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Labeled with Trigger Warnings? Respectful or Too Close to Censorship?
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I don't see trigger warnings equating censorship at all. Censorship is the act of suppressing content for other people because it offends you.Allowing a reader to know whether or not a book contains content that they personally find offensive isn't censorship. It's labeling. How is this any different than what record companies have been doing for years? And if anything, the number of songs with words that must be bleeped out over the radio is only increasing in recent years, not decreasing, so I'd say it hasn't hurt sales at all.
What it will do, though, is reduce the number of one-star reviews because "this book is full of profanity, but I liked the story. I just don't understand why the author felt the need to use such filth..." Which doesn't really help anyone. I actually read one-star reviews before I buy a book. to find out if it's because the story is bad or some other reason. There are an awful lot of one-star reviews simply for language.
T.H. wrote: "I don't see trigger warnings equating censorship at all. Censorship is the act of suppressing content for other people because it offends you.Allowing a reader to know whether or not a book conta..."
Excellent points, T.H. As a reader, I too look at the one and two star reviews to get a big-picture feel for a book before I invest in it. More times than not, the reason for the poor rating is based on something that doesn't bother me in the least (or is obviously a personal issue the reviewer had that has nothing to do with the quality of the story).
I like the parallel you drew between the record industry and this. All very valid points! I wonder if someday they'll offer "clean" versions of books like they do songs. Wouldn't that be interesting? As an author, I wonder if there would be a market for that?
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me!
Hugs,
Karen
There's already a market for clean books. Now if authors want to do the extra work to create both the equivalent of an R-rated version and a PG version is up to them, but I've already seen some authors do it. I can't list an examples off the top of my head though. I just know I've seen it.
Trigger warnings are occasionally utilized as a subtle marketing tool to arouse curiosity. They are also sometimes required by law; i.e., motion picture ratings. But they do not meet the standards used to define censorship.Profanity, violence, and/or sexual situations must sometimes be injected into a story to realistically portray a character's personality or lifestyle. However, gratuitous use of any of those traits for sheer shock value, when they have no actual bearing on the story, is unnecessary and unprofessional.
T.H. wrote: "There's already a market for clean books. Now if authors want to do the extra work to create both the equivalent of an R-rated version and a PG version is up to them, but I've already seen some aut..."Fascinating idea!
Just out of curiosity, do you offer "labels" to readers interested in your books? If so, what does that look like? If not, would you ever in future works?
You see, initially I'd decided to use the trigger warning and was researching appropriate wording when I came across that article. It, of course, got me to start questioning myself.
So I just wondered if you had personal experience you could share?
Jim wrote: "Trigger warnings are occasionally utilized as a subtle marketing tool to arouse curiosity. They are also sometimes required by law; i.e., motion picture ratings. But they do not meet the standards ..."I agree completely, Jim. Unnecessary use of *anything* in writing is unprofessional and takes away from the reader's experience. Good points!
Hugs,
Karen
I don't. My books are marketed for teens and up, but there is nothing in either of them that wouldn't be shown on an ABC Family or WB teen drama.If you're on the fence, you should evaluate your target market and make sure the content is appropriate for that market. If your books stretch the limits of what is expected by readers in your genre, it's probably worth considering.
I put a trigger warning, even though I market to 18+. While I personally have no problem with violence or sexual abuse, there are people who do. If any of my books contain what some would consider over the top violence or subjects, even conversations, pertaining to abuse, I include a warning, as well as strong language. Some people don't like curse words, others don't mind at all. I've read books that had no warning and then portrayed excessive violence or a rape scene. I feel any sort of abusive material should come with a warning, many poor reviews come from people shocked the book contained such subjects.
Fanny wrote: "I put a trigger warning, even though I market to 18+. While I personally have no problem with violence or sexual abuse, there are people who do. If any of my books contain what some would consider ..."I think books containing scenes of rape and abuse are the perfect examples of where warnings should be used. Even people who don't have a problem with explicit sex or strong language can be turned off by a rape scene, particularly if they are victims themselves.
My books have lots of violence in them, but then, they're called the Amsterdam Assassin Series, so people should be able to distinguish them from romance or cozy mysteries.None of the 'objectionable' material in my books is gratuitous, so I don't get many complaints.
I don't give trigger warnings.
