Many readers hold the belief that a book will be more accurate than a newspaper, magazine article or a blog. With so much ‘fake news’ around, people really don’t know who to trust, but most still have faith in non-fiction authors. However, it’s no secret that fact-checking has never been standard practice in the publishing industry, which has faced its fair share of scrutiny and controversy over this in recent years.
Several high-profile authors have had their work’s accuracy questioned by their sources, including Michael Wolff on his book, ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’ and former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, whose book is ironically named ‘Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts’. Naomi Wolf’s book ‘Outrages’ was axed completely in 2019 over factual inaccuracies.
These incidents always leave people asking how could this have happened, but anyone familiar with the publishing process won’t be surprised. Constraints make it nigh on impossible for publishers to dedicate the financial resources and time to check facts. However, the accountability for accuracy lies solely with the author and if they get it wrong, there can be all sorts of legal consequences, not to mention the loss of reader trust and reputation.
Fiction Author? Think the rules don’t apply to you? Think again!
If you’re a fiction author, you may think the rules don’t apply to you, but unless you’re writing pure fantasy, you’re still going to need to make sure that your events and settings hold up, especially if some of your readers are experts in the particular field you’re writing about. For example, if you’re writing about a certain city, make sure that you know enough about that city that you’re not going to upset readers who may know it very well. Whilst fiction writers have some artistic licence, you’ll still turn readers off if you get something that’s supposed to be true to life wrong.
How to check facts like a pro
It’s not just in book publishing that you can come unstuck. Every time you publish something online, whether it’s a blog, podcast, video or even a user comment, you open yourself up to potential legal liability.
There are some things you can do to protect yourself:
(1) Be very sceptical — verify everything before you publish it.
(2) Create your own fact-checking system — stop and think before pressing that ‘share’ button. Ask yourself:
- Who actually said that and did they really say it?
- How do they know? Did they cite their source of information? Ask for evidence.
- Are they likely to be biased?
- What don’t I know? What is being left out?
(3) Do a search for at least three other trusted sources reporting on the same thing (however, be wary of mistaking quantity for quality — fake news tends to proliferate).
(4) Be aware of your own confirmation bias — ‘a subconscious tendency to seek and interpret information and other evidence in ways that affirm our existing beliefs, ideals and theories.’
(5) Proofread your work, look out for the most common errors such as:
- Names, titles, place names.
- Statistics.
- References to time, distance, date, season, location, physical descriptions.
- Argument or narrative that depends on fact.
- Historical facts.
- Beware of superlatives like: ‘only,’ ‘first’ and ‘most.’
(6) Where to check:
Primary Sources:
- Government reports and websites.
- Raw data/academic journals/trusted websites such as statista.com.
- Court documents.
Secondary sources
- Public/library databases.
- The Deep Web — This includes areas of the Internet that aren’t open to surface searching. This usually means databases and subscription sites that hold web data that no longer exist in a Google search. You can look at sites such as Internet Archive – Wayback Machine and Critical Mention.
- Ask an expert: an academic, published and respected author, government employee, or industry representative.
- Search fact-checking sites to see if the information has already been debunked.
Editorial Research can cover many different areas
Perhaps you’re writing a report, legal document or designing a study? Or maybe you’re revising a travel guide, a directory or textbook? If you’re not able to do it yourself, do get somebody to check that names, citations, events, stats, prices or details are up-to-date. The same applies if you’re a blogger, freelance journalist or someone that regularly publishes online.
Always give attribution and be transparent about where you got your information from, so that others can build trust in you and what you report, via verification.