We have enough labels | Romancing the Blog | Romance Authors and Readers Who Blog

September 14th, 2007 by Kara Lennox

I recently read a Letter to the Editor in which the writer objected to the foul language she was running across in her romance books. This is a complaint I’ve heard often over the years. It comes up again and again.

I can understand some readers being offended by coarse language or graphic sex or whatever. Everyone is entitled to his or her individual tastes. But what bothers me is that this reader–along with many others–wants something done. She wants ratings put on romance books, like they do movies and TV shows.

I find lots of books and characters offensive, and it has nothing to do with whether they use the F-word. I get offended when heroines are too stupid to live. I get offended when they expect some guy to rescue them from their pathetic lives. I get offended by verbally abusive alpha heroes and the heroines who stick around for more. There’s usually nothing on the cover that clues me in to the fact I’m going to dislike the characters or the story. I just take my chances, and sometimes I’m disappointed.

If we post ratings on our book covers for sex, violence and language content, why can’t we code them for everything? AH–Alpha hero. AHVB–Alpha hero verbally abusive. BH–Beta hero. TSTL–Too Stupid to Live characters. P/RC–Political or Religious Content. G–Gay characters. HP–Homophobic characters. That way, we all could avoid being offended.

I mean really. The things readers find objectionable are as varied as the readers themselves. So if you don’t like what’s in a book, don’t complain about it or try to change how authors are writing or publishers are publishing. Just vote with your wallet. Don’t buy that author again, or that line, or that publisher. If you’re leery of trying a new author, get recommendations from a bookseller or friends who know your taste.

But let’s not label the books. We romance writers put up with enough labels as it is.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 6:00 am by Kara Lennox. You can link to and feed this entry. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

37 comments to “We have enough labels”

There’s a certain sort of person who wants to be shepherded along a comfortable path because that’s easier than, you know, thinking. That person is why there’s a sticker on your hair dryer telling you not to use it in the shower (because otherwise how would you know not to?) and the reason your takeout coffee isn’t as hot as it should be (because some klutz dumped it in her lap and it was hot and she sued the franchise for daring to sell hot coffee).

The “somebody protect me from everything harmful and offensive” mentality nauseates me. It’s basically throwing away responsibility for your own life. I, for one, would be very concerned about who’s going to pick it up. I prefer to hang onto mine, thanks. Unfortunately, when there are enough sheep to form a flock, we all get whacked over the head with the shepherd’s staff.

(The preceding is just a small sample of what you’ll learn in my online workshop, How to Stretch a Metaphor Until It Screams! )
by Kerry Allen September 14th, 2007 at 6:24 am
Oh, lordy. [facepalm] Let’s please not go there. Just… not.

Fanfic fandom has this pestilential custom of putting “warnings” on stories. It’s right there in the header, a line saying “Warnings: …” with whatever the writer wants to or feels she has to warn for, or even “Warnings: none” to reassure folks that no, really, there’s nothing here that the writer could imagine anyone ever finding icky or offensive.

The readers have come to expect it, too, and not just for rape or heavy kink. There’s a loud and perpetually indignant core of readers who are adamant that everything “warnable” absolutely must be warned for, in accordance with their own definition of “warnable” of course. And it’s amazing what they consider warnable. Forget about putting a character in serious peril of his life, for example — “character death” is a warnable element and if there’s no warning, readers will just know in advance that the character is safe. And if the character dies but there’s no warning, that’s cause for a flaming row. So much for suspense. :/

Food porn? Warning. Playing with feet in bed? Warning. Bi character has an ex-wife who’s mentioned, or gay character has a girlfriend (even if she’s a beard because he’s not out)? Warning.

Do not go there. Don’t open the door, don’t let that camel’s nose into the tent. Because that’s a huge and disgustingly ugly camel, covered with fleas and ticks and foot-rot and you do not want it taking up residence.

Angie
by Angie September 14th, 2007 at 7:07 am
:grin:Whoa down there, Ladies, before you alienate all your readers!:wink:

I have no idea what the reasoning behind the lady in the article asking for a warning label. What I do know is that the readers I know hate feeling cheated. For example, they hate spending their hard-earned money on a romance novel only to discover it’s Erotica. There are lots of bloggers and websites out there reviewing books - at no cost to authors - so that readers can find the books they love without this kind of disappointment.

I think authors need to bear in mind that the readers are the ones with the money. If they buy your book expecting one thing, but get another, they may never buy another book by you ever again. They may tell all their friends not to buy your books, as well.