Call me insensitive, but I wouldn't put trigger warnings on my novels unless I were required by law/publisher. It's a slippery slope.
Fanny wrote: "I put a trigger warning, even though I market to 18+. While I personally have no problem with violence or sexual abuse, there are people who do. If any of my books contain what some would consider ..."Hello Fanny,
I went to look up your book to see how you worded your trigger warning and really liked the way you handled it! Your "Note to Readers" was simple and clear. :) I think yours in an excellent example of how to offer a label without going overboard. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Hugs,
Karen
Michelle wrote: "Call me insensitive, but I wouldn't put trigger warnings on my novels unless I were required by law/publisher. It's a slippery slope."Hello Michelle :)
I don't think you're being insensitive at all! I am thankful we get to choose whether or not to label our work. :)
This book is still a work in progress, so there is plenty of time for me to waffle and/or alter the contents.
I just appreciate hearing your view points!
Thank you for sharing!
Hugs,
Karen
Martyn V. (aka Baron Sang-Froid) wrote: "My books have lots of violence in them, but then, they're called the Amsterdam Assassin Series, so people should be able to distinguish them from romance or cozy mysteries.None of the 'objectiona..."
Hello Martyn!
I do like how your title helps describe the genre of your books so a reader can be confident they are in for an adventure and not, say a sappy historical romance. :)
If you ever wrote a series with a more cryptic title, what do you think of adding a subtitle to add more information?
So,-- "Stoic Bay: High School at Sea Level"
Would be a young-adult adventure with a nautical twist.
Okay, stupid example. But you get the idea, right?
Hugs,
Karen
I get the idea, but I think it's better to use that subtitle as an elevator pitch on the blurb.If you check out my books, you will see that the first sentence of the blurb is a 1-sentence description what the book is about. Of course that won't tell you what the WHOLE story is about, but it will show the main conflict.
Readers check out the cover, read the title, check out the blurb, then check Look Inside for the sample.
When they read the blurb, you need to capture them and get them to read on. So the blurb is split up in phases:
Phase one, the elevator pitch:
Assassin Katla's legitimate business is the target of a hostile takeover...
This first sentence is meant to get the reader the main info - who is the protagonist, and what is the main conflict?
If that engages the reader, they can read Phase Two, the synopsis:
Still recuperating from injuries sustained in Reprobate, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, finds herself at war with the Kau Hong, a gang of ruthless criminals who will stop at nothing to get their hands on Sphinx Shipping.
The potentially lethal situation quickly becomes untenable, when victims fall on both sides, and a Hong Kong sniper arrives to team up with a mute enforcer from the competitive 14K Triad.
Amsterdam might prove too small for Katla to play hide and seek, when her enemies match her skills in search and destroy...
So, that sets down the story.
If the reader enjoyed that part, there is Phase Three, explaining that the novel is part of a series:
Peccadillo is the second novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
This sentence gets its own paragraph, because it is more important than it looks - most readers enjoy knowing whether something is part of series and whether they need to read the first book first, et cetera.
The final Phase is more a 'why should you trust the author to write this story?' or 'what can I expect?', sometimes called the 'promise' like 'I promise you thrills and chills...":
With authentic details and brisk action against the backdrop of the notorious Dutch capital, featuring a devious heroine and a supporting cast of singular characters, Peccadillo gives a rare glimpse into local Dutch culture, Chinese Triads, computer hacking, sniping, clairvoyance, circumventing car alarms, martial arts, the psychology of social engineering, and the brutal efficacy of disciplined violence.
Instead of a 'trigger warning', I tell the reader what to expect - authentic details, brisk pace, but also the whole gamut of different story elements that seem to go all over the place (some readers gave me feedback that they read the blurb and picked up the book just to see how I work all these elements into the story). Plus I end with the bit about violence. Not ordinary violence, but disciplined violence. These are people trained in dealing with violence, professionals for whom violence is a tool, like the social engineering and circumventing car alarms.
So, instead of trigger warnings, you can also write enthusiastically about all the violence/sex/profanity in your blurb. That way the people who like violence/sex/profanity know they're in good hands, and those who abhor these story elements know to steer clear.
Martyn V. (aka Baron Sang-Froid) wrote: "I get the idea, but I think it's better to use that subtitle as an elevator pitch on the blurb.If you check out my books, you will see that the first sentence of the blurb is a 1-sentence descrip..."
