Tag Archives: free

Based on the Elder Scrolls series,

Leave a reply

An Enchanting Tale, by Aaron Dennis

an enchanting tale skyrim

This is a fanfiction based on The Elder Scrolls series of video games and incorporates the worlds from Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. An Enchanting Tale is free, thus eliminating any copyright infringement. This novel is not intended for profit.

S’maash is a young dark elf bent on making new discoveries in the field of enchanting. After discouraging words form his fellow mages, S’maash and his brother, S’maath, venture into the dwemer ruin of Dmalzthur in an effort to discern just how the deep elves crafted items such as Volendrung, Keening, and Sunder, yet they find only death and ash in the ancient ruin. S’maash then travels into Cyrodiil, hoping to find some clues on the ayleids’ enchanting practices. When things go awry in the ruin of Anutwyll, S’maash makes his final move into Skyrim, joins the College of Winterhold, and finds himself on a quest for the Daedric Prince of Knowledge, Hermaeus Mora.

The daemon sets the dunmer on a path to reforge the Heart of Lorkhan, meet the dwemer in their new city of Xranthrnl, and eventually break ground on unknown forms of enchanting. This is the perfect addition to The Elder Scrolls.

Read on or download the whole story for free at Smashwords

Chapter One

S’maash always had an affinity for magick—enchanting especially—his natural talent was rivaled only by his love for the art. In his days as a child of Morrowind, he ran about with his friends and siblings stirring up all sorts of trouble. While they tried to stow away on silt striders, large insects utilized for the purposes of traveling long distances, S’maash normally found himself in trouble for different reasons, such as skulking into a mage’s workshop to catch a glimpse of a master spell craftsman at work. Most of his endeavors ended with a slap to the back of the head followed by the derogatory you s’wit, but that did little dissuade him.

Upon reaching adulthood in the year 4 E 221, S’maash, a striking, young, dark elf with a shock of gray hair on his head, and a gray-blue complexion, took a job as an inventory manager for a local union of mages in the town of L’Thu Oad. It was a small settlement southwest of Narsis, and his home town.

Working with the Mages’ Coalition consisted of little more than taking notes on their studies and cataloging their findings. Other menial tasks involving the organizing of reagents, soul gems, and magickal equipment kept him busy enough. Although he did learn a great deal about enchantments, the dunmer’s curiosity was never satiated. His knowledge of over fifty enchantments was a testament to the fact that knowledge led only to more curiosity, and that led him to speak to one of the elder mages, an old altmer—or high elf—named Rosoleola, the head of the Mages’ Coalition in L’Thu Oad. Ancient and surly with a shimmering, gold hue to his skin, he was not an easy person to approach.

“Master?” S’maash called.

The old altmer was stooped over an arcane enchanter, a malevolent-looking table adorned with the skull of a three-eyed beast, several candles, and a misty, green bauble. Rosoleola turned to the young dunmer while flipping through the pages of a journal.

“What now?” he barked.

“I couldn’t help, but notice you’re attempting to enchant that steel dagger with fire damage,” S’maash stated the obvious. Rosoleola winced as he returned his steady gaze to his journal. He remained quiet, absorbed, so S’maash stirred nervously before breaking the silence. “Why is it that we can imbue a weapon with fire damage, but not a shield or gauntlets?”

“S’wit…must you ask such a foolish question?” The altmer’s voice was raspy and condescending.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand, Sir. I’ve been watching and taking notes for these past seven years. Along the way, I have realized many truths, but some of them seem to have no logical base.”

Rosoleola turned to the youngster with contempt. He pushed an errant strand of silver hair behind his ear.

“What are you babbling about now, boy?”

“Sir, a flame cloak spell can be cast by a mage. This provides him the ability to damage an opponent by merely standing adjacent him without so much as warming his own skin. Why not can a piece of iron armor be enchanted as such?”

Expedition by Aaron Dennis

Leave a reply
Expedition By Aaron Dennis
Expedition By Aaron Dennis

King Eidon of Ilteriel learns of a new island, far to the south. He sends an expedition in search of new resources, allies, and power. Jorunhaal, Ilteriel’s greatest warrior, is to lead the expedition. Upon setting foot on the island, one disaster after another occurs. The men battle small were-wolves, fall prey to a foul sickness in the air, and uncover demons once sealed away.

Read or download for free at Smashwords

The rhythmic sound of low waves crashing onto the sand was a relaxing melody to the ears of Jorunhaal. He was a great and mighty warrior; legends of his triumph over an entire clan of Medsai, though exaggerated, stuck to him like his own shadow. He was young, yet, and taught the various weapons of Ilteriel by the finest warriors who preceded him. King Eidon placed him in charge of the team of eighteen men and women. His sole purpose was to keep the expedition safe.

A few weeks at sea brought the ship of warriors and workers to golden sands. They had arrived on the island as their king had wished. Jorunhaal methodically scanned his surroundings. The broad-shouldered and burly man saw hills in the distance, mountains stood beyond.

“Sotha, unpack the furs and linens first,” Jorunhaal ordered.

Having only just anchored the ship, he knew his fellow party members were weary, and erecting camp was of the utmost importance. Sotha, a lithe woman who bore her age well, was charged with inventory, logging discovery, and sound planning. She was tasked with returning accurate information to Eidon’s hands.

“Aye,” she replied while shielding her eyes from the bright sun.

She wore traditional clothes, heavy linens. Her hair was thick and dark. Her eyes sparkled with a keen intelligence.

A warm wind caressed the backs of the party as they worked to erect tents, unload crates of supplies, and finally relax. During the hours that passed, Jorunhaal took stock of the immediate surroundings. About what I would expect, he thought. Blue waves continued crashing against golden sand. The beach before him was pristine, and the wind, heavy with salt. A few trees grew about. They had tall, straight trunks, light brown in color with a tuft of short, squat, green leaves at their tops.

