'Book Publishing's Dirty Secret: Fact-Checking is Basically Non-Existent'
Some critics have questioned how Threshold could have published such a
story in the first place without verifying it. But according to
publishing veterans, there are few safeguards to prevent such a failure
in an industry that provides only minimal review and
fact-checking. Without in-house fact-checkers at most publishing houses,
authors themselves typically bear the sole responsibility for the
accuracy of their work.
"As a general course of business, publishers do not conduct a
thorough fact-check on most of their books," said Sloan Harris, a
literary agent at ICM Talent who represents New Yorker veterans Jane
Mayer and Ken Auletta. "A number of our prominent authors will, in
fact, employ an outside fact-checker at their own expense."
But such fact-checking arrangements are far from mandatory or routine.
Harris explained, "publishers are already under huge market pressures
and seem to be overworked every year, adding another function to their
obligation is not a likely outcome at this point."
See also: James Frey.
(Here, have "An Ode to Fact-Checking" as a chaser.)
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