Show me the love.... please!

February is, at least for me, usually a feel good kind of a month. There's Valentine's Day, and Spring is on the horizon... but this year, it was a little harder than usual to muster up the warm fuzzies.

It seems everywhere I go these days, I come into contact with the reign of snarkdom. Have people just forgotten the basic rule of "treat others the way you want to be treated"... or my mother's favorite, "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all?"

It seems this way of thinking has become pervasive, from impatience on supermarket checkout lines, to the mean spirited dialogue written for characters on TV, to the God-awful comments people leave anonymously on the internet.

I spend my days creating characters that are independent and strong, yet still compassionate. I pour myself into how I craft their natures, developing them into 3-dimensional characters, tested and pushed, but still finding the strength within to hold onto their humanity. But in the real world, lately, I've had a hard time convincing myself that goodwill isn't dead and buried somewhere under a headstone that reads, "Here lies the Golden Rule." That the strength of character I try to instill in the characters I create, is but an illusion that no longer exists.

People will say, "Well, you're from New York, what did you expect to find...please, excuse me and thank you?" But this isn't something limited to my cynical city. It's all over, and I really don't know what to do about it. What's worse, is I see it popping up in the schools my children attend, in the way the kids speak to each another. Of course, the reason why is they're mimicking what they hear and see around them and on TV.

As a society, have we become so soulless that our idea of humor is so entrenched in the self-serving, that the lines between mean and funny are forever blurred? And where is it written that it's acceptable to leave non-substantive yet hurtful commentary all over the internet, and that today it's not only expected, it's considered downright cool?

Part of me cringes inwardly because I know I sound like our grandparents back in the day, when they tried to protest that Rock-n-Roll Rubbish as they called it. But in this case, it I don't think it's so much a shift in freedom of expression as much as it's a blatant disregard for common respect, consideration and right vs. wrong.

Some argue that it's fallout from not enough accountability and too much entitlement. And while I don't know about that, I do believe the warning signs are flashing red, especially when in places like Cincinnati, Ohio, school districts have to bribe students with gift cards to get them to attend school.

Perhaps it's not as bad as my experiences this past month have made it seem, and there are people out there who still believe you go farther with a kind word than a nasty one, and that a job well done is worth the effort you have to put in. One can only hope. At least that's what I keep telling myself.


Marianne Morea

When Is Self-Promotion too, too blatant?

As authors in this e-friendly world, we all think we have to promote ourselves and our books, and I fully believe this is true. If I didn't believe it, why would I keep spending an hour or more each day on Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets?

What bothers me--and I assume makes others' heads sizzle with annoyance--is authors "preaching to the choir". By this I mean posting every review, every release, every guest blogging date, ad nauseum, on sites and lists which are frequented only by their fellow authors as well as on all the social media sites.

Yes, I frequently read other authors' books. I think almost every author does. I make it a point, though, not to buy the books of authors who keep my email boxes stuffed with blatant self-promotion I've already seen on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Because I feel this way, I've begun to wonder whether pure readers I try to reach in social media also get testy when they see too many promo posts from one author.

Just how much promo is too much?

Readers need to know about new releases--once or twice, just before and on the release date. I question whether they also need to know when (a few days after the release at the publisher site) the same book is released at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com, etc.

I usually link to one or two favorable reviews for a book--not every review, and certainly not less than flattering ones. It's also been my practice to post new cover art on Facebook which also slides over to Twitter. In between, I try to find interesting pieces that aren't related to my books and post them on my FB page so it won't seem to be nothing but blatant self-promotion.

Does this amount to overkill?

I'm in a quandary. Sometimes I think I'm a mean curmudgeon for seething at the sight of the third or fourth announcement of the same self-promo information from a fellow author. Other times I wonder if I'm not irritating potential readers by tooting my own horn too loudly.

What do you think? At what point does useful promotion slip over into the nuisance category? I imagine there are a lot of authors who really want to know!