Before long, night settled above the party. It was clear and many stars shone brightly over the island; prosperity seemed to be in the air. The men and women were glad to be in a new place. As they ate and drank around a large fire they conversed about what they might find, the proper steps to take, and much more.

“You think there are no men, here? No dangers,” Wilheim the mage asked in an accusatory tone.

The codger was balding and what little gray hair remained laid loosely over his shoulders. He had a hard face; years of magical practice left it worn and creased, a perpetual scowl. He continued arguing with another.

“I never said that, old man,” Durro, captain of the soldiers, replied.

Hunting by Aaron Dennis

Leave a reply

Mr. Gray has been hunting zombies for a long time. Hiding, scavenging, killing-this is surviving now. As Gray moves from town to city, and city to prairie, he leaves a few notes for others in his travels, but who is looking out for him?

In the year 2017 a worldwide calamity befalls the population. Poison clouds cause strange afflictions relegating major portions of the populace as a sort of walking dead. Among them Mr. Gray is not affected and decides to go off hunting. Hiding, scavenging, and killing his way across the States Gray keeps sane by writing in his journal. After food and other supplies run low he moves from town to town before coming across a farmhouse.

Read or download for free at Smashwords

Mr. Gray is asleep in a storage unit. Before giving in to exhaustion, he checked it for rats and roaches. He hates roaches. They have a symbiotic relationship with some kind of worm, like the worm is piloting some biological machine; freaky.

In this day, in this age, traveling is survival. Mr. Gray has been traveling for some time. He abandoned the last town soon as supplies ran out. Supplies always run out quick. It’s a tough decision to leave when zombies are dead and there is clean water. There was no more food, though, and Mr. Gray can’t farm or hunt, but not because he is incapable.

The soil in town looked good, but there were no seeds. Even if there were seeds, they are useless. Today’s seeds are genetically modified. They can’t be replanted for harvest, so the food supply is not sustainable. Hunting is futile, too, unless one hunts zombies. Zombies don’t qualify as food. They make people get sick and die. It’s always time to move.

Many hills line the area between town, and the storage units. It’s been cold lately, and Mr. Gray stumbled across a unit with blankets. The plan was to get some rest and then check each unit for food and other supplies. He has to keep clean or run the risk of illness.

With a quiet groan, he does a full-bodied stretch. He wakes fully, turns on his LED camping lantern, and immediately starts a stretch routine to loosen his tightness. The soft, blue light illuminates the tiny room. Once the stretches are over, he wraps up his blankets and stacks them neatly in the corner. There wasn’t anything useful in the storage unit other than blankets.

With the folding done, he turns to his black backpack. From it, he pulls out extra clothing. Because of the lowering temperature, he knows it is unwise to wear all of his clothes when going to sleep, especially if it’s getting colder. The body acclimates. Sleeping while wearing everything to keep warm keeps the body from warming up by its own accord after waking. It’s best to sleep a little cold and then don the remaining clothing when getting up.

Mr. Gray Pulls out three, additional pairs of long, black socks and puts them on his feet. He pulls out his black beanie with the eye holes. He has a pair of black, leather gloves, too. Instead of slipping them on, he slips a black, wool sweater on over his black, long sleeve tee, and leaves his protective gear lying next to him.

There are a few storage bins in there, the colored plastic ones. He opens one. It’s full of pots and pans. He pees in it and closes it then goes back to his gear, rubber backed rugs sliced and diced to contour his body.

There are a few small pieces for his thighs, calves, forearms, upper arms, and one that slides over his torso. He uses a piece of wetsuit as padding in his trousers. The rubber pieces are cinched with belts through slots he cut with his knife. Like a ritual, he straps on all his gear. Next, he takes out a can of dog food.

Bon apatite. He pulls the lid and scoops the food into his mouth with his fingers and licks them clean. Now, it’s time for the gloves. Gloves are annoying. Every time you put them on you gotta’ rub something out of your eyes.

After more stretches to loosen his knees—a good hunter keeps his body in good shape—he slides on the gloves. One can’t afford injury. Health supplies are hard to find and an injury, no matter how small, can give a zombie the leg up.

Eudora by Aaron Dennis

Leave a reply

Are we not all taught who we are supposed to be? What if who we are conflicts with who we want to be? She was taught to be Eudora, but she must be something quite different.

Read on or download for free at Smashwords

Things have a funny way of working out. The irony is that no matter what one does, how hard someone tries to become something, to make something of oneself, those forces at large have a way of putting things back the way they were, the way they were meant to be. Eudora was no exception.

It was a balmy day. The sun was setting. Eudora, with her abnormally large teeth, thick rimmed black glasses, pasty white skin, stringy, black hair pulled back tightly—save the bangs; they hung loosely to either side of her face—she was not the image of beauty. Her big, blue braces moved up and down as she spoke. Maybe it was the braces, or the big, fake teeth in the front, but she spoke like her tongue was too big for her mouth.

They sat on the hood of the old, gray Cadillac, Eudora and her friends. They weren’t her friends of course, but she didn’t understand the difference. They were Charlie’s friends. He was her younger brother. They were quite a few years apart.

“You should just go ask him, Eudora”, Patty said. She was a tall, strawberry blonde with a light tan. “He’s been giving you the eye all day.”

“I can’t do that. I never even said hello to him before. He’ll just laugh at me.”

Eudora’s response was more out of knowledge and certainty than sadness. Sadness held no real meaning for her.

“Well, whatever, it’s not like he’s got anyone anyway. Larry ain’t exactly prince charmin’, is he?” Joe sniped.

He was Patty’s boyfriend, but not in the traditional way of family values. This time it was the 70’s, but before it was the 70’s it was just a dark basement with nothing to do, but scratch at the walls. People in the 70’s were a concept Eudora was unable to grasp—Eudora isn’t from this time; she isn’t from anytime, really….

