Whenever an author writes a non-fiction book based on a true real-life story, it is very important that there is no misinformation. Otherwise it can lead to defamation of character. That is why, for all my books, I make sure to get a thorough review done by a defamation lawyer before the book is published.
For example, for my most recent book titled “Minority Viewpoint – my experience, as a person of color, with the American Justice System”, I hired a defamation lawyer to review my manuscript, and went through the following steps:
- Step 1 – My lawyer did a thorough review of the manuscript (approximately 113 pages) and came up with 101 comments. Majority of his comments fell into two categories – words and/or phrases that could be actionable (with suggested edits in some cases) and a second category where he wanted to see the backup documentation to make sure facts were correctly described.
- Step 2 – I reviewed all of the comments made by my lawyer and suggested changes for the words and/or phrases identified by him as actionable. I also produced backup documentation for him to review to verify facts.
- Step 3 – A meeting (between myself and my lawyer) was held to go through each of the 101 comments and decide on changes to be made to remove risks.
- Step 4 – After that meeting, I made all the agreed changes and sent the marked up manuscript back to my lawyer for his final review.
- Step 5 – My lawyer reviewed the marked up document and found that all changes were made satisfactorily. He then identified four additional comments for me to look at.
- Step 6 – I reviewed the four comments and suggested appropriate changes, which were subsequently approved by my lawyer.
- Step 7 – All changes were then incorporated to finalize the manuscript.