First, Do No Harm

“Boring!”

That was one of the nicer comments.

I’m trying, in my imperfect way, to market my novel(s).[1] So I posted a video of myself reading a page of it. Is it a professional quality video? Absolutely not. Is the background weird? For sure. Do I look like a runway model? Not by a longshot. But is it horrific, cringeworthy, or truly awful? No, it’s not worse than any other stupid video in a vast ocean of stupid videos.

About twelve people watched it on TikTok, which is all I expected. I used it as the base for a paid ad on Facebook, and it got a lot more eyeballs, which is good, since I paid for those eyeballs. Unfortunately, some of those eyeballs had opinions, like the above-mentioned “boring.” Some commented about my body shape, or the quality of my voice.

I’m beyond caring what strangers think, but I did have to wonder what inspired a perfect stranger to take time out of their day to watch my dumb little video and say something mean.

“Who hurt you?” I wanted to ask.

I don’t leave bad reviews on things, especially pieces of art. I won’t do it.

I read a lot of books, many of which are disappointing or even terrible. A small part of me thinks it might be a public service to warn others not to spend their hard-earned money or time on the awful ones. But the bigger part of me[2] knows the considerable amount of time and effort and, well, soul that goes into producing even the worst book. Every book has an author who loves it, who sweated out each word and is proud of it. No parent thinks her baby is ugly.

I think of Thumper in Bambi, twirling his oversized back foot and saying, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

There are plenty of people who will say the ugly things. I don’t have to do it: that void fills itself. There’s enough hate and insult and ill-will in this world without me adding to the mix. I believe you get what you give. You reap what you sow. I’m rubber, you’re glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you. Pick your cliché.

I’m not going to sit here and say that I have the sunshiny goal of making everyone’s life better. I’m not that much of an optimist. I’m more hipppocratical.[3] As in, my first goal is to do no harm.

If I do good? That’s an added benefit.

[1] Have you read them yet? If not, why not? Click here to remedy that situation. #ShamelessSelfPromotion

[2] And, as some of the commenters on my video have pointed out, there is a lot of mass in the bigger part of me.

[3] Not to be confused with hypocritical.

Buy my book, Devil’s Defense, or the audiobook, order the sequel, Devil’s Hand, and/or find me on Substack.