Charlie was coming home from work. He was trying to make enough money over the summer to apply at the local, community college come winter. His grandfather helped him get a job at the mill, and Charlie was learning all sorts of things; how to work the lathe, the planer; he smoothed boards like it was no one’s business, but these things didn’t interest him. He, like his sister, was born in one life, but was learning to become someone else.

College was his ticket. He’d turn from a sweet, country boy to a calculating businessman, or that was the goal anyway. Unlike his sister, he was dark and fair haired. Most people never guessed they were family, except they shared their grandfather’s features; slim nose, big eyes, blue, all three of them.

Charlie pulled up in his Ford pick-up alongside the Cadillac. Dust kicked up. Joe and Patty covered their eyes and patted themselves off. Not Eudora, maybe it was her glasses, maybe it was something else; she never made an effort to dust herself off either. She just looked at her brother. Her oversized pearly whites and blue braces showed as she grinned.

“Hello Charlie,” she spoke with that chunky tongue.

“Heya’, Dora,” he replied and smiled back. “I saw Larry leaving. Did you say hello?”

“No, Charlie, maybe I see him tomorrow.”

“Well,” he was pensive. “Maybe we should have him over for dinner tomorrow. You and Gramps can whip up something nice.”

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett, Epic the First

Leave a reply

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett, Epic, the First, is an ongoing compilation of adventures. I have recently begun to combine the short stories and have edited them to read as chapters in a novel, and yet they retain their individuality. I am proud and very happy to bring them together in this first epic.

the adventures of larson and garrett epic the first

the adventures of larson and garrett epic the first

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett began long, long ago when I was a lad, myself; I used to spend one night a week rolling dice while our dungeon master, David, narrated the outstanding story. Eventually, those who lacked the sobriety required to survive the adventures died off, and Larson and Garrett were the only two heroes to remain, and yet the other members; those who died, those who wandered off, those who came and went are remembered.

Let it be said that the Adventures of Larson and Garrett are in no way plagiarized; these are not cut and pasted transcripts from sessions of Dungeons and Dragons, no. The Adventures of Larson and Garrett outgrew their own medium, and they took on a life of their own, a life that no longer adhered to the rules and regulations; they became an entity, a thing-in-itself, and after many, many years, they have been recreated.

The following compilation of stories are very loosely based on just a handful of gaming sessions, and to be perfectly honest, little more than the characters themselves have been replicated, yet the spirit of the sessions has remained, and I want to pass them on to you, but act soon.

Once the first novel has been edited to completion and published, I will be removing the free short stories, however, the novel will remain free for download for a limited period. For now, I just want to share the stories, though, so be sure to nab these awesome adventures now!

You can download the first ten stories for free here. The link is for the whole series!

The Sleeping Tree

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett The Sleeping Tree By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett The Sleeping Tree
By Aaron Dennis

A Werewolf in the Dark

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A Werewolf in the Dark By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A Werewolf in the Dark
By Aaron Dennis

Infestation

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Infestation By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Infestation
By Aaron Dennis

Trouble in Atjibur

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Trouble in Atjibur By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Trouble in Atjibur
By Aaron Dennis

Garrett’s Tale

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Garrett's Tale By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Garrett’s Tale
By Aaron Dennis

On to Xorinth

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On to Xorinth By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On to Xorinth
By Aaron Dennis

Investigating trouble

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Investigating Trouble By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Investigating Trouble
By Aaron Dennis

On the Honor of Thieves

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On the Honor of Thieves By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett On the Honor of Thieves
By Aaron Dennis

Assault in Stormguard

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Assault in Stormguard By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett Assault in Stormguard
By Aaron Dennis

A people Defiled

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A People Defiled By Aaron Dennis

The Adventures of Larson and Garrett A People Defiled
By Aaron Dennis

Michael Myers ch 4

Leave a reply

michael myers halloween

Before I dive into Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction, I want to remind everyone that this is pretty much your last chance to get my titles for free or at a discount via Smashwords.

The Smashwords promo ends on July 31st, so get in there now. You don’t have to just get my books; many authors are discounting their titles for the rest of July.

If you don’t have a Smashwords account, it is completely free to make, and many books are always free for download, while most of the rest are reasonably priced, so now is the best time to take advantage of Smashwords.

Anyway, back to Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction….

I must admit that while writing this, I ended up keeping Michael as a boy for far longer than I had intended. I also believe this little, horror, fanfiction is going to be a bit longer than I had presumed. Unfortunately, I’m having to divide my time between the Halloween fanfiction, touching up War and Glory, Lokians 3, and setting up The Dragon of Time 3, Dragons Falling (Working title).

There is also another book I’ve finished writing and will probably release that one around Turkey Day, but enough BS. Here’s the fourth chapter of Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction….

It had taken two days to get everything under control after Michael and the kids killed Marla, the orderly. Loomis had sent his reports to Lt. Reichstag in the meantime, and when she showed up, she demanded Loomis to show her the boy.

Michael found himself inside one of the rooms with the paper covered bed; the rooms that always had a man in a white coat. He sat on it, crinkling the paper in both hands. There was always an odd smell in the room, something light that made the insides of his nose feel funny.

Disregarding any kind of ordnance, Reichstag, a tall, blonde woman dressed in a black uniform with colorful ribbons, pulled a cigarette from a pack, placed it between her lips, and lit it. She took a long inhalation before blowing out a cloud of smoke. The scent quickly assaulted the boy’s palate; Loomis glanced at her with a wince.

“Separate him from the rest,” Reichstag ordered.

“You want him in B block?”

“A block.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the doctor shook his head when he spoke. Reichstag glared at him. “I have to tell you, he can’t grow up to follow complex orders. He’s not the kind of patient for A block.”

“Leave that to me and Ushiro,” Reichstag was indifferent. “You just make sure he starts getting the proper dosage.”

