This is a relatively new phenomenon. I started to notice it in the fall, and it’s become a topic of discussion in several writing groups of mine.
Do you think there should be warnings on books about the book content?
This is mostly something that is happening with self-published books, and mostly with self-published books that are digitally published. Authors may elect to include a warning about “explicit sexual content” on erotica or an erotic romance, or “extreme violence” on a thriller or horror story. I don’t really understand the need for this move. After all, the erotica will be in the Erotica section of the bookstore (digital or bricks and mortar) and will probably have a cover image that is evocative of the content. (Nekkid peeps doing the wild thing, for example.) The title will be suggestive as well. Similarly, the thriller or horror story will be in the Horror or Thriller section, and there will probably be blood, weapons or body bits on the cover. I think that these elements are what readers are looking for when they browse these sections of the bookstore.
On the other hand, I don’t really understand the need to print warnings on plastic bags either. Are there really people who believe that dry cleaner bags are suitable toys for children?
What do you think? Should books have content warnings at all? Or do you think there are specific cases when a warning is warranted?
Deborah Cooke: Author 
8 responses to “Warnings on Books”
I don’t think it is necessary for books sold in US, Canada, UK and or Europe. However, for most Asian countries and some Mid-East, they do not understand this kind of books and do have to put a label on it and could be consider as taboo when they are not. Here, for instance in Thailand. They do put on the covers if the books are 18+, 20+ or what not. Before it was because bookstore couldn’t categorized them correctly because publishers do not informed them which type of books are which. Now that they do, it is easier for both the seller and buyer to know and go directly to the types of books they want.
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Okay this is the third time I’m trying to post. Don’t know what the problem is.
I don’t think you should put warnings on books, I agree with you Deb about shelving like with like. Also don’t you expect blood and guts with a thriller or explicit sex with an e-rom. And who is going to pick what is too much for us or not.
Deb
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LOL Debbie – your other two posts were snagged by the spam filter. Not sure why. Have you been trying to sell Viagra around the internet lately? 🙂
Thanks for your insight into other markets, Toni. I had no idea that things were so different there. Don’t books there get the same covers? Or is that the cover images don’t have the same associations for people?
(There is a strange and kind of funny marketing story about a brand of baby food, which they teach in marketing classes as an example of expanding into other markets without examining people’s assumptions there. This brand has an image of a plump laughing baby on the label. In this particular country, the baby food didn’t sell at all, and no one could figure out why. Marketing studies indicated there was a demand. Turned out that many consumers were illiterate and they relied upon the images to tell them what was in the jar. They didn’t want to buy pureed baby, even if the baby was laughing. The company changed the labels, putting carrots or whatever on the label instead of the baby, and their product sold very well after that. Packaging matters, and assumptions vary.)
The question for me remains who *should* read my books? (I think EVERYONE! LOL) I had, for example, initially chosen the Adult Content for the re-release of my Delacroix medievals on Smashwords (because yes, the characters do have sex). This means that anyone using the Adult Content filter can’t see the books, and it defaults to ON. Then I realized how many teenagers read those books – they always come to signings – so I went back and changed the setting.
Like Karen, I was always reading books targeted to older readers when I was a kid — and the best way to get me to read anything was to tell me that I shouldn’t!
So, I won’t be putting warning labels on my books. But it is an interesting and somewhat curious trend.
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This is a great question but I don’t like the idea of warnings on books. If you can’t tell what the book is about by the back cover, the title or the genre then you shouldn’t be reading it.
When I was a kid, I used to love to read the grown-up books, the romance novels. It encouraged me to read. It gave me my love of travel, my ability to get lost in a story and enjoy every moment. That’s why I write and that’s still why I read.
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Personally I think if you are so dumb you have to have warning on your books you should go over to the children s section and pick up Dr Seuss. Really, if you know the author you know what is likely to be in the book. If it is a new author I read a couple of pages before I but it, that way I have a feel for what I can expect.
Warnings on music I am in favor of because all the filth some of these “artists?” are spewing we need to know not to have our ears assaulted. I would rather they figure out that filth is filth and stop but I don’t see that happening.
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Young adult novels in the UK often come with warnings. Gossip Girl ones are done a bit tongue-in-cheek: “Warning: Scandalous Content. NOT for Good Girls.” CHERUB takes a more serious approach: “Not Suitable for Younger Readers”.
Think it’s because young adults come in a range of maturity levels – some can handle lots of violence and adult themes, and others can’t. The warnings let you know what you’re in for – can’t say you weren’t warned 😉
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I’m kinda for some markings, on e-book blurbs at least.
On places like Amazon or B&N.com, it’s next to impossible to tell how spicy a book might be. In a brick and mortar store, I can page through it and I know by the imprint. Self-pubbed, not so much.
Or, at least, the blurb should give me a hint. If it starts rattling on about bondage and whatnot, then I know. But if it doesn’t, a reader could be getting much more than they bargained for.
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Good points, Pam and Tez.
There is an element of subjectivity to it, still, Tez, and every kid will be troubled by something different. Slasher films are hugely popular with teenagers, after all. Is it sex or is it violence that they should be protected from? Mean girls? Oppressive societies? Or just your standard and customary serial killer in the dark?
You could always download a sample, Pam. It’s like taking a free peek inside.
d
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