If labeling helps a reader, a *buyer*, feel more confident in buying your book, that can only be a good thing.
by Kimber An September 14th, 2007 at 8:03 am
Ah god, no. As another commenter has stated fanfiction already goes too far in this direction - they can’t bear to read anything with character death without a warning, I’ve seen “slash” or “M/M” as a warning on a community which deals specifically with a m/m pairing. As you say, where does it stop.

The day when books are rated like films and games is the day I start building my space ship.:twisted:
by Erastes September 14th, 2007 at 8:06 am
PS - and even films are getting stupid.

“Contains mild peril and one mild swear word” I’ve seen recently…
by Erastes September 14th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Kimber An, with a very few exceptions, authors are well aware of the importance of their readers, but as you said, there are hundreds of places reviewing books, a service that is free to readers, as well. If a reader wants a sweet Regency and ends up with M/M paranormal erotica, I have to say that’s reader error. Blaming the author or the publisher or the government for failing to enumerate every possible form of offense on the book cover is, again, denying all responsibility for one’s own choices, and I will never support that.

Who’s going to be doing the regulating, anyway? Who’s going to pay for it? Who’s going to police it? Is romance going to be singled out, or will the labeling extend to all books? (And won’t that make banning and burning them convenient for those inclined in that direction…)

I see no angle from which it’s not a terrible idea.
by Kerry Allen September 14th, 2007 at 8:39 am
Unbelievable! But I suppose I should’ve seen this coming. It’s society. Like Kerry Allen said, it’s the whole throwing away responsibility thing and the please protect me thing. Ack.

I do love your suggestions for other labels, though, Kara. The TSTL label would definitely save me a lot of time and money. How about WH for Wimpy Heroine? I hate those.
by B.E. Sanderson September 14th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Kerry Allen–
I think you said it better than me! We, as consumers, have to be responsible for our own choices.

If I go to by a refrigerator, it might have an energy consumption label, but Consumer Reports doesn’t run around slapping stickers on refrigerators that says–not big enough for frozen pizza. I have to do my research, which might involve talking to people and checking for reviews online.

Kimber An, I certainly don’t want to offend readers, and I understand being disappointed in a book you believe is one thing and turns out to be another. But my point is, it’s not just sexual or violent content that offends, and you can’t label for everything.

Erastes and Angie, I wasn’t aware of the fanfic phenom. Interesting. But it seems to me, books are already packaged in a way that’s designed to clue you in as to the content. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an erotica book that was packaged so cleverly that I wouldn’t realize what I was buying.

Category romance is packaged in a way designed to give the reader exactly the story she’s expecting. Red covers=hot content!

I don’t think romance novel rating will happen anytime soon. As I mentioned, the subject has been rearing its head every so often for as long as I’ve been in the business, which is a very long time.

Kara
by Kara Lennox September 14th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Oh yes! I share your objections. Foul language — it’s just words.

But women too stupid to live? That is more objectionable because it is subtle and insidious. It quietly reinforces the notion that it’s okay for women to be stupid.

The problem is that the majority of folks in America are rather tolerant beings (who swear like stevedores, themselves). But, being, eh, tolerant, they rarely voice their opinion. Hence, the cacophony of intolerant voices gets heard while the silent tolerant ones go unheard.

So, cheers for writing about this. Tolerant folks need to speak up!
by retterson September 14th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I can see where the reader was coming from in lamenting that “foul language” seems to be sought after to make a book sound either snarky or gritty.

HOWEVER, I agree that if you don’t like that trend in romances, vote with your wallet, not with heavy handed regulation by some committee somewhere full of people who don’t know what they are talking about. Kind of like the lawmaker who objected to a breastfeeding in public law because he thought it should have a clause releasing owners of property where a mother was breastfeeding from liability if someone slipped on (I kid you not) “spillage”.

There is a reason it is getting harder and harder to find wimpy heroines or “forced seductions” in romances now. Readers stopped buying them for strong heroines who want to jump in the sack. If enough people don’t like foul language, then a market will open for books with clean language, and people will hook on to those writers and read them. Voila the free market at work.

If you can’t go to a bookstore and do a quick flip through the pages to “screen” a book for words you find offensive, then you are just lazy. I’m willing to bet if offensive language is there, it is going to be pretty easy to spot.

Chessie
by Chessie September 14th, 2007 at 11:38 am
There should really be a label for those offended by labels, don’t you think?
by Elizabeth September 14th, 2007 at 11:58 am
At this point, my books are already rated…although only as far as the sex level is concerned. Some see it as a marketing ploy; “E for Erotic” books sell more than “S for Sexual” as an example, the same can be said for the ratings on movies. “PG13″ is a far better rating than “PG” when it comes to raking in the moola.

