This week I was scrolling through social media, stalling before writing another chapter in my book, and ran across someone asking how in the world self-published people put out such bad covers. That launched a flurry of their people echoing in agreement.

My response was: Who cares? Not my place to tell someone how to do their cover.

A few more comments were made that they weren’t criticizing, just drawing conclusions about bad covers, maybe some about self-publishing. I wasn’t seeing the difference. A lot of hair-splitting explanation with the same end results: being critical.

They would’ve been better off not speaking about the subject, frankly. This was an author making the comment. Now they are remembered by some, like me, for being critical of other authors who are struggling to write, publish, and market themselves like every other author out there. A bit of an elitist stance, IMHO. Imagine some silent writer, someone too timid to speak up, taking this in, wondering if their cover is bad, maybe scared to take that leap of publishing the book at all for fear of this sort of criticism.

The point here is that an author should remain professional at all times. I’ve met big-named authors who respected me for being an author, without having picked up one of my books. It was a brotherhood/sisterhood sort of feel. Yes, they sold millions of books while my numbers were still in the thousands, but there’s no doubt in my mind they would’ve been just as congenial to someone whose books sold only a hundred copies.

That’s how I want to be remembered as an author.

So, when someone on social media rears up and ridicules their competition, understand that they’ve left a scar on someone’s first impression of them. Or changed someone else’s current impression.

Talk about your hard work, your fun times, your experiences and successes. Even ask for pictures of kittens and puppies on the days you feel low. But when you have the urge to criticize grammar, book covers, even one-star reviewers of your own books, think twice. Then think about it a third time. The attention you draw will be, first and foremost, on you, not who you intended it for.