Fact-checking
Looking for guidelines on how to best annotate just about anything for fact-checking? Download my guide here! (Note: link goes to www.factual.work —my fact-checking agency)
I fact-check magazine articles, podcasts, documentaries, and nonfiction books.
As your fact-checker, I am a peer reviewer for accuracy and a consultant on how to adjust your narrative work to ensure that it’s factually sound.
Most recently, I have fact-checked the award-winning seasons of This Land, Unsealed: The Tylenol Murders, Damages, and beyond. I contributed fact-checking to David Quammen’s Breathless, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Over the last decade that I’ve been working as a fact- checker, I’ve noticed an evolution: many clients are no longer treating fact-checking as an intern-level task; they’re realizing that there’s a real (dollar) value for materials to be accurate. And in a media environment where lies are readily propagated—in books, magazine articles, podcasts, and documentaries— many nonfiction storytellers are realizing that for work to be taken seriously, fact-checking is a necessity, not just a nice-to-have.
I specialize in fact-checking narrative work across all mediums. I usually am working on projects with a focus on science and society, but, really, give me a juicy story and I’ll be excited to dig my teeth in. Every chapter or installment of a project that lands in my inbox feels like the newest episode of a TV series I am binging. I bring my research and investigative chops in understanding scientific papers, scouring historical and court records, dealing with confrontational sources — and more — to every project.
Books
Podcasts
Fact-checking services
Please note: Starting October 2024, my consultations will be offered through my fact-checking agency, Factual. Clients who specifically wish to hire me for fact-checking can continue to do so here. Clients who want a fact-checker through Factual, please get in touch via the agency’s website. Thank you!
You can hire me to help check for your publication, production network, or creative project of your choice. This entails a 30-min discovery call, my time in reading over a sample chapter that’s annotated and providing feedback on how to best annotate drafts for fact-check before contractually agreeing to a project fee for an agreed-upon scope of work. If you work for a magazine, I will follow your publication’s fact-checking protocols. Otherwise, I provide clients one round of fact-checking for a predetermined flat fee in which I attempt to verify all the facts and provide suggestions for accuracy as needed. Additional rounds of fact-checking are billed at an hourly rate.
Dying to hire me? Get in touch below!
FAQs for book authors seeking fact checkers.
Q: How early should I involve a fact-checker in the process?
A: As early as possible! I have seen requests from authors who want an entire 50,000 word nonfiction book checked within a month before it’s due back to his/her publisher. This simply isn’t feasible. Getting on a checker’s calendar once you know the editorial schedule is best, because good checkers often get booked up months in advance.
Q: To what standards do you require annotations?
A: As detailed as possible. After we sign a contract for fact-checking, I send all my direct clients a copy of my guide, HOW TO ANNOTATE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING FOR FACT-CHECKING free of charge. If you have not yet committed to hiring me, you can purchase a copy here.
Q: How much is it going to cost?
A: Just remember…
In all seriousness, though, it depends! That’s why I like to talk with inbound clients over the phone to get a sense of the complexity of the project. I do not bill hourly for fact-checking, unless it is out of scope. The question I ask my clients is: what dollar amount would you put on having an accurate podcast series/book/documentary? As some benchmarks, I typically charge at least $8000 for an 8-episode narrative podcast series, and $1000 per chapter for a narrative nonfiction book. Out of respect for my time and yours, please do not send a fact-checking inquiry if these rates are out of your budget.
Q: I can’t afford you!
A: Not everyone can, and that’s ok. I no longer provide referrals; if you wish for me to help you find a fact-checker within your budget and time frame, please reach out via Factual, my fact-checking agency.
Q: I’m a book author and I’m still blown away by how much it might cost to get a chapter checked. That’s a lot of money that’s likely coming from my own pocket and not the publisher. I want to pay my checker fairly but that is out of my budget. What can I do?
A: I totally empathize and believe that publishers need to start taking on a burden of the fact-checking fee! Some things you can do to offset the cost: if your book relies heavily on the narratives of people who are still living, have them read over those chapters. If your book relies heavily on a niche field of expertise, have a trusted expert comb through those chapters. If there are chapters that are less fact-dense or tricky, maybe you can fact-check them yourself. Perhaps that will help you whittle down the chapters that require the highest priority when it comes to fact-checking. And definitely send your fact-checker a sample of a chapter so they get a sense of what to expect.