“He’s too young! Most of A block have already gone through puberty. You remember what happened with Jones. You want a repeat of that?”

Reichstag shoved Loomis by the shoulder, her cigarette dangling from her lips. She took another drag then.

“It doesn’t make any difference. If I have to put him down, I will.”

“You don’t put anybody down,” Loomis frowned. “You have me do it….”

“Then, you’ll do it.”

With that, the woman left. Michael was still crinkling paper when Loomis pulled a stool with wheels from the corner. He sat on it and scooted closer to the boy.

Scrutinizing the gashes and bruises covering the boy, Loomis suffered a moment of doubt or remorse. There wasn’t much of an alternative; Reichstag’s superiors funded Smith’s Grove, and they had placed Loomis in charge because of his service record, and his ingenuity in the field of biology. His job was to create forms of super soldiers, but not every boy and girl was cut out for A block.

“I guess you would have gotten killed one way or another,” Loomis sighed. “Still, B block would have been better; all they do is charge and shoot whatever’s in front of their eyes…but A block…they require precise cognition, forethought, planning. You don’t understand any of that, do you?”

Michael started nodding the way Ushiro had taught him, but Loomis knew it was just an action; he had been trained to nod after a question. Loomis looked to the counter behind him. There was a jar of cotton balls; he took one and placed it in the boy’s hand. He rubbed his face with it. Loomis shook his head in dismay.

 

****

 

Months went by. Michael was relocated to a very bright room. There was a single, padded bed, but there was no space to move around. There were no other children in the room either, but he did have his very own cotton ball.

Every time the lights went out, he went to sleep. When the lights came back on, someone slid a tray of food through a sliding transom. After he ate, Loomis came in to give him a shot, and then he was led through the hallway with a few other kids; most of them were big. None of them ever made eye contact.

Finally, they were herded into a very spacious room. The lights were way overhead. The room had all kids of strange things; there were big, black, rubber tires, there were heavy, round, metal plates, big, red bags. There was even a big square that had stairs and ropes around it. Kids fought each other on it.

Every day, after Ushiro forced them to run drills, he made them fight. Sometimes, something soft was placed over Michael’s eyes; the first time it happened, he just stood there, but someone kept shocking him with the prod and yelling to move—it made sense; if he moved, he didn’t get prodded until he wound up in a spot where he couldn’t move anymore because there was something hard and smooth. Then, he got zapped again. Other times, there were blocky things, which he had to crawl over or climb onto, but after a while, Michael learned how to move without being shocked at all.

By honing his other senses, the boy quickly memorized Ushiro’s maze. One time, he even smelled Reichstag’s cigarette, and he heard her voice; she was there, speaking to Ushiro.

“He’s pretty good for a rug rat,” she said.

“Yeah, but the bigger kids still whip his ass in the ring. He’s got guts, and I don’t think he feels pain, but he sure as Hell hates the prod. Fortunately, he’s learned to stop trying to take it from me, and at the end of it all, he’s just happy to get back to his room and diddle his face with cotton.”

Reichstag laughed. “Loomis says he’s responding to the drugs, too.”

“Yeah, he must’ve already grown two inches and packed on some muscle, but I have to admit…I think Loomis might’ve been right….”

“About?” Reichstag sounded angry.

“I just can’t imagine you’ll be able to give this kid a target and expect him to deduce the best methods for hunting it down; he’s a killer, sure, and he can easily move through this maze, but what if I change it? He’ll have to memorize its layout all over again; he can’t improvise.”

“That’s really not my problem.”

Thanks for reading Michael Myers, a Halloween fanfiction Ch 4.

There’s still a long way to go, and I have a few more chapters written out. If anyone has any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks again. Like, share, all that!

 

How can I show readers that my stories are well written and edited? A Quora Question

Leave a reply

Since Quora likes to collapse my answers in an effort to keep me quiet, I’m copying and pasting some of the Quora Q and A’s in which I’ve participated. Here’s a question from Quora.

writer editor

Question: With all the terrible self published books on the market, how can I show readers that mine are well written and edited?

 

Answer: The same way you sell your self published books…build a fan base. The question then is: How does one build fan base?

In the last post, I touched on the signs of a bad publishing contract, and I added that some of the smaller presses don’t really employ editors. Editing is a huge part of becoming a successful novelist, which is obviously why someone cared enough to post this question on Quora.

Since I’ve been through the ringer, let’s assume the writer in question is myself—it isn’t, but that’s not the point.

 

I did start off incorrectly with my career, so when my first books were released by Eternal Press, not only were they not properly edited (even though EP employed “editors”), but I had no fans to purchase my books!

First, I thought EP was going to market my books, and that’s a tale for another time, and no, these books weren’t truthfully “Self published books”, but they were treated as such. I’ll explain.

 

Here’s what I did after publishing through EP, and after hiring numerous editors and actually landing a good one who taught me what editing is: I rewrote everything I had ever written, which included my short stories. This way I also had the chance to really apply the principles of proper editing, and pit them against unedited, or improperly edited, books.

 

I showed pieces of those short stories in their original form on my blog, and then I showed the rewritten segments. I also re-released those short stories, for free, with new covers and blurbs to Smashwords.

 

Without even promoting those stories, since they were free, people downloaded them, and people learned that my work is edited.

 

I also published a fanfiction novel to fanfiction.net, a site where serious readers are looking for serious authors to write new material for an existing franchise. My Skyrim fanfiction, also free, did well on fanfiction.net, and I also published, for free, to Smashwords, and since it passed the premium catalog, it is also available through all online retailers (with the exception of Amazon, which I don’t use anyway), so people can download my fanfiction and learn that my writing is properly edited.

 

After building a fanbase through free short stories and fanfiction, I released new novels. Usually, when I release a new novel, I make it free for the first month so my current fans don’t have to spend money on my new work; this also gets me a few more new fans.

