My short story project is progressing really well. Today, I’ve reached another important milestone that keeps the entire project on track for completion this year.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve designed all 52 book covers — roughly one cover per day. Today, I officially completed that phase of the process.

Here’s the current status of the project (out of 52 stories):

• 52 book covers designed
• 52 stories written
• 18 stories edited
• 18 stories translated
• 13 stories published

If I can maintain the one-story-per-week release schedule, Story No. 52 will be released on November 9, 2026. That gives me a small buffer — about seven weeks until the new year starts — in case I miss a Monday somewhere along the way.

Once the project is complete, it will free up time to focus on something new. I might explore publishing short stories in magazines or e-zines to reach new readers — we’ll see.

The good news is: STORY52 is absolutely doable this year.

If you’ve missed one of the free giveaways, don’t worry. I’ve planned to offer each story as a free download for five days, repeating once per year — indefinitely. So if you follow me here on the website, on X, or sign up for the mailing list, you won’t miss any of them. Within a year, you’ll be able to collect all 52 stories at no cost — guaranteed.

Here’s the list of the stories already published:

1. Black Market Dreams (US – DE)
2. The Last Portrait (US – DE)
3. The Companion (US – DE)
4. Statues (US – DE)
5. Those who go to war (US – DE)
6. The Red Button (US – DE)
7. The Asylum (US – DE)
8. Protocol Twilight (US – DE)
9. Killtime (US – DE)
10. The Last President (US – DE)
11. The Wheel (US – DE)
12. The Equation (US – DE)
13. Turing-Test (US – DE)

Another Monday, another free short story book from me. Turing-Test is available in German and English until Friday. You can get a copy here:

US | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GM7B7N1C
DE | https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0GM796L1M

Synopsis:

No one has ever passed the test. Even today, the two supervisors are certain that no one will succeed. But then a subject gives answers that no machine should be capable of knowing …

An existential sci-fi short story, approximately 1,200 words long.

As always, please leave me a review if you liked the story, thanks.

Yesterday, I saw a spike in sales for my short stories.

Thanks to everyone who bought a copy (or multiple) —but you don’t have to pay for these stories. I wrote the short story books to give them away for free. Unfortunately, Amazon only allows me to set them to free for five days at a time. If I could make them free for 365 days, I absolutely would.

The idea is to give you a free entry point into my storytelling. And if you enjoy my short fiction, you might be interested in checking out my long-form fiction—the “real” books I’ve written.

If you never want to miss a short story giveaway, just do this:

• Add my website to your feed—I post short articles about book promotions whenever they go live
• Subscribe to my mailing list—I send an email whenever a promo is live (and you’ll also get a free e-novel when you subscribe)
• Follow me on Twitter—I post (and pin) a tweet for every book promotion

Sometimes people are simply kind and want to give something back in return for these stories. That’s cool and very much appreciated. However, my main goal is to build a long-term author–reader connection. The best way to do that is by me giving away everything that I can for free, and you following me through the options above—especially the mailing list.

So if you want to support me and give back, consider subscribing.

By the way, the next short story is ready for publication (and a free promo) on Monday. See you then. And thanks much more to everyone who thinks that my writing is worth your money.

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.