Dear O'Abby: Do I need a trigger warning?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm about to start querying a new book and it deals with some pretty intense subject matter (abuse, date rape, drugs) and while these things are deeply embedded into my story, the query doesn't directly address them.  Do I need to include a trigger warning in my query in case agents are traumatised by such subject matter?

Yours,

Untriggered

Dear Untriggered,

That's a hard no.

The point of a query is to entice an agent to request pages and read your book.  If an agent has something they don't want to see, it's up to them to make that known and then you can cross them off your query list if you think your book sits too close to that thing.  You don't want to warn them that they might find something in your book offensive - they'll never ask to read it.  And that would be a shame because you may have written the next great masterpiece of modern literature, but because you warned them it had content they might find triggering (without them asking for the warning), they'll never find out.

So unless an agent specifically says they don't want to read about animal cruelty or sexual abuse, consider them open to your query.  If they find they can't handle the subject matter, they'll stop reading at that point and politely decline to represent the book.

Good luck with your querying!

Do let us know how you get on.

X O'Abby