Trends: Trigger Warnings

In the short time since I have been posting Castalia House's weekly New Release Roundups, I have seen many authors try to stand out from an increasingly crowded pack. Marketing gimmicks abound. Sometimes these turn into trends with some staying power, such as the resurgence of the mailing list. Others last only for a season. Hopefully, this next trend falls in the latter set.

WARNING: This novel contains explicit sexuality, nudity, violence, bad language, attempted murder, actual murder, self-defense, pro-active self-defense, destruction of private property, arson, tantric magic, polyamory, mayhem, gratuitous sex and violence, littering, jay-walking, firearms, a racist goblin, an honest lawyer, and a kindly old gossip who likes to give cookies to kids.

Fresh from Tumblr and other disreputable parts of the Internet and education, the trigger warning has now made it into science fiction and fantasy marketing. To be fair, the first few times I saw it appear, the writers were winking to potential readers of books with a comedic slant. Call it more a type of content signaling instead of an actual warning. But these warnings started to spread to more serious works.

This book contains no profanity and no embarrassing sex scenes. However, if you're offended by conservative principles and references to Scripture, this book might not be for you.

Note the serious tone.

I wouldn't think that such warnings would be needed, as many of the bookjacket blurbs already inform a reader what to expect. However, a recent blog comment from Jan Stryvant, best-selling author of the Valens Legacy, disabused me of that notion. His book warnings are cheeky, to be certain, but they also reflect a somber truth, for even with the explicit description and bold warning, reviewers have protested that his magical harem adventures have harems in them.

Some people just live to be offended. Hopefully, the current versions of the Red Scare, White Fright, and Yellow Peril subside long enough that these warnings are no longer necessary. But as long as there is a review mob crying to a sensationalist media, I expect we'll see more authors resort to them.