The copy editor will look for grammatical errors, and sometimes the publisher’s lawyer will check the book to make sure there’s nothing libelous in there, but fact-checking is not part of the standard publisher’s process. What usually happens is this: Authors submit their manuscripts, the manuscripts go to editors who help to refine them and shape them, and from there the book goes into production and copy editing. In general, fact-checking is not a standard part of the workflow in book publishing, even in nonfiction book publishing.

So how does fact-checking work in book publishing? And is the way that it works effective? The standard rule in book publishing is that accuracy is the author’s problem Kohn says that she fact-checked the quote by checking it against her notes and that this method is the journalistic standard. Sow says that the misquote would have been caught in fact-checking if anyone had contacted her to verify it. (For more on its social implications, I’d recommend takes by Amanda Arnold at the Cut and Amy Thomson at Mother Jones.) But the controversy has also brought up one of the knottier and more confusing questions that periodically rears its head in book publishing. The entire controversy is a deeply vexed situation that’s become a referendum on liberal racism and on the way that black women are used as props by progressives. Kohn, for her part, maintains that Sow did say those words and that she did go on the record with them, but as a courtesy, she has removed the quote from the digital edition of her book and has committed to removing it from any subsequent printed editions. Moreover, she says that she never went on the record with Kohn. Sow says that she never said those words. Kohn quotes Sow as saying that if she is provoked by a Twitter troll, “I can fucking kill you and I’m justified in doing that.” Metaphorically speaking, Kohn adds. Here’s the problem: One chapter features a fairly explosive quote from Call Your Girlfriend podcast host Aminatou Sow. It’s a book devoted to the laudable cause of understanding and then fighting back against hatred throughout the world, especially in the form of bigotry and prejudice. CNN political commentator Sally Kohn published a new book, The Opposite of Hate, earlier this month.

Aminatou sow book