The reality is, my publisher came up with those ratings so customers would know what level of sex is in the story. Not everyone wants their romances hot and heavy. Hard to believe, I know, but true (grin).

All that said, I’d hate to see books go the way of movies, television and music, but I’m afraid it may be in the cards as unavoidable. Readers want some indication of what they’re spending their money on. And whether it’s an E, S or F for Foul Language…I suspect a universal system will evolve for books as well.

Diana
by Diana Hunter September 14th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
I wonder if I put the warning
“My books are full of sex, cussing, and business” on my blog,
would sales go up or down?
by Kimber Chin September 14th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
* coming out of lurk-mode*
Please DO NOT label books. I’m with Ms. Allen in that people these days do not want to be responsible for their own lives. I’ve been a voracious reader for many years, and I am quite capable of figuring out all on my own what I will like/not like.
If you don’t have the time to look through a book, or research the author- don’t buy the darn thing! I’ve found with my friends the books they tend to complain the loudest about are the ones they buy “impulsively” (RE- just looked at the cover/description/picture and said “what the heck”). The old adage “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” did not come about without reasons!

And someone else mentioned the other half of the problem here. WHO is going to judge what gets labeled, and what doesn’t? What mystical panel gets to decided for me what is “offensive” and what is not? Priests? Whores? Gods forbid- The Government??????
*shutters just thinking about it*

Now- having said all that- the TSTL sticker I can totally get behind.
And I hope I haven’t offended anyone *G*
*goes back to lurk-mode*
by KCfla September 14th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
I think labels or ratings are silly. I don’t need someone to tell me what I should find objectionable - I’m fairly certain I’m intelligent enough to decide for myself. Besides, what offends a more sensitive soul won’t trouble me in the least.

It’s too slippery a slope because where does it end and how are the lines drawn? My books tend to have fairly steamy love scenes - someone might be shocked, but someone else (like me) would be fine with it. It could possibly hurt my sales to have a warning label slapped on the front cover(unnecessarily, IMHO) because someone finds out that the sex scenes are **gasp!** steamy.

And as was mentioned, who/what would be the deciding entity as well? A bad idea, all around. Look at what you’re choosing, flip through, and if it makes you uncomfortable, put it back - but don’t decide it’s too graphic for someone else.
by Kimberly Nee September 14th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
“Mystical panel.” I couldn’t help but picture Gandalf standing on a mountain of romance novels…
by Kerry Allen September 14th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Over-labeling is like over-legislation . . . neither one of them works. Some choices should just be left to the consumer/citizen.
by Bettye Griffin September 14th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Every time I hear someone bring up ratings I just roll eyes. Besides, what really pushed the line a few years ago might be considered tame by today’s standards.

If a book is offensive, I put it down. It’s not brain surgery. Great post!
by Lillian Feisty September 14th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
There is a very easy way to avoid foul language and too graphic sex in romance novels. Read older books, say 1970 or before or read inspirationals. But if a single F-bomb wrecks your day, then how do you survive a trip to the schoolyard to pick up your children?

My kids are studying all the ways the MPAA messes up movie ratings. And now someone wants to rate books? Turn the page. Read something else. Life is full of choices–make a few for yourself.

Of course, I myself am not easily shocked by anything.
by Jackie L. September 14th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
“For example, they hate spending their hard-earned money on a romance novel only to discover it’s Erotica.”

OTOH, without a label, they might discover a charming, romantic love story.
by Dayle September 14th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
As I understand it, movie ratings are to give parents a starting point to decide what movies are appropriate for their children. (They don’t take the place of actually researching more about the movie or knowing what each individual child can handle, of course.)

We’re adults. We’re mature enough and smart enough to figure it out for ourselves–movies or books or whatever.
by Dayle September 14th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I actually blogged on th is very subject earlier this week. We’re all adults and the fact of the world is, many adults curse. In novels where characters are hardened warriors or well, basically adults, you may hear swearing, it makes sense for the characters. And worse in that letter you’re speaking of, the letter writer complained that while it was sort of okay for men to use bad words, heroines doing it sounded like “gang members”

I have no problem with people having preferences and not wanting to read curse words in their books. Everyone has things that appeal to them and turn them off. But I do have a problem in adding yet more labels on books to protect people rather than letting adults be adults.

