Today I am so pleased to welcome EJ Smyth to Joyfully Jay. EJ has come to talk to us about Burning Fall, and has also brought along a tour wide giveaway. Please join me in giving EJ a big welcome!

Hi there! My name is EJ Smyth and I write MM romance in all forms, from contemporary to fantastical. Today I’d like to talk about how reviews influence my writing.

It’s funny. The advice writers get from other writers is to never, ever read reviews. Nothing good can come off it. Either you get a big head if they’re good, or your turn into a blubbering mess and never write again if they’re bad. Yet we all do it. Sometimes compulsively.

I’m no exception—I love reading reviews! I use less than stellar reviews as an opportunity to improve my writing. Sometimes a writer gets silly one-star reviews that have nothing to do with their book. Best thing is to take a deep breath and move on.

Three-star reviews are great, though. Those are usually written thoughtfully and are full of suggestions on how to fix errors. I actually make a point of asking my advance copy readers to send me an email if they feel I deserve less than three stars. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened very often. The odd time it did, I was able to fix the problem and reupload a corrected copy of the book. Because even professional editors miss errors at times!

I feel very humbled when I read that I’ve touched somebody with a story I created. That a reader couldn’t stop reading because they wanted to know what happened next. For one of my novels, I received some feedback that the two main characters didn’t spend enough time with each other. I realized that actually, I hadn’t written a romance, but a fantasy adventure novel. It allowed me to change my marketing to be more focused. And I made sure my heroes got some more facetime together in the third book.

Because Burning Fall is my first MM novel, I’m super excited to find out how readers like it. I’ll listen to my readers: if they prefer stories set in the US instead of Germany, I’ll certainly take that into consideration. If they don’t like the characters, I’ll change them up in the next book.

Either way I won’t stop checking out my reviews. It’s like scratching an itch—I know they’re there, therefore they need to be read!

My question for you: have you ever given a one-star review? And what’s the number one thing in a book that would make you leave bad feedback?

Blurb

Opposites attract, but can they ever work together?

Damien is an ambitious young lawyer. After moving to Germany, he doesn’t expect to feel quite so out of his element. Apart from hating his job, a rumor spreads that he is a homophobe.

To redeem himself, he is put in charge of the firm’s signature event Burning Fall. He has no choice but to hire Yannik, a gorgeous yet unconventional event manager.

But from their first disastrous meeting, everything possible goes wrong.

Can the two men find a way to work together, or will Damien’s career, Yannik’s future, and the most important client event of the year go down in flames?

Find out in this steamy and fun short novel, the first book in Frankfurt Hot Seasons.

Bio

Hi there! My name is EJ Smyth, I live in Frankfurt, Germany and I’m passionate about romance. Not luffy-duffy romance, but stories with other elements mixed in. Paranormal romance, romantic thrillers, gay romance, if it’s got two difficult characters finding each other, I’m on board!

I write at my living room table, usually covered with folded laundry because I couldn’t be bothered to tidy before sitting down. And my kids are teenagers, so not much help there either . I do love having them around and I’ve gotten used to writing with a background noise of Grand Theft Auto and teenage histrionics. Maybe that’s why I prefer writing action scenes over descriptive settings! Except for the 18+ scenes which I have to write in a separate room, because, well, embarrassing…

I’m currently working on a series of short stories Keith is Awesome about a young man exploring his sexuality. Not something I’ve ever written before but the research alone was quite a bit of fun Check out my Pinterest account to see my inspiration. I love to talk to my readers, online and offline, so please feel free to drop me a line!

Giveaway

EJ has brought tour wide giveaway. Just follow the Rafflecopter below to enter. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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