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I had someone ask me if anyone can write a review on my book.  Of course you can, and I would love for you to. It doesn’t have to be long or follow any kind of format.  Some people just post the number of stars they gave it, and something to the effect of: ‘Loved the book’ or ‘what a beautiful story’.  It can be anything you want.  It’s easy, just go to either Amazon.com or B&N.com and find the book, then click on the ‘leave review’ link.

A review helps in many ways. First and foremost, it’s a great way of acknowledging an author’s hard work. Secondly, the more reviews, the more exposed the book becomes on Amazon’s and B&N’s pages. Lastly, some people actually use reviews as a deciding factor on whether or not to read a book.  I have to be honest. Before I started writing, I had never written a review on any of the books I read.  I had no idea the impact a review had on an author. 

Funny story. I had someone leave me a bad review on Ancient House of Cards because they thought it was going to be a Spiritual Christian book.  REALLY, with that cover. Had she read the back cover, or the reviews it would have told her something, and in her case that this wasn’t the book for her.  Sure, lots of people don’t read reviews on a book before they purchase it, myself included. However, as a new author to many people, sometimes a review can divulge something about the style of the author that is even more intriguing then the blurb on the back cover of the book. 

Now if you’re one of those people who just doesn’t want to write a review for whatever reason, that’s okay. There are other ways you can help your favorite author. Share their post with your friends or ‘Like’ their post to help boost the exposure level of it. Those are all great ways to help. Not to mention the fact that you’re even readying this blog, you just moved me up on the algorithm.

Until next month, peace out!

Bryan

 The romance industry (specifically the readers, writers and publishing companies) have a certain expectation, or dos and don’ts as some may call it on how a romance should be written.  Within this perimeter comes the creativity on the part of the writer, but in the end, readers want what they want, and paid for.

 The m/m romance genre is a melting pot of diversity, written by women and men, straight and gay, and for the straight community, as well as the gay community as their target readers.  Within this genre you will hear labels such as male/male romance, gay romance, gay erotica, gay fiction, and the list goes on and on.  There has been much debate within the genre as to the definition of each of those labels.

If I had to pin a label on my own writing I would describe it as gay-romance-fiction, and that would tell you what? My point exactly.  Knowing I have to manage the reader’s expectation and still create a brand for myself, I find myself at the unpleasant end of critic’s who didn’t get what they wanted from my book.  This can be frustrating, whether it’s the HEA (Happily Ever After ending), not romantic or erotic enough, first person vs third person, the reaction is strong. But I will stand behind my writing, and not conform to the norm just to sell books. I believe a beautiful story can be told, with real issues giving a reader something unique and different than what they may have read in the past. I believe erotic is more the act, and romantic to be the emotion the character is feeling.

I would also agree that I shouldn’t bill it as one thing, if I am going to write another. We all know in reality, not all endings are happy, but to a specific group of readers, it better be. So what does that do to my creativeness as an artist/writer?

A romantic relationship between two men will always be the driving force in my books with the back drop being a major moral dilemma that must be resolved for the relationship to survive. Some will have more heat than others, and if erotic is your game, I’m probably not the writer for you, and that’s okay.

Two men falling in love, is it M/M romance or LGBT fiction? I don’t know what to call it and really don’t care what you call it, I don’t think it matters to most people. There are plenty of great m/m romance writers out there that do it well, and they have their own view on where their writing falls.

Now, I just have to find my audience.