Things I Love: When Writers Brag About Their Fact-Checking

It’s one of the most essential—and under-appreciated—parts of the publishing process. That’s why I love to see people shouting out their fact-checking successes.

If there’s one thing I’d like writers and editors to do differently, it’s this: You really should talk about the work that went into fact-checking your book, article or podcast.

On rare occasions, I see writers, publications or podcast producers pull back the curtain and reveal the time and effort that goes into fact-checking their work. For example, Hidden Compass just published a Q&A with their fact-checker about her process. The Atlantic has an ad in rotation on social media that shows one of their articles dripping with annotations and notes after being reviewed for accuracy. Not long ago, Radiolab created a lead-in interview explaining how their team confirmed a claim that whale milk tastes like butter.

As a long-time fact-checker, nothing could make me happier — not necessarily the whale milk, but the process. I wish bragging about getting the story right were more common. This is usually invisible work — that you only ever hear about if a fact is wrong — but it deserves a spotlight.

This is especially true for book authors who have to do the fact-checking work themselves. Most book publishers don’t pay for fact-checkers, meaning authors have to either foot the bill on their own, or put in the time to check their own work. Especially if you do that work yourself, that is a laudable investment of time, and one we should all talk more about. Here are a few reasons to talk about the steps you took to double-check your writing.