A survey on the reading habits of consumers of contemporary adult fiction and their perspective on a trigger warning/content advisory system

You are invited to take part in this academic survey as part of a masters research project in publishing. Your participation in this survey is greatly appreciated, and all responses will be kept strictly confidential. The findings of this survey will be used solely for academic purposes and will not be made public. Thank you for your time and contribution to this research project.

1. Gender

2. What age bracket do you fall into

3. How many books per year do you read (on average)

4. Considering the number of books you read, how often do you read contemporary adult fiction (on average)

5. In regard to content, would you prefer to know ahead of purchase if a book contains difficult/upsetting issues? (If you answer no, please go straight to Q12)

6. If you answered yes or maybe to Q5, how would this knowledge be likely to influence your decision to read a book

7. If you answered yes or maybe to Q5, would you like to see a content warning system on the book which indicated these difficult/upsetting issues

8. What type of content/material would you find it helpful to have flagged on a contemporary adult fiction book? You can choose more than one

9. Would it be helpful if the type of difficult/upsetting content included in contemporary adult fiction books was given a rating? For example a rating of LOW/1 to indicate that the subject matter is only lightly touched on, or a rating of HIGH/5 to indicate that it’s handled in more depth

10. If you answered yes or maybe to Q9, which scale do you think would work better, a Low to High ranking, or a 1-5 ranking

11. Would the information provided by a trigger warning/content advisory system on a contemporary adult fiction book (via a QR code for example) benefit your book buying experience

12. Are there any additional comments you would like to share? For example: would this kind of guidance be useful for books that you are giving as gifts, or for other genres?