Wow, Martyn! Thank you for taking the time to share how you handled introducing your books to potential readers! I've seen similar examples, but I like how you explained your thinking for each "phase."
And I LOVE the idea of enthusiastically gushing over the edgier aspects rather than warning (read: apologizing for) them.
I sooo appreciate you and the others here who have been willing to offer suggestions and thoughts! I have no doubt there are a hundred ways to handle such matters "correctly," but there are a thousand ways to do it "wrong," or at least--ineffectively.
So, thanks!
Hugs,
Karen
Karen wrote: "And I LOVE the idea of enthusiastically gushing over the edgier aspects rather than warning (read: apologizing for) them."If you write what you write, you have to love what you write. That means, if you write erotica, you better love sex and feel passionate about intimacy, or it won't work. So don't apologize for the sex scenes in your books as if you ought to be ashamed of them.
Revel in your writing.
If you write BDSM, don't put a warning in your book like 'this book might not be for you', but say, 'this book is for you, it will unlock your fantasies, it will captivate you and bind you with seductive prose, you won't have any dry underwear left..."
I've never had anyone complain about the content of my books, but if they did, I'd tell them to get a life. My books are pretty forward. If you are squeamish and easily upset, please don't pick up my books, because I'm a stickler for verisimilitude, and my freelance assassin won't shy from a knifing or drowning.
It's not so much the trigger warning I'm curious about it's why you want to write about touchy subjects to begin with and multiple ones at that. I mean trigger warnings are there for that exact reason and usually it's for a touchy subject and not several subjects within one book alone.So I'm curious as to what exactly the topics are and why you wish to write about them. I'm sure you have the best interest in mind and you don't want to offend as that is clearly obvious in your comment and you made this thread to ask whether or not your book should have a trigger warning. I know some authors talk about touchy subjects and do it for shock value, to get a buzz going and in bad taste, again I am assuming this is not your intention.
Seeing that your book would cover several touchy topics that you know may generate some issues I think it would be best to add a trigger warning. I mean if it were one touchy subject i'd say no but since you want to include a lot then I'd include a trigger warning just so people know and can decide for themselves whether or not they wish to give your book a chance.
It's better to be safe then sorry, cause you don't want people condemning your book for such subjects and it wouldn't be your fault at all as you more than likely only wish to educate and write about the subjects because you have knowledge on them but society is very "touchy" themselves lately and sometimes a warning is a good way to go.
I think it's all about respecting the reader. They are buying a product from us, so it seems to be part of the unwritten professional contract between writer and reader that this product is what they are expecting.If I buy a book with a picture of a terminator robot on the cover then I damn well want to read about terminator robots inside the book. I will feel very cheated if the action takes place in a twee Victorian drawing room and the only conflict is whether Lady Emma will see Mr Darcy take his shirt off to do some threshing.
A slippery slope to censorship? I don't see how it could possibly be that. It doesn't stop writers from writing or readers from reading. If anything it helps us to explore darker material because we can make sure that it is stuff that the reader wants to read.
A warning can also sell books. Some readers are looking for the very things you're warning others about!
My first reaction to the idea of trigger warnings is quite a negative one. I've come across them a lot in the realm of fan-fiction, where someone I know was posting quite explicit stuff, and I could see the rationale for that.But I do worry about where this could end up. I tend to think that, unless a book is specifically marketed as erotica or BDSM, we have to assume our readers are adults and will be able to take what we throw at them.
However...I think Jacqueline is right that trigger warnings may attract some readers as well as warning off those who would not enjoy the book.
And I think you want readers to enjoy the book, though I also wonder whether you might risk putting off people who could actually tolerate the content.
As a footnote, I don't like sexual violence and have been quite squeamish about reading 'A Game of Thrones' by GRRM, even though I hear that he's an outstanding author.
Does anyone have examples of trigger warnings that they have used, or seen others use? I'm curious.
I don't consider warnings as censorship. Censorship, to me, would be places such as Amazon refusing to sell books because they contain certain elements, for example m/m or dub-con. I personally don't have any triggers, but I like to look at the warnings to see if the book has things I particularily like. So I guess I use it in the opposite way it's meant. lol But I do understand that there are people who enjoy erotica, but may have a trigger (or aspect) they like to avoid.
Carol - I have to admit that I don't know what dub-con is! (blush).I think I'll have to Google it.