 

At this point, everyone knows my work is properly edited because numerous people have been able to download my work for free, and I now have a substantial fan base; the two went hand-in-hand.

 

It is imperative that an indie author hires an editor, a competent editor, but it is perhaps more important for an indie author to amass an extensive fan base before publishing their first novel.

 

A fan base can be built in numerous fashions, but I suggest building a fan base as a reader who dissects and reviews all kinds of books (mainstream and indie). Other readers will take your critiques seriously, and you will build a fan base of actual readers that way, (not just other writers) plus you can actually sell Smashwords books while doing this, thus learning how to sell books along the journey. Then, once you have a fan base, you can begin showing your fans that you, too, have written something.

 

Use your blog; release your entire novel one chapter at a time, and show people how you edit. This worked splendidly for Chris Paolini. You can build a huge fan base through fanfiction. That was how E. L. James rose to stardom, right?

 

The truth is that anyone with even a half assed idea for a story, even an uninspired idea, can rise to witness mega fandom; build a loyal fan base before writing a debut novel, hire a competent editor, engage avid beta-readers, release tons of short stories, and other free bodies of work, and just work hard everyday.

 

You can learn about selling books through Smashwords here

 

You can learn more about proper editing here:

Editing One Shot by Lee Child

Less is More

Structure

Don’t forget to follow my blog on Quora where I talk about all kinds of things reading, writing, and editing, as well as some other stuff, too.

 

Writers get exposure with a free reading from Tall Tale TV

Leave a reply

Get a professional reading of your story from Tall Tale Tv

Get a professional reading of your story from Tall Tale Tv

You are an author. You have been writing for years. You have a blog. You post nearly everyday. You have published numerous, short stories and given them away for free in order to build a fan base. You have published fanfiction to innumerable venues including Wattpad, Quotev, and Fanfiction.net. You belong to writing groups on LinkedIn, Google+, Goodreads. You post to Medium, Quora, and you even write articles through platforms such as Journal and Omni.

How are your sales?

Do you sell 100 books a day? 100 a month? 100 a year?

There was a time when I didn’t sell more than 5 or 6 per year. My publisher certainly didn’t do anything to help me sell, but they sure bugged the Hell out of me, trying to coerce me into buying print copies of my books, so that I could got out and sell them; that’s the way they earned their money, but where were my earnings? In the toilet.

Maybe, you’ve been at the game for a long time. Maybe, you have a hundred publications, and you sell quite well. Maybe, you do purchase print copies and sell them locally or even go on tour, but can you ever sell too many books?

Peep this reading of my Voodoo novella, Otherside, not because I want to sell it to you, far from it; I don’t need your money….

Chris Herron, the up and coming voiceover talent of Tall Tale TV can certainly help you boost sales.

His amazing style and range can enrapture any listener, and many times, people, potential readers, enjoy hearing the tones of mystery, anger, and sorrow rather than imagining them. Having a reading of your short story, or an excerpt of your novel, will absolutely boost sales, and as a fellow author, I want you to succeed.

Why, you may ask?

There’s enough mainstream crap floating around the literary world right now, and I believe readers will appreciate some new talent, some new material, but they’ll never buy your sweet stories if they don’t know you exist. Besides, Tall Tale TV charges no fee. Chris’s services are absolutely free; he makes money from monetizing his YouTube channel, so there’s no cost to you; it’s free promotion. What’s the worst that could happen? You sell an extra 10 copies of your books? Would that be so bad…?

I know there are other voiceover artists out there who will read your stories to their YouTube channels. Go use their services! There’s no reason to avoid Tall Tale TV, though; the more places your stories appear, the wider an audience you’ll reach.

This is a great way for any author, at any stage of their career, to achieve increased exposure, and increased exposure means more sales, and more sales means more money, and more money means, well, whatever you want, right?

I know, I know, Tall Tale TV doesn’t have many videos  on YouTube right now. I know, I know, the videos don’t have a ton of views, but relax; the more authors approach him, the more videos he’ll add to his YouTube channel. The more videos he adds, the more views he’ll collect. People love marathon watching YouTube videos, so in time, and as more and more of you utilize his services, the more views your videos will accrue, which means that every time an author has their book or short story performed on Tall Tale TV, the more we all benefit. Furthermore, you know Chris wants to earn a living from his talents, so you know he’ll promote his channel, which means you don’t have to do didly, but you’ll still get more fans. Won’t that be a blast?

I suggest you jump on Chris’s services today because the more authors hound him for a reading, the longer it’ll take him to get your reading up on his YouTube channel. Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Myeh! I already sells tons o’ books, an’ I don’t need no stinkin’ readin’ ta’ get me more sells!”

Well, that’s fine, but don’t be shocked when Mary Sue, an up and coming writer of Steam Punk with only one publication, suddenly goes viral and earns a million bucks thanks only to Chris and Tall Tale TV. When it happens, remember I told you to jump on his services….

Click here to learn how to submit!

How college students can earn money

Leave a reply

How College Students Can Earn Money

earn money with affiliate marketing

earn money with affiliate marketing

Hello, college students. Summer is just around the corner. Well, maybe around the next few corners, but you should definitely consider the following information now because I want you to be earning easy money by the time Summer is actually upon us.

 

It’s no secret that tuition costs have been rising steadily, and it’s become practically impossible to go to college full time without working at least part time, but that means giving up valuable study time, or at the very least, it means giving up your spare time, and that means you can’t enjoy your favorite hobbies, but what if there was a way to earn money without having to go to work?

 

What if there was a way to combine your hobbies with earning money?

 

Just about everyone today reads. Whether for pleasure or information, most people read, and sometimes people who read also blog, vlog, and discuss what they read on book review sites, but if you’re going to school full time, and you’re working part time, or maybe even working full time, too, you can’t possibly sit down and read, rate, review, and discuss the books you enjoy, right?

