Good morning, Readers!
Well, things are on the move with The Timbercreek Incident, finally, after a small delay. The physical proof is finally on its way to me, so I can see how it looks in my hand; to make sure the cover and interior are going to be the best they can be for every book order that comes through. Print on demand can be kind of finicky, so I wasn't comfortable just approving the pdf version. I wanted to see it in hand.
It's going to take a little while to arrive, so I haven't approved the paperback for pre-order yet. It's coming. Promise.
I wanted to talk about the delay, actually.
This is the first book I've had a content warning printed in the front of the book, so that folks can decide whether or not they want to read the book. The eBook had no issues. But when it came to the physical copy, well... that was stuck in limbo.
I had no clue why. All that the online submission end of Draft2Digital would give me was a simple "Contact Support" message.
I thought that perhaps there was an online scanner thing that picked up that the text was the same as what's on offer on Wattpad for free.
That would be easy enough to explain to their customer support.
It was not.
Instead, their automatic system flagged my content warning list. And I had to supply the page numbers of the beginning and end of the only spicy scene in the book.
I'm sorry, what?
I, of course, provided the page numbers, but I also enquired, because this set off a bunch of alarm bells in my head. Specifically, my query was:
"This is a work of fiction with an adult demographic. Surely it would be up to the reader to decide whether or not to read the book and does not require you to moderate or censor their reading experience?"
I mean, that was the whole point of the content warning list at the front of the book.
Now, it's not Draft2Digital's fault. As per my contact there, there are a list of things the folks they distribute to will not sell, so they have to flag these things to check in order to reach maximum distribution. And, after having checked through the provided pages, the book's flags were removed, and everything can proceed as normal.
Here's the thing, this was only an issue because I had a list of things to watch out for in a content warning section of my book. I doubt very much anything would have been flagged if I had neglected to put in such a section at all.
This system does nothing but discourage the use of content warnings. I won't be putting them in my books going forward. What I will do is list the content warnings on the book pages of my website, and place a note in the books to check there. That's what's going to happen.
I greatly wonder how many folks have just abandoned content warnings in full because of this.
There is considerable debate about content warnings in books. I do not usually require them, and so don't really think about it, but I also know that a lot of people really appreciate them. Those that don't can simply skip that page in a book and read as normal, so it's no big deal to include them... unless it gets you stuck and delayed as it did in this case.
There's really nothing that I can do about it, save what I plan to already - have the content warnings on the site and direct folks there in the books instead of listing it out in the book itself. Which I think is a shame.
Still, happily, I have the physical proof on the way. With luck, it'll be all good, and I can hit that "approved" button, and the book can go up for pre-order. Knock on wood!
Alright, I'm done with my whining. I have work to do, and so do you, I think.
Slán go foill!
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