When you don’t have an audience and no marketing budget, giving away your books for free is the only strategy I can think of to get the ball rolling. From day one, I decided that everything I do will be available for free — at least to some degree. If you want to read my work without ever spending a dime, I’ll make that possible.

Of course, I can’t just afford to buy 10,000 copies and hand them out — I’m not rich. But I can use Amazon’s tools to offer the digital versions (Kindle) for free as much as possible. That includes enrolling all my books in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program and taking advantage of the 5-day promotional periods Amazon allows every 90 days for each title.

Three weeks ago, I finished my latest full-length novel Forever. I made it available for free as soon as Amazon processed it. From July 7th to July 13th, both the English and German versions were downloadable for $0.

The German version had 630 downloads — an average of 126 per day, peaking at 273 on July 10th. The English version wasn’t as successful but still reached 44 potential readers.

This is by far the biggest success I’ve had with a title on Amazon.

It didn’t make me a single dollar — so why do I call it a success?

Simple: before I launched my “author in progress” project, I had already published two titles on Amazon. But without an audience or marketing budget, almost no one bought them.

Forever (or Für Immer, the German title) didn’t just get 674 downloads that might leader to future readers — it already has 13 reviews. The high download numbers also gave it a slight ranking boost. Both factors helped attract Kindle Unlimited readers (KENP) and even paying customers after the promo ended.

Right now, I’m averaging one new reader per day on Amazon — either buying the book directly or reading it through Kindle Unlimited. I’m convinced I never would’ve reached those readers without first giving the book away for free.

Free Is the Most Honest Way to Find Readers

People know Stephen King. They know George R. R. Martin. But they don’t know me. When King or Martin release a new book, people check it out because they entertained us before. When I release a new book, no one checks it out — because I haven’t earned that trust yet.

That’s why I need to give people a reason to take a chance on me before I ask them for money. By offering my writing for free, I’m doing exactly that: inviting you to give me a chance at no risk. And if I succeed in entertaining you, you’ll know me — and maybe you’ll come back for more, even if it costs something next time.

I’ll stick to this strategy until reality proves me wrong. But so far, the numbers have clearly convinced me I’m right.

By the way, if you want to check out the book, you can get it here:
US – English | DE – German

As announced, I’ve started releasing one short story per week on Amazon for the next 52 weeks — all available for free. In the spirit of full transparency, here are the download numbers for my first two stories:

STORY52 No. 1 of 52: Black Market Dreams | (US – DE)

STORY52 No. 2 of 52: The Last Portrait | (US – DE)

I write all my stories in German and then translate them into English which is why there are always two version of each book.

Let’s see how things develop — but for someone with no existing audience, it’s a start. And all it cost me was some time and imagination. Hopefully, a few of these free downloads will turn into loyal readers. Hopefully the promo numbers will grow as the project gains momentum.

I think I’ll include these stats in future monthly “Author in Progress” reports.

Publishing short stories and giving them away for free on Amazon has been the most effective strategy I’ve found so far. If you don’t already have an audience, a following, or a network, offering something for free is often your only real option.

Sure, you can rely on luck and hope your writing finds an audience on its own. But for 99% of writers, that simply doesn’t happen. It certainly won’t happen for me.

That’s why I’ve come up with a plan: I’ll write 52 short stories, publish them as Kindle books, and give them away using Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited promo tools.

I just finished my second attempt at this. My test run brought in 28 downloads for the first book and 35 for the second. Not huge numbers, but still — that’s 63 readers I didn’t have before.

The great thing is that I can reuse these books in future campaigns. The first one was only downloaded 28 times, but as my platform grows, I might be able to double that next year, triple it in two years, and maybe even attract thousands of readers over time — from that book alone.

These stories are designed to be giveaways, and once created, they can be used again and again as evergreen promotional tools that neither cost me money nor time.

Amazon allows you to run a free promotion with a book every three months. That means I can promote each book up to four times a year. With 52 books, I could be running free promos year-round — without spending a cent on marketing.

I haven’t seen anyone else trying this strategy, so I can’t guarantee that it will work. But it’s worth a shot. It doesn’t cost me anything. It doesn’t cost the readers anything. And I get to tap into Amazon — one of the biggest search engines on the planet.

Of course, it will cost me time to write the stories. But writing is fun anyway.

So far, this is the best strategy I’ve come up with. I plan to stick with it for a year and see what happens.

That means: My current plan is to write 4 full-length novels a year, plus 52 short stories on top. Wish me luck — and cross your fingers that this strategy helps me build an audience.

I never really made a big plan. When I decided to write 1,000 words every day, I just started — and whatever idea came to mind first, I worked on.
This, as it turns out, was not the best approach. Some ideas I abandoned halfway through; others I finished but chose not to publish because they didn’t work well as standalone novels.

I quickly realized that having a plan isn’t just important when writing a single book — it’s essential when you want to write multiple books every year.

I have dozens of series ideas stored in my swipe file. They all look intriguing, but I know I shouldn’t start them all at once. Instead, it makes more sense to tackle them one by one.

My plan for now is simple: focus on a single series until it’s finished.

In that series, I’ve nearly finished editing Part 1. I’ve already written first drafts for Parts 2 and 3, and I’m currently writing Part 4. Overall, I’ve outlined at least 20 parts, which will eventually bring the series to a satisfying conclusion — or at least a conclusion that I personally find satisfying, tying together the major plotlines that start in Part 1.

The series is called 17, named after the main character.

It’s a crime-thriller-action story in the spirit of Bond, Reacher, Hunt, and Holmes, where the protagonist solves a new case in each book, while a massive conspiracy unfolds across the entire series. I’m blending in elements of conspiracy theories, aiming for a tone that is dark but also has moments of fun.

Whenever I need a break from the series, I’ll work on a standalone novel — not a new series. Just a single novel, perhaps in the sci-fi, mystery, or western genre, something different to refresh my creative energy.

The only other major project I’ll allow myself is a lifelong work I’ve been outlining for years: It began when I watched Disney mishandle Star Wars and HBO rush Game of Thrones to an unsatisfying end. I started thinking about how I could do it better. The result is a sci-fi opera I currently call The Eye Sees It All.

This will be a lifelong project — something I want to build slowly, one page at a time. Honestly, I have no idea how large it will eventually become.
Unlike the 17 series, where I can already estimate that I’ll be able to publish multiple books each year, I might only manage one book for The Eye every couple of years — if that.

So, my loose publishing plan will be:

1. A 17 part
2. Another 17 part
3. A standalone novel
4. A part of The Eye or another 17 part

That’s the current goal.

If I can successfully set up the system that I have in mind, new books will be out every March, June, September, and December.

I think it’s possible. Hopefully, I’m right.