Lately, I’ve read a few articles where writers claim that Medium is a platform where writers are the primary target audience. They say there is no other way to explain why so many articles are written about Medium.

While I don’t wholly agree with this assessment, these authors do have a point. I don’t believe that most readers on this platform are also authors, but I think that authors are among the most diligent readers.

I can’t explain it any other way that of the twenty-one articles I’ve published so far this month, the most successful ones are, of all…

Here comes after a long time again an update, how it goes with my second career.

It’s been a month since I published a new erotic short story. When I started this side project last year, I knew that I would have to neglect it every now and then. I still make most of my living from my thrillers, so there are always months when my focus has to be on that.

Nevertheless, May was my most successful month as an erotica author so far. …

Now I’ve said it. The reason I write is a mixture of success and money. My thirty-plus novels, my well over 600 articles, and all the short stories I’ve written wouldn’t exist if their success couldn’t be measured in numbers.

I read pretty often that authors say they only write for the love of writing. They claim that the urge to write would be there even if no one read their work. I believe some of them, but not most of them.

Every author looks at his numbers. Anyone who claims not to be emotionally affected by them is not…

First, the good news: I received my second Covid vaccination today with the Biontech vaccine (not Pfizer, as people keep misspelling).

For me, this means that in about 14 days, I will be well over ninety percent protected from a Corona infection. I couldn’t be happier right now.

Now the first of two pieces of bad news:

1. I am vaccinated, but most of humanity is not yet. This is bad for the unvaccinated and for me and everyone else who has already had the privilege of receiving a vaccine dose. As long as large portions of the world’s population…

The idea of writing a new article every single day is intimidating at first. It seems downright impossible when you think about it more carefully.

Where will all the ideas come from? Where are we going to find the time and energy to do it? Don’t we have to be realistic and realize that sooner or later, life will get in the way?

All too quickly, we say goodbye to ideas that sounded great and inspiring just a day ago. Because we suspect that we will disappoint ourselves, we prefer not even to try.

But why should we always start…

In the home office, most people don’t have air conditioning. At least I don’t, because it’s not common in northern Europe. Here, even companies rarely have air conditioning.

But our summers are getting hotter and hotter, while the pandemic has started a new trend of working from home that won’t go away anytime soon.

I’ve been working from home for a little over two years now. Since I became a full-time writer, my apartment has also become my office. When it’s as hot outside as it is today, that can be a real problem.

Heat paralyzes the mind

When we’re…

Today I live in Hamburg, a big city with 1.6 million inhabitants in the north of Germany. But initially, I come from the countryside.

My parents lived with me in a small village just over a hundred kilometers from my current hometown. I was seven years old when they moved away with me.

Since then, we have often visited my uncle and aunt, who still live in that village. But I never noticed how much this little village has gone down the drain. We saw them and stayed at their home. …

I may be the last person to notice a feature that Medium offers us, but I don’t believe it. I think many of you don’t realize that you are giving away views and reads when you post articles directly to your publication.

The newsletter feature of publications

If you run your own publication on Medium, you’re almost certainly familiar with this feature. For some time now, it has been possible to send a newsletter directly to the email inbox of the publication’s followers.

This feature makes it much easier for us authors to build up an extensive email list for our stories quickly. Readers no…