 

Wrong….

bookstore

Recently, I’ve been showing everyone in the world just how easy it is to earn three, four, five hundred dollars a month by simply reading and discussing books. You can learn the most basic way to earn money by reading from checking out this article.

 

How to Earn Money from Reading

 

In it, I lay out a very simple way to earn money reading, but I’ll go over everything again in this post.

 

For starters, I want to let you all know that for the month of April, 2017, I’ll be giving everyone a 30% cut of my profits, which is far beyond anything you’ll earn anywhere else, for selling my books, but allow me to backtrack real quick.

 

Affiliate marketing is the process through which you, the person not directly affiliated with a product, sell that product and instead of being paid by a company, you earn a direct cut of the sale.

 

Reading is, well, you know, reading books….

 

Here’s the deal-

 

Instead of going out to work for 10, 15, 20 hours a week and earning peanuts, or even though you’re working 10, 15, 20 hours a week and earning peanuts, you can blog about books, and when people learn about how great these books are, they buy them from your blog, vlog, or review site, and you earn a part of the sale, 30% of the sale for the month of April! Maybe more for June, July, and August, stay tuned for that.

 

The important thing is that once you establish a blog, vlog, or book review website, people will keep coming by your site to check your content, and then they can buy books directly from your site, and you earn a direct cut of the sales without having to do any extra work. In other words, you post once about a specific book, and then you don’t ever have to talk about that book ever again, but as long as people buy that book from you, you constantly earn a cut of the profit.

 

Now, imagine if you didn’t even have to buy the book or pay for web hosting.

 

You can start today by visiting WordPress or Blogger and making a free website. This works great on YouTube, too, because you can physically talk about the book you read.

 

Next, you make a Smashwords account, which is free, and you link your Paypal account to your Smashwords account, all still free, and on Smashwords, you can peruse all kinds of books.

 

Here is the link to all of my books on Smashwords

 

There are free books and there are priced books, and in the post I mentioned above, I also explain how to earn an income from the free books, but for now, I just want to deal with the priced books.

 

Every priced book has a referral link at the bottom of the buy page. You can see the referral URL at the bottom of the buy page for this book in the picture below.

 

smashwords affiliate marketing aaron dennis

smashwords affiliate marketing aaron dennis

 

That URL is automatically specialized for you based on your Smashwords account, so there’s no third party software, not pay per click, nothing. You just copy that URL, place it on your blog, book review site, or YouTube channel, and when people buy that book because of your review, you earn a cut of the sale, and in the case of my books, you will earn 30% of the sale for the month of April—I normally give out 25%.

 

Since my books are generally priced at $4.99, 30% of the sale nets you over a dollar per sale. That means that if you sell just 10 books a day, you earn more than $300.00 per month, and all for just reading and then discussing a book on your blog, vlog, or review site.

 

Hold on to your hats, though, ‘cause it gets even better.

 

You don’t really even need to read the book. You don’t really even need to purchase the book. You don’t really need to do much of anything. As previously mentioned, everything is laid out in the article from above, but I’ll delineate again.

 

You make your book blog, vlog, or review site for free. You make your Smashwords account for free, and link your free Paypal account to your Smashwords account. Then, you check out some books, which are priced for sale, and generally, you can download a free sample to peruse the book, and see if you like it or not, but that doesn’t really matter because most books will have a picture of the cover, a neat blurb, and some reviews, which is all you need. That means you can just copy and paste everything to your blog, or review website—you can simply read blurbs and reviews out loud as well as an excerpt from free samples for a vlog or YouTube book channel—and after five minutes of work, you post your specific referral URL on your blog, vlog, or book review website, and people can purchase the book right from you instead of the author’s page.

 

When people buy the books, you automatically earn that dollar—sometimes it’s more if the referral percentage or the book price are higher—and you don’t have to do anything else!

 

This is real money we’re talking about, too, not Satoshis, or Bitcoin, or some other strange non-currency. This is free money for about 5 minutes worth of work.

 

Now here’s the thing; anybody can do this, but people who enjoy reading and discussing books, or people who enjoy affiliate marketing, will perform exceedingly well, and that’s great, but even if you don’t know what you’re doing, and have no expectations, you can still earn some pretty good money through half-assing the process.

 

Consider that by taking 5 minutes out of every week, you can throw up a new book cover, blurb, and review—and maybe even a short excerpt—onto your blog, vlog, or book review site. If you start today (March of 2017) then by the time Summer is here, you can have 10, 11, 12 books up, and if you’re selling just one of each of the books per day, you’re earning 10, 11, 12 dollars per day, every day. If you want to add more books, you can add more books, and if you really want to make this your part time—or even full time—occupation, you can easily make one or two thousand dollars a month by adding two or three books per week, and then attacking social media, book discussion groups, and just telling everyone on campus to check out your site!

 

Now, again, I’m really just giving you an outline with this post because I know many college students out there are struggling to work, pay bills, pay for tuition, books, and whatever else, and on top of the costs, there just isn’t much time left to do anything, but I suggest you also take another five minutes to read the article, which provides a more thorough explanation of how all this works.

 

The reason I’m reaching out to you college students specifically is because you all already have an in depth connection with numerous people, people on campus, and I know that many of you are readers, which means you can either work together to sell, and earn some real decent cash by having different people discuss different genres of books, or you can simply work alone, unhindered by the set—and usually annoying—hours of a traditional employer.

 

You get to be in charge of everything from your schedule to which books you wish to discuss and sell to how you go about generating buzz for your new book review site.

 

You may certainly want to keep your part time job, or cut back to part time hours, while you get this book reading, affiliate marketing, self employed, wage earning act rolling, but I promise you that with just a little bit of effort, and no cost whatsoever, you can earn some easy money in no time, at least enough to help with rising tuition costs.

 

Look at this cover, blurb, and review.