There are lines where swearing is kept to a minimum - almost all Harlequin/Sil lines (except Blaze and Spice) is a good example. But if you’re reading a dark paranormal or a SEAL romance outside those lines you’re probably going to read a swear word or two. I advise folks to do what I do with my preferences, you find lines and authors who give you the kinds of things you like in your stories and you don’t read the books you don’t like.

More labeling for this sort of content is a slippery slope. Who decides? My goodness, we can’t even decide on what “romance” is, now we’re going to decide what “offensive” is?
by Lauren Dane September 14th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Labels on books? Does this person think readers are clueless? Like someone else said do your homework and pay attention to the covers. Yes there are things that bother me in books but I can skip those parts and get on with the actual story if it’s a good book. Covers say alot about the book and if you’re that petty that four letter words drive you nuts skim the book before you buy or better yet borrow the book from your local library and then you haven’t wasted any money.
by Melissa M. September 14th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Didn’t SmartBitches just snark this idea? I’m pretty sure I saved at least one of their labels to use on my website. LOL!
by Kalen Hughes September 14th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Retterson–yes, sometimes a vocal minority does rule. On the other hand, tolerance can easily slide into complacency. It’s a fine line.

Chessie–LOL about “spillage.” There is already a large market of Christian romance novels, and one publisher has an imprint called “Center Street” that is clean without necessarily promoting a Christian message.

Elizabeth–LOL.

Diana–I really have no problem if a publisher wants to “rate” or “code” their own books. That’s a packaging decision, not much different than labeling a line “Spice” (Harlequin’s erotic romance line). A little study by the consumer and you can decipher the code.

Kimber Chin–probably more readers! It’s funny, anyway.

KCfla & Kimberly Nee–totally agree. Who gets to decide? With ratings there is also the danger of censorship. Once you have XXX books, someone will want to ban them and burn them.

Kerry Allen–LOL

Bettye–Amen.

Lillian–thanks.

Jackie–LOL about the school yard. I hear the most amazing things on people’s car stereos.

Dayle–Yes, part of the joy of reading for me is the discovery of what’s between the covers. Ratings might stop people from trying something new.

Lauren–Oh, yes, cops and military people do swear! It was always a challenge when I wrote those characters for Harlequin. I had to be very creative.

Melissa–I’m a big fan of libraries. They’re great for sampling.

Kalen–Guess I’m in good company if I blogged on the same subject as SmartBitches. They were probably much more clever than me, though!
by Kara Lennox September 14th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Kara — But it seems to me, books are already packaged in a way that’s designed to clue you in as to the content.

That’s exactly right. [nod] And that’s fine. The cover art, interior excerpt and the blurb on the back are designed to give the reader enough info to have an idea of what sort of book it is and hopefully hook them on the specific story so they want to read it. If it’s heavily erotic, the packaging will make that clear. If it’s sweet or religious or kinky or set in 16th century China or contains magic or demons or ESP, the packaging will make that pretty clear.

And as Kimber An pointed out, there are already plenty of reviewers, amateur as well as professional, who are willing to give readers all the advance info they might want which isn’t given away by the packaging. If a reader absolutely must know which guy the heroine will end up with, or whether there’s a single instance of swearing or taking the lord’s name in vain, or exactly how explicit the sex is, or whether there are any non-vanilla scenes at all and precisely what they depict, there’s someone around who’ll be willing to tell them. At worst, they can wait for a friend to read the book and then ask. There’s no reason to give away scenes or plot twists the writer would rather hold back, spoiling the book for everyone, in the name of “warning” a few readers.

Fanfic does this regularly, though, and you can start quite a flamewar — with multi-fandom participation — by suggesting that the whole warning concept should be junked.

Note that the standard story headers already tell you who the paired characters are — the “which suitor will she/he choose?” story doesn’t exist in fanfic — and movie-style ratings are given. The warnings are in addition to that info. It’s not as though fan writers are tossing the story out there with a title and nothing else; there’s plenty of info provided.

I agree with Retterson that most people are pretty mellow about this stuff; it’s a very loud and determined minority who want to bully everyone else into doing things their way.

Angie
by Angie September 14th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
The Smart Bitches had some labelling ideas recently.
by Gabriele September 14th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Sorry, the link was wrong.

Click here
by Gabriele September 14th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Sorry, the link is wrong. (insert Duh smiley)

Click here
by Gabriele September 14th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Sorry, the link was wrong. (insert Duh smiley)

Click here
by Gabriele September 14th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Sorry, the link is wrong, you’ll have to scroll down to Advisory on Romance novels.

