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When rating their books, Authors and publishers should always do a search in manuscripts for the actual amount of swears according to the lists below. Readers who have access to ebooks should do the same. For print books, read ten successive pages chosen from the middle of the book, count all swears and use the formula below to determine the total number of swears. If you feel that sample was not accurate, read ten more pages, plug it in the formula again, add the results of both calculations, and divide by two. You can also chose to have My Book Ratings estimate the profanity for you.
Formula: swears in 10 pages x total pages in book ÷ 10 = estimated number of swears in book.
When you submit a book, you certify on your honor that it is a correct rating and that you have read the book. It’s not rocket science, really, just do your best and don’t discount a profane word because you don’t think it’s that bad or because you are an atheist and don’t care about deity swears. We are not trying to prevent swearing in books, we only want to rate books correctly so readers have a choice.
The most simple method for authors and publishers is to do an actual check on the book. You can easily search your manuscript and get a solid count that you can use on My Book Ratings (and also on Book Cave for all your promotions).
Words that are considered swears on My Book Ratings. Any variation or combination are also considered swears:
Not considered swears on My Book Ratings:
Potty humor and other crude words to be included in Crude Humor/Language:
Potty jokes and other crude words that authors use in their books are not considered swears on My Book Ratings. However, these words should be reported on the content rating by choosing a level of “Crude Humor/Language.” Potty jokes, like those in many children’s books (talking about farts or peeing or similar), are generally going to be the “mild” choice under crude humor and language.” Other more serious words include more adult terminology, including body parts and words you probably wouldn’t use while meeting your future in-laws for the first time. Below is not a full list of more severe word but are to serve as examples. If you see these please choose a higher rating depending how many there are and how you feel about them.
The following “H-word” are swears:
Because none of these refer to an actual location that is visited or lived in by the characters, these are all considered swears.
Exceptions with the use of “H-word”
Sometime books have instances when this is not a swear. This is usually when it references a definite place where the characters actually visit or receive visitors from.
Deity swears
There are very few instances when the word God / Jesus / Christ etc. are NOT swears in novels. This will usually be in religious books where people discuss or pray to God, or in speculative fiction where gods/goddesses are characters. None of the below are prayers in the context of the books they were in. God wasn’t a character in the books, so we need to add it to our profanity count.
These are not Deity Swears
A word about Lord/Lordy:
Many people who choose not to read deity swears will also not appreciate the Lord/Lordy replacement. Thus, “good Lord, no” is still a swear but “Dear Lord, help me get through this day” would not be one.
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