 

The Dragon of Time Two, Dragon Slayer By Aaron Dennis

The Dragon of Time Two, Dragon Slayer
By Aaron Dennis

Blurb- With the death of Kulshedra, Dragon of Truth, it has been revealed that Scar, the mercenary, is in fact Sarkany, the Dragon Slayer, a creature fashioned for the sole purpose of purging the Dragons from the world of Tiamhaal, yet such a thing is not so simple. Kings and queens yet war amongst one another. They, too, lie, connive, and coerce, and so, Scar and his friends must find a way to persuade those few, benevolent rulers to band together. In the midst of peace talks and dead Dragons, those still in the worship of the beasts grow more powerful. Some of them even doubly praise their oppressor in an effort to wield more magic. Now, united with his friends, Scar sets his gaze upon a hopeful horizon, but is strength in numbers sufficient to keep the Dragons from completing their machinations?

Review- Best book ever written ever.
Dragon Slayer picks up right after Gods and Dragons. If you havent read Gods and Dragons just take my word for it. It’s awesome. Go read it. Now, I’m going to talk about Dragon Slayer, so if you don’t want me to spoil Gods and Dragons stop reading this review.

Scar, who now knows he is Sarkany, the Dragon Slayer, has just killed the dragon Kulshedra, so Artimis flies him back to Usaj where he fights and kills Zoltek. Since Scar is on a quest for Eternus, the Dragon of Time, to gather the souls of the dragons, he has to kill the kings of every country in orrder to take their dragon gems. Well, after he kills Zoltek, he kills Zmaj, and of course the Zmajans lose their powers, but as it turns out, when the dragons die, and poeple lose their powers, the other living dragons get stronger, and their worshipers do too, so now the paladins of Inhogupta the Perseverants help Scar to try and bring the world to order, but there’s all kind of chaos because Scar is a good guy and he wants the kings and queens to hand over the gems without bloodshed, but some of them are bad, and they’re conspiring with each other.
There’s so much more intrigue and espionage in this story than I ever expected, and it is a bit difficult to keep up with the states of the nations, but in the end, it’s like background information that really brings the world to life without requiring you to memorize whatever is going on.
The short version is that Scar is on his mission to gather all the souls of each dragon, but since the dragons get stronger as the others die, it’s harder for him to kill them, but then he learns how to use their powers.
It’s so freakin amazing. How is this story not on the tip of everyone’s tongue?
I don’t know. This guy is like the best writer ever and everyone’s off reading Harry Potter.

I just hope the next Dragon of Time comes out soon. In the meantime, I’ll be reading whatever else Dennis releases.

 

All you have to do is paste these to your book blog or review site, or as I mentioned, you can simply read the information out loud on your YouTube channel. You can even read excerpts from the book, and then monetize your YouTube channel and link your Google AdSense account to earn aggregate income. There will be no copyright infringement because reviewers are allowed to quote excerpts for reviews and discussions.

 

It isn’t hard. There’s no cost. It takes between 5 and 30 minutes per book—depending on how much work you want to do, and then the sales just keep coming in without you ever having to discuss that one book ever again.

 

This is an indie world you’re entering. This is an internet based world, and you should use the internet to make your life easier. There are free financial opportunities on the internet if you can find them, and I’m showing you one of the simplest and safest ones. As a wage earning writer, I have gone through everything you’re going through now, so I want to make everything simple for you, which, of course, generates more buzz for my books.

 

Remember: no cost, no third party software, no pay per click BS, and you earn real money by just sharing my—or anyone’s—books from Smashwords. Make sure you read the original article—if you haven’t read it from above—because it will explain absolutely everything you need to do to start earning money today.

 

How to Earn Money from Reading

 

Then, when you’ve got it going, and people are buying books from your site while you’re in class, studying, or hanging with friends, you can bail on that part time job, or at least cut back to part time from your full time job, or maybe, you’re so good that you can earn a living off this neat little hack….

 

Thank you, college students, for reading How College Students Can Earn Money. Reading makes the whole world a better place. You do not have to graduate under the burden of thousands of dollars of debt. You can start earning passive income today at no cost to you.

 

If you enjoyed reading How College Students Can Earn Money, please check out some of my other posts.

 

Oh, and if you’re in a business or econ program, show this post to your friends! This is also great for those of you enrolled in a literary arts, drama, or production program—lot’s of stuff to read or even perform on YouTube!

 

 

Calling all voice actors, voice over artists, and book vloggers!

1 Reply

How would you like to keep doing exactly what you’re doing, not a change a damn thing, and earn more money? Did I get your attention?

earn money with affiliate marketing

earn money with affiliate marketing

You’re brilliant, patient, and have a sonorous voice. You use it to convey emotions. It’s your art that elicits our passion, dreams, and aspirations, and rightfully so, you use your talent to earn a living. This is why I want to call your attention and preface the following information by saying that books are turned into movies, television shows, motion comic books, and video games, all of which need voice actors.

Many of you have YouTube accounts, and you showcase your wonderful talent. Every time you read something, a script, a novel, a short story, a review, anything, you post the video to YouTube, and your channel draws numerous visitors and subscribers.

By utilizing Google AdSense and other third party advertisers, you generate income, and that’s great. Sometimes, you sell your services to companies like Audible, and you perform readings of books, but what if there was an additional way to augment your income, which required absolutely no more work, no more effort, than what you’re already putting into your occupation?

What if on top of augmenting your income, you were also able to create more and more videos to showcase your stunning talent? You also want to get more likes and subscribers to your YouTube channel, right?

Peep this reading of The Dragon of Time, Gods and Dragons.

This book and performance was the winner of a book reading, but what if you had a chance to read this book, any book, out loud and upload it to your YouTube account. Your performance certainly sells that book to interested readers, right? You certainly deserve compensation for your efforts, don’t you? With more videos, you’ll surely get more likes and subscribers to your YouTube channel, and that means more exposure, more income.