Jessica wrote: "Carol - I have to admit that I don't know what dub-con is! (blush).I think I'll have to Google it."
Ah, what did we do before Google? I *love* Google. Seriously. I'm a Google Addict. :D Dub-con and non-con are big triggers for some people. I'm guessing you found the definition? If not, it's dubious consent and non-consent (or rape).
Okay! I confess I got distracted. Thanks! I hope I can remember what they mean.Next time, I shall Google and learn ;)
I write m/m and a lot of it is outside the "norm" even for that genre. So I add warnings as a courtesy to the reader and to basically eliminate those for whom my stories would hold no interest. One thing to note: be careful of what warnings you use on Amazon and where. I put mine inside the front matter and direct people to read there first (you can see it if you choose the "look inside" option without having to purchase the book). Words like "Rape" on Amazon's description page will likely get the book banned. :-(
Thank you for mentioning that, Lia. I am still hesitating about trigger warnings myself. It is slightly worrying that Amazon might take a book down because of its description.
I have seen trigger warnings on Amazon. It's probably a matter of how you do it. You never know what Amazon is going to do.Censorship is the government banning things. The way I see it, trigger warnings are more like common courtsey. You wouldn't ask your squeamish friend to sit through Kill Bill.
I haven't heard of this. Is it the same thing as "WARNING:EXPLICIT CONTENT" labels on CDs? And is it up to the author whether or not a book has it?
I try to make it obvious from the cover, title, blurb, and "look inside" preview what kind of content the reader can expect. I have not included any trigger warnings up until now. However, my next one has more graphic/disturbing child abuse scenes than my norm and I do plan to include a warning in this one. I had one beta reader drop out partway through the book because it was too disturbing. I felt bad about that.
Bill wrote: "I haven't heard of this. Is it the same thing as "WARNING:EXPLICIT CONTENT" labels on CDs? And is it up to the author whether or not a book has it?"Yep. Totally up to the author to include it, although some places (like All Romance e-books, I believe) have a list that you can choose from if it pertains to your book.
ETA: Except in the case of the CD-- that's NOT up to the artist to label it! ;-)
Hello, I'm a certified advocate so I thought I'd chime in. In part, I feel like this topic has missed the point of trigger warnings. They aren't quite like the Walmart stickers of "Explicit Content". Those are meant to keep adults from giving their kids "adult content". Generally things like cussing and talking about sex in general. Trigger warnings however, are there to protect people who face hate daily or are victims of abuse. So they aren't a 'keep away' or 'wink wink extra dirty~' ploy. For example, someone mentioned their book had child abuse in it. This is a time where you could (and should in my opinion) add trigger warnings. No abuse victim wants to be surprised and suddenly think about what happened to them when they are just trying to read. Plenty of people with triggers, will read, view, or watch anyways. That little warning just gives a heads up. Standard trigger warnings are not for cussing, violence, or consensual sex. They are for things people struggle with. Cutting, rape, and other forms of abuse. Readers want to connect with the main character even if they too are a victim of abuse, they just don't want to unknowingly put themselves in those shoes again.
While I can't recall ever writing about child abuse, my books contain a great deal that might "trigger" someone (and I'm not talking about PTSD). The list of warnings would be ridiculous and I would probably still miss something. Here is a list of "triggers" that people think out to be disclosed.http://trigger-warnings.tumblr.com/tags
And the list can only grow. If we accept trigger warnings, we will soon require an entire section in every book solely devoted to warnings, followed by disclaimers when people start taking legal actions against writers for failing to give a desired warning.
If someone can be taken to court and jailed merely for disagreeing with someone on twitter, imagine what lawyers could do with "triggers".
Listen, I don't mean to bring up a touchy subject--I mean, I do.
Argh.
I WANT to include a whole LOT of touchy subjects in my newest novel, but it occurs to me that some topics could impact some readers in a less than favorable way due to their personal backgrounds, emotional state and/or life experiences.*
The article also brings up the opposing views that by adding a "trigger warning," it's akin to censorship--a gateway to book banning. (yikes!!!)
What do you all think about the idea? I want to be respectful, but I also want to tell a raw, truthful story.
Thanks for your help thinking this through.
Hugs,
Karen
*refering to the article found here: http://disinfo.com/2014/05/trigger-wa...