An Author’s Guide to Handling Sensitive Content With Care

Writing deep and emotionally charged books means creating text that might trigger anxiety or other fears in readers. Whether you write steamy love scenes or cover topics not for the faint of heart, adding content warnings can avoid misunderstandings and protect those who are too young for some content or might experience PTSD due to trauma.

Some things that might be considered sensitive include:

• Stories about emotional, physical, or sexual abuse
• Mental health issues
• Discrimination
• Addiction
• Violence
• Religion
• Culture
• Erotica

The United States book industry is worth an estimated $28.1 billion and growing. You’ll find an audience for your books if you package them properly for what they are. Learning how to frame things with careful research and empathy goes a long way toward preventing readers from picking up a book they aren’t prepared for.

How to Handle Sensitive Content as an Independently Published Author

Ensuring readers understand the content of your book before they begin reading prevents misunderstandings and ensures you reach the right target audience. Around 60% of customers say transparency is the most important thing they look for in a brand. If you are honest about the interior of your story, those who want to read it will shout your praises.

In addition to placing your book in the correct categories on bookselling sites, you’ll want to add content warnings to your descriptions. Here are some examples of content warnings for different scenarios:

Abuse

Reading about situations they’ve been through is triggering for some people, sending them into a spiral of fear or depression. It’s likely that a good number of your readers have undergone abuse — nearly 30% of women and 10% of men have experienced partner abuse, and graphic depictions of abuse in a written work could trigger memories of the abuse or even a PTSD episode for those struggling with ongoing long-term effects. For those who try to avoid such scenarios, adding a warning to your book blurb can prevent an episode. You might word it like this:

“In this book, there are depictions of abuse, including content with kidnapping scenes and sexual abuse.”

There is usually no need to explain all the details, as those might disturb some readers. Include a general idea of what’s inside.

Mental Health Issues

Mental health crosses a broad spectrum of diagnoses and scenarios. A general statement is typically enough to warn people who might be upset by such material. You might use this phrasing:

“Content warning: This book looks at depression and suicide.”

Consider adding additional warnings for any depictions of mental health malpractice, such as the use of unnecessary restraints or the character’s symptoms not being believed by mental health professionals.

Violence

Gory images and violent scenes can adversely affect those dealing with PTSD from being in civil service or the military. Many parents also vet the material their underage children read and will appreciate knowing what’s inside. You might add this to your book description:

“Content includes graphic situations of violence with bloodshed.”

Discrimination

Racism and discrimination based on things like gender or sexual orientation may be particularly concerning as sensitive content. If, for example, you’ve written a history-based text, looking at situations as they were during the period may bring up old societal wounds. Start by ensuring you stick to proven facts. You can add a warning label like this to your ads and book description:

“Please be aware that historical situations of racism and discrimination occur in this book. The author has attempted to be as factual as possible in historical representation to show how parties were treated without inserting opinion or biases. All research sources are listed in the index.”

Addiction

Nearly 17% of Americans battle a substance use disorder, so chances are high that a reader may be trying to get sober, has a family member with an addiction, or has grown up in a home with parents who have misused substances. Such material could trigger bad memories. To help those who would spiral emotionally from reading about it and suffering from damaging memories, add a disclaimer:

“Note: This book contains depictions of substance abuse, including characters addicted to alcohol and drugs. In no way drug abuse is justified or glorified, but the situations depicted here may be triggering for some.”

Religion and Culture

Religion can be a hot-button topic, too. If you cover another culture or religion in your book, it’s best to disclose it and your knowledge of it. Of course, you’ll need to tweak this warning label to suit the situation, but you could add something like:

“Christian scripture from the King James Version of the Bible is in this text. The content explores traditions in the Catholic church community and scenarios based on negative faith-based interactions.”

Be careful not to group everyone from a culture or religion in a certain stereotype. Those who are interested in the topic can read it, and those who might feel offended will know ahead of time what’s involved.

Erotic Content

Amazon has separate categories for erotica to prevent underaged people from seeing material meant for adult eyes. Even with those safeguards, you should consider also adding an age warning to your content to let people know it has erotica.

“Caution: Material inside this book is for adults only. Steamy love scenes and 18+ situations occur.”

You may choose to include more specific information about the types of situations depicted in the work, but starting with this more general warning is a good idea so that people who are not interested can move on before reading the more detailed rest of the content warning.

Answer Their Questions

The most important thing you can do with sensitive content is to be transparent. Let potential readers know what’s inside your book so they can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to read it. Different situations call for various warnings, so you may need to adjust the language to better suit your story. Your audience will appreciate your candor, and you’ll attract those interested in reading your book.