What if you were paid every time that a book sold a copy? What if every time that a book sold, you earned a dollar? A dollar isn’t much, but if you add that dollar to the income you already earn from ads, it’s a great bonus, especially if you sold multiple books regularly. Ten books a day is suddenly ten dollars a day, that’s an additional $300 a month…not to mention that the additional likes and subscribers means more revenue from Google AdSense.

Here’s what I’m doing, and here’s where I want you to participate and earn more money by reading books, performing, selling books, and getting more likes and subscribers to your YouTube channel.

Smashwords books have affiliate referral links on their buy pages. Down at the bottom of the Smashwords page for They Lurk Among Us, Lokians 2, the second book of the Lokians scifi series, you can plainly see a URL, and you can also see that you can earn 25% of the sale. Not all Smashwords authors provide such a high referral income, but I do, and sometimes, I offer more than 25%, but never less, so if you perform a reading of They Lurk Among Us, Lokians 2, and people see your performance, and they buy They Lurk Among Us, Lokians 2 through your referral link, you earn a dollar from the sale, and you earn more money than just utilizing Google AdSense.

smashwords affiliate marketing aaron dennis

smashwords affiliate marketing aaron dennis

Now, imagine performing a reading of hundreds of books, books you don’t even have to purchase because you can download free samples of the books, and choose your preferred section to perform. For absolutely no cost, you can download a free sample of any of my books, perform a reading, and place your referral URL in that YouTube video, and then when people buy that book because of your performance, you earn more money.

Easy income, right? Free income from downloading free samples of great books!

There’s no hassle, no cost, and you’re just doing what you already love doing, speaking!

You do need to make a Smashwords account, but the account is free, and then your special referral URL automatically appears at the bottom of every book’s buy page, and all you do is place that URL in the video description or in the video itself.

In order to receive your compensation, you just link your Paypal account to your Smashwords account; it’s all free, it’s all easy, it requires no additional work or money, and there are thousands of free stories you can also download and read—all genres; scifi, fantasy, romance, horror.

How much fun would it be to just read stories for a living?

Here’s a link to my page on Smashwords, so that you can see all of my stories, and they are of numerous genres.

Many of them are free, but if you perform a reading of those titles, and upload your performance to your YouTube channel, you can earn easy money through the ad revenue. Then, to augment your earnings, you can download the free portions of my priced books, and perform those readings, too. Just add the referral URL to your video, and when people buy the book through your link, you get paid.

Sounds easy? Sounds too good to be true? Sounds like affiliate marketing? It is easy easy. It is not too good to be true. It is affiliate marketing—affiliate marketing simplified.

No third party software, no pay per click, no extra work or effort, absolutely no cost to you, but you get all the benefits; you get a free story or sample, you get to stretch your vocal muscles, you get to showcase your talents, you get to add videos for more ad revenue, and likes, and subscribers, and you get to enjoy fantasy, scifi, horror, romance, whatever, and you get free money whenever anyone purchases a book through your link.

You can do this for any book you want, but remember that most Smashwords authors won’t be giving you 25% or more of their sales, but even the customary 11% is nice.

Think about it. If you’re already a YouTube hit, everyone will come to view your readings. If you’re not a YouTube hit…yet, you can certainly become one by adding numerous performances—just imagine having hundreds of videos on your YouTube account all from various genres; scifi, fantasy, horror, romance, whatever you want, and so you can showcase your range, and all the while, you earn tons of cash and exposure.

You already love voice acting. You are an actor, a voice actor, and if you so choose, you can showcase your acting talents by staging actual performances with a group of friends—group readings, whatever you want. There are no limits to what you can accomplish with this wonderful opportunity, and we all benefit.

Maybe, you’re not a voice actor. Maybe, you’re just a reader, a lover of the written word, and you enjoy reviewing your favorite books on your book review vlog. You can still earn an income through both Google AdSense and Smashwords referral URLs—affiliate marketing simplified. Like I said, we all benefit.

I benefit because you’re giving me exposure. You benefit because you earn a cut of my profits, you earn more through more ads, and voice actors can certainly land more jobs from the added exposure. To top it off, fans of reading benefit from learning of new material.

If you’d like more information, you can check out this post as well.

You can also see that more and more people are searching for simplified affiliate marketing—more people are finding ways to earn money by doing what they love, free from the shackles of laborious jobs.

You definitely want to jump on this before the competition gets heavy, and I promise you, in about six months, a year, everyone will be reading books on YouTube, selling books on YouTube, reviewing books on YouTube.

Look at all the book review vlogs! It won’t be long before all the book review vloggers learn they can earn an actual living by doing what they’re already doing—selling books to consumers by reviewing them in vlog format. I also know people are taking advantage of streaming, so stream some readings, and provide the referral URL on your website, blog, or social media accounts!

Yup, this isn’t just a call to professional, voice actors; this is a call to anyone with a voice, anyone who enjoys reading, anyone who enjoys reviewing, speaking, acting.

Start earning more money today by reading books, streaming, making videos, and making vlogs. It’s your performance, your art, your interest, your passion that sells books, so earn more by doing what you already love, and at no cost, no additional effort.

Book review vloggers, when you review A Song of Ice and Fire, does Bantam pay you? Does George Martin? No, but people, your fans, certainly by those books because of your praise. Does J.K. Rowling pay you whenever you read or praise Harry Potter on your review site or review vlog? No, but I will; every time you review a book, and it sells, it sells because of your hard work, and you deserve a cut of the profit.

Start earning more money today. Streaming, blogs, vlogs—the internet is designed for you to take advantage of what you love doing; you can earn more doing what you love and without having to beg people to donate to your crowdfund campaign, or YouTube channel, or website, or whatever.

Now is the time to break away from the mainstream crap. This is the indie age, an age where anyone can earn money by providing the world a service, and your service is one of the best. Show the world what you can do, what you enjoy, get exposure, and start earning more money.