Straight Talk: The Hard Truth About Fact Checking and Other Services Publishers Don’t Provide

Emma Eisenberg recently learned the hard way something that a growing number of non-fiction authors are encountering: big trade publishers don’t pay for fact-checking. Writing about her experience in Esquire, Eisenberg outlined the emotional and legal considerations that underpinned her decision to work with a fact checker on her own dime. She concluded by arguing that it is in the publishers’ interest to front this cost. “The more we ask the big, shifty questions about power and privilege and truth, the more our foundation must be rock solid. Editors must insist on fact checking budgets for their authors,” she noted. 

She makes a great point, but a quick fact-check of publishing trends indicates that it will fall on deaf ears. Indeed, the sad reality is that a range of supports and services that authors used to count on from major trade publishers —such as developmental editing and publicity — are either being minimized or cut out. This comes as a shock, much as it did to Eisenberg, to many of our first-time author clients.  

To help reset author expectations, we are devoting the next installment of our Ghostwriting Confidential: Straight Talk for New Authors blog series to what trade publishers both typically do and increasingly don’t do. Our goal is to provide an honest, independent accounting of the services that non-fiction authors in particular are increasingly being asked to pay for themselves, so they can go into the publishing process with their eyes open and set their budgets.  

See our blog post, Ghostwriting Confidential: Straight Talk on Additional Expenses for the full article.