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Finding Work as a Fact Checker

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Job opportunities for fact checking are limited, especially if you want to do the work freelance. Major magazines use fact checkers, but many of these are staff positions. Smaller magazines use fact checkers too, but these positions are more likely to include other functions as well. Jobs are naturally more plentiful in major publishing centers. If there are book publishers in your area, you can check them out too.

You might want to offer your services as both a fact checker and a proofreader. If you have other editorial skills, such as copy editing, your chances for employment are enhanced. Be sure to point up your research skills in your letter. If you've ever been involved with other types of research, be sure to tell them about that too.

Manuscript Research



If fact checking really appeals to you, but there aren't any opportunities where you live, you might consider using these same skills to do manuscript research. Authors often need background information and other details for books that they're writing. For example, it might suit an author's purposes to set her novel at the time of the American Revolution. In order to authenticate the novel, she'd need to know how people dressed, what they ate, what their homes looked like, and a myriad of other details. Many authors don't want to do this kind of research themselves, so they hire manuscript researchers to dig up background information, which is really a form of fact checking. If you have library resources available, you can do this work from anywhere in the country, and it's really fascinating. To find clients, you can place ads in writer's magazines, or you might even write to individual authors offering your services.

Computer Research

Those who are lucky enough to have computers equipped with modems can provide manuscript research via one of the many databases available by subscription. We've seen computer research advertised in writer's magazines, but because few have this capability, there's plenty of room in the market for those who can provide this service.

Rates of Pay

As a freelancer working for a magazine or book publisher, you can probably expect to earn from $10 to $20 per hour, depending on where you live and by whom you're employed. If you do manuscript research for an author, what you're offered is likely to reflect what the author can afford. If all your business with an author is done by mail, be careful about working for authors who've never been published. They may never be published, and you might have trouble getting your money. Don't include your rate in your magazine ad if you decide to go that route. You'll probably want to negotiate, especially if the project sounds particularly intriguing, but have a low-end cutoff point in mind before you start the discussion. For computer research, you'll probably want to charge for the online time plus a markup for your profit. When you figure your charges, don't forget that there is wear-and-tear on your machine and additional cost for electricity. You might investigate other types of computer services to see what they charge. Pay for fulltime positions are comparable to pay for other editorial functions. In some parts of the country, you might start in the high teens, in others, up to the mid-twenties. The pay scale increases as you acquire experience, and of course, you can advance to other editorial jobs, depending on what other editorial skills you can acquire. Many fact checkers get so caught up in their fascinating offbeat jobs, though, that they don't want to go on to anything else.

Are You Qualified?

As with other reading for pay careers we've discussed, you don't need any particular educational background to become a fact checker, but the more general and specific knowledge you have, the easier the job would be for you. What you do need is a knack for knowing what should be researched and where to find the answers to your questions. Many fact checkers are former librarians, and they are obviously among the most qualified to do this type of work. However, if you like to do research, you're probably already familiar with a number of the library's reference sources, and you can learn about the others. We'll tell you about some in the next section.

Reference Sources

As a freelance fact checker, you'll need access to a good library that has all the major reference sources. For this type of work, the reference books that you might have at home, even if your library is extensive, probably wouldn't be sufficient. You'll also have to plan to do a lot of your work at the library because most reference books can't be checked out.

Fact checking is done on every conceivable subject, so it's impossible to be completely specific about the references you might need for any given manuscript, but there are guidelines to follow regardless of the type of material. (In this section, we're talking about published references or references from recognized authorities, not verifying facts, quotations, etc., with the subjects of articles. We'll talk about that later.)

Author's Privileged Sources

What do you do when you need to confirm a fact that apparently came from a source the author doesn't want to divulge? Some authors won't tell who their sources are, even to confirm the facts, especially if it's a delicate situation. In those cases, the publication may trust the author to have the correct information, and that will be the end of it. Other authors will tell the fact checker the source after extracting a promise that the fact checker won't tell anyone else. Sometimes the fact checker will be told to pretend she doesn't know who she's calling-that she's just been given a phone number to verify the information. If you do become a party to privileged information, you should keep it to yourself.

Massaging the Author's Ego

Sometimes the fact checker has personal contact with the author, and sometimes she does not. Often the editor gives out the manuscript for fact checking, but regardless of whether or not the fact checker and the author actually meet, there will be contact between them in the form of notes. Unless you're instructed otherwise, you won't be expected to actually change the facts in the manuscript, but rather to attach a note explaining why the fact should be changed. You can use larger Post-It™ notes for this purpose. The way the fact checker words the note is important; it must always be tactfully phrased so as not to offend the author. If the author feels you're being overly critical or picky, he may ask that you not check any more of his manuscripts.
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