I wanted to post the correct link, but the site won’t let me.
by Gabriele September 14th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
This is absurd! You cannot censor everything!
by Nadia Aidan September 14th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Oh dear, and why does that post appear three time now - hours after I tried to post it?

I’m sorry for the mess, and hope the blog admin can clean that up.
by Gabriele September 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
*viewer discretion is advised*
The idea that romance ( how come this question seems to crop up only about romance?) needs exquisitely precise labels for language, etc., makes me want to say, in the words of Miss Snark: WTF?
by Bernita September 15th, 2007 at 4:35 am
Wow! What a great post! Though I’m not as familiar with how profanity plays out in romance, I can relate to the controversy. Initially, I was worried about using alot of profanity in my mystery stories, but my character is supposed to be this ballsy private detective who doesn’t take any crap from anyone. I felt like it would be stupid to have her saying “heck” and “darn” all of the time, so I bit the bullet and threw in a few F— You’s for good measure. I have had a few people comment on the profanity, but overall I think they appreciate the character’s raw honesty.

The covers of my books indicate that the story may contain some violence (hence the blood), so I hope that readers can conclude (without the guidance of a rating system) that the murderers in my books are not concerned with keeping their language PG.

Overall, I think that if a person is turned off by the language, they probably aren’t enjoying the story all that much anyway. Most authors who have a flair for storytelling can work in the language without it making much difference to the reader. One of my favorites, Janet Evanovich is great at using profanity to place what I consider to be appropriate emphasis on the character’s emotional status. Sometimes, you gotta say WTF and go with your gut.

Again, I really enjoyed this post.
by Rebecca Benston September 16th, 2007 at 10:08 am
“The “somebody protect me from everything harmful and offensive” mentality nauseates me. It’s basically throwing away responsibility for your own life.”

Thats kind of funny knowing at least 2 writers, errr, “romance writers” (even though work sites block their blogs labeling as “pornagraphic”) who have said they protect themselves from reality (IE don’t watch the news or TV, or god forbid, politics (err,whats that and whose running?) for any education…and actually rely on their husbands or friends to tell them wtf is going on in the world. They “can’t handle the sadness or bad news”, so they live in a world of fiction, unable to handle the real outside world, and when something does make them feel bad, they try to compensate by shopping, wasting tons of money on stuff they already have too much of! I swear, it’s true. The same 2 gals (One a buddy of mine in FLA) and she is a friend, but bless her heart, she lives in a make belive world…everything is great…life is good…yummy…haha. She is pretending…. thats what little girls do. She wastes so much money on traveling as well.. She lives in a make belive world, all her books are make believe, her marriage doesnt even seem real … but he looks the other way…anything to make sure she is happy (Even though he doesnt seem happy to me, but he would NEVER tell her, burst her fragile bubble and all that) and yet she can’t “visualize” her scene, so she uses it as an excuse to travel, burning all his hard earned money. She uses explicit words, but her stories are odd…I wonder where she is coming from at times, and too bad theirs not CW (Clueless writer label) Sorry K! lol I have told her that, but she just goes on! We had to agree NOT to talk about her books when we visit! TG for alcohol!

For what it’s worth, I like readers who are intelligent, informed, & imaginative, and stick up for themselves!(Who cares how “real” a scene is..It’s fantasy! Make it up! No one is going to compare reality to your books! It’s not a “research” required topic) maybe she is using it to get away from the rare reality she has…hubby and kids. Who knows…. But you gals who spoeak out…keep on speaking out. Love the rants!

Taylor
by Taylor September 20th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Gabriele–ah, well, don’t worry about the repeated comments. It just makes it look like my post was more popular!

Nadia–yes, exactly. I was a journalism major in college, and censorship is a real and insidious danger–we have to be watchful all the time that it doesn’t creep up on us.

Bernita–Don’t you miss Miss Snark?

Rebecca, thanks. Yeah, sometimes “oh, shucks!” just doesn’t fit the situation.

Taylor–well, I have to admit I am not a big fan of the news myself, especially TV news, because it’s so sensational. I’m not sure I need to learn about celebrity sex scandals! So I can’t totally condemn your friend. I scan headlines and if something sounds like it might have a bearing on my life, I’ll read. Otherwise I don’t. Don’t be too hard on your friend, as she might be more prone to depression or super-sensitive. For those of us who fall in that category, depressing news can be extremely painful.

I have my rose-colored glasses firmly in place. Numbing yourself with excessive spending, though, not good, but escapism via fiction–I’m all for it! Thanks for your comments.
by Kara Lennox September 23rd, 2007 at 11:51 am