forever

From my perspective, this is a success. Forever was downloaded 630 times in German and 44 times in English, resulting in 13 ratings on Amazon. With an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars, new readers can see that I don’t write complete trash—but actually offer some real entertainment.

As mentioned earlier, the book also brought in Kindle Unlimited readers—roughly one new reader per day—and led to a few purchases of the digital version.

To everyone who bought or reviewed one of my books: You’re awesome—thank you!

If you haven’t checked it out, grab it here: US – English | DE – German

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My Website

Still very much a work in progress. I’m experimenting with scheduling and trying to figure out what kind of content would be interesting and helpful to you.

Newsletter

Short-term goal: Finish a novelette to give away to new newsletter subscribers.
Long-term goal: Once I reach 100 real subscribers, I’ll begin sending out weekly emails with updates, tips, behind-the-scenes content, and more—for readers, writers, and anyone curious about this author journey.

The website itself

Last month, website traffic increased even though I barely touched it, which is a good sign. That said, I haven’t received many comments yet—just the usual spam. The main purpose of the site is to become a central hub for the community I hope to build. So if you’re reading this: drop a comment and say hi. You might be the first to do so.

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X/Twitter

I’m still figuring out a posting routine here. What I’ve already learned: You won’t gain traction unless you follow people first.

At first, I wanted to be “that cool guy” who follows no one but gets tons of followers anyway. After a month, I realized: if you don’t follow anyone, nobody even notices you exist.

Unless you bring an audience from somewhere else (which I don’t have), you’re essentially invisible. So, my new approach is to follow about 10 new people daily—mostly in certain communities—and get some traction with follow backs.

Content-wise, I post daily thoughts about movies, shows, and books—kind of like a mini review each day. I’m planning to write more about writing and the author life too, but only once I’ve built up an audience that actually engages (likes, comments, retweets).

Follow me here on Twitter if you’re interested: @michael_brig

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Instagram

I secured my handle and uploaded a few book covers. That’s it.

So far, I have absolutely no idea how to grow on Instagram or what to post there. I’ll focus on figuring that out later—after I’ve established a working system for the platforms that currently matter more to me: Twitter, my website, and Amazon.

You can follow me here and say hi: @michaelbrig

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YouTube

My tutorial channel is holding steady at around 10,000 subscribers. But honestly, it feels like there’s not much growth potential left—I might never hit the 100K mark.

To be honest, I believe YouTube has placed my entire profile in a kind of sandbox. Creating videos often feels like I’m fighting windmills. My two author channels, OnPaper and StoryLines, barely get any impressions, even though I see brand-new channels pulling in 100 views per video with far worse thumbnails than mine.

There’s not much I can do about that. All I can do is evaluate whether YouTube is still worth my time and effort.

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Writing

I’m super happy with how writing went in July. I’ve found a routine that really works for me—one that might even allow me to finish a new book each month in the near future.

Right now, I’m juggling:

• Two series
• One standalone novel
• A weekly short story for my STORY52 project

The 17 Series

I’m already writing Part 5, even though I haven’t published Part 1 yet. I’m about 15% into the newest isntallment.

D.E.A.D.

This is my second series—think Harry Potter, but in a secret school for spies and criminals. I’ve written about 25% of Book One.

Crowley

This is my next standalone project: a serial killer thriller with ties to Aleister Crowley. I’m roughly 10% into the first draft.

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Editing / Translating / Publishing

AI tools have been a game-changer for me—they catch way more typos than I ever could. That’s helped me move much faster than before in the editing stage. Still, editing and translating remain the parts I enjoy the least about being an author.

I’ve made a commitment: until I earn money from my writing, I won’t spend money from my other projects on it. My author career has to stand on its own two feet or not stand at all.

Next Release – Endless

A novelette I plan to give away for free to anyone who signs up for my newsletter. I aim to put it out in August.

September Release – Part 1 of the 17 Series

A mix of James Bond, Sherlock Holmes, and Jack Reacher. I’m in the final editing phase, so this should go live in September 2025.

October Release – Therapy

I finished writing this one in July. Next up: the first editing round. If all goes well, it will be released in October 2025.

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To Conclude

There’s still so much to learn, to test, and to figure out. But the most important part? It’s fun. And for the first time, with Forever, I feel like I’ve found a way to attract some readers.

I’m still a long way from being able to call myself a “real” author—but the journey has begun. And the good thing about starting from zero is that the only way from here is up.

Thanks to everyone who reads my stuff. Writing wouldn’t be nearly as fun without you.

See you next time,
Brig