As authors we are responsible for the content of our work, and how we present our books, essays and articles to the world can make all the difference between having fans or a lack thereof.

If you are writing fiction, adding the proper warnings is a fairly simple process based on the target audience.

When writing a fictional story based on true events or real people, the author is responsible for placing a warning on the copyright page to that effect.

Non-fiction is the major area that an author should pay special attention to. Placing warnings on the copyright page or dedicating an extra page just for the warnings would not be a bad idea either.

The warnings should include but are most definitely not limited to:

The nature of the content (whether or not it is explicit or for a specific age group.)

If names are mentioned in the book, consider using fake names. (For safety reasons and the protection of the identity of anyone involved.)

If a place or location is mentioned, using a false name is also not a bad idea for the same reasons as using fake names. Use a warning to clarify this as well.

If your book is written about a particularly touchy subject such as politics, religion and/or sexual orientation, adding a warning is not a bad idea.

Although changing names, locations and the like are optional, placing the proper warnings should become a habit out of respect for the people involved as well as for your potential fan base. While readers understand that, as writers, some of us choose to relay the truth, and they may not like reading that truth, an adequate warning label or warning page can be the factor in the difference of a reader’s opinion of the writer in general that could deter that reader from checking out any of the author’s other works or books.

The point in general is that warnings are a communication from you, the author, to your readers and/or fan base that you acknowledge they may not find that particular work to be within their comfort zone. That does not by any means imply that you, the author, should not write what you are writing. The warnings only serve to let your reader know that it may not be a book they would enjoy because of the subject matter.

Regardless of what the genre is, our goal is for our readers to read and enjoy our work and possibly identify with and/or learn from it on some level or another.

Warning examples can be found in a number of places, even on the internet, or you can write your own if you want to. I would personally suggest referencing the warnings available and writing it over again to make it specific to the nature of your work.

As an author myself, I know that we have a habit of writing things we feel strongly about but that does not mean that we should just push it onto our readers. Giving a simple warning is an easy and effective way of allowing a reader to choose a book that they would like and allows the author to maintain their fan base with honesty and dignity.