Hachette has withdrawn a policeman's memoir due to accuracy concerns. Should publishers do more fact checking?
Retrieved on:
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
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Australian publisher Hachette has withdrawn from publication the memoir of a retired police officer, after concerns were raised about its accuracy.
Key Points:
- Australian publisher Hachette has withdrawn from publication the memoir of a retired police officer, after concerns were raised about its accuracy.
- Christophe Glasl spent 16 years in Victoria Police before writing his tell-all memoir, Special Operations Group, named after the elite force he was a member of for four years.
- In one chapter, Glasl writes of his involvement in the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
- The case raises a number of questions: chiefly, what kind of fact-checking processes, if any, do publishers use when commissioning and editing non-fiction books, especially memoirs?
How do book publishers check facts?
- Book publishing doesn’t have the same intensive fact-checking culture as journalism – partly due to the resources it would involve.
- The first element is trust, Andrew Wilkins, who has been a book publisher for over 25 years and was editor of industry publication Books & Publishing, told The Conversation.
- Read more:
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