Another week, another free short story from me on Amazon! Check out number 11 in my STORY52 project — it’s free starting today through Friday.

Synopsis:

A city. A formula. A truth that must not be discovered.

When Professor Harlan Sael alters an equation, reality begins to fracture. Houses vanish. People dissolve. And at the edge of the city waits something that should not exist.

The closer Harlan gets to the solution, the clearer it becomes: the equation doesn’t just describe the world — it defines it.

US Version | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GKVLSNBV
German Version | https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0GKW12184

As always, a review would be greatly appreciated — it helps me with Amazon’s algorithm.

See you next week,
BRIG

Today, the 5-day promo ended, and as I had suspected, the timing doesn’t make much of a difference: putting your book on free over the weekend or during weekdays seems irrelevant—at least from my current perspective.

The results:

• 30 downloads for the English version
• 20 downloads for the German version

These numbers are on the higher end of my usual range for free short story promotions on Amazon, but nothing wildly above or below my typical results.

Interestingly, this is the first time the English version outperformed the German one. It’s hard to say why that happened.

The download pattern is the same as always: the first three days account for most of the downloads, while the last two days see very few. This might be because Amazon has a specific category for new releases that people check regularly, and perhaps the book is ranked differently three days after release in that category.

Overall, my takeaway is that, for me, the timing of free short story promotions doesn’t seem to matter.

Usually, I make my short stories available for free on Mondays. However, since I already published No. 11 of the STORY52 series, The Wheel, yesterday, I decided to run a little experiment and make it free from Saturday through Wednesday to see if this helps me reach more readers.

On YouTube, fewer people watch my tutorials from Friday to Sunday. Viewership starts to rise again on Mondays and typically peaks on Wednesdays. I assumed the same pattern might apply to book sales—but maybe I’m wrong.

It could be that people are more likely to browse Amazon for new books to discover on weekends, when they’ve got more time for leisure activities. Let’s find out.

As always, the digital edition is free. You can read it on a Kindle device or via the Kindle Online Reader if you don’t own the device.

Synopsis:

A village. A wheel. A task that must never end.
When Joseph Richter becomes stranded in Treadwell, he encounters a community whose daily life revolves around a single, inexplicable duty: the relentless turning of a massive wooden wheel. No one asks questions. No one stops working. Never.

A dark, oppressive short story by Michael Brig, approx. 11,000 words.

US version | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJDSY9RR
German version | https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0GJF9XW2H

If you enjoyed the story, I’d really appreciate it if you left a review on the good old Amazon website. And if you never want to miss a giveaway, you can sign up for my mailing list here.

Take care,
BRIG

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.

The next short story is published. You can get “Killtime” for free until Friday on Amazon:

In the shadows of a future where attention is the only currency, a man hunts for what everyone craves—clicks, followers, fame. And there’s only one way to get it: the next kill.

Killtime is a darkly satirical short story by Michael Brig — approximately 1,100 words.

US Version | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3J1S4YS
German Version | https://amazon.de/dp/B0FXS9YM9N

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

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