“Don’t worry, you’ll never have to talk to them again.”
That line’s been stuck in my head ever since an editor said it last summer – and it’s 100 percent wrong.
The editor and I were talking about a story I’d done, a case study involving some relatively new and complicated technology. I’d finished writing and, at her request, sent the draft to one of my sources – I know, bad editorial practice but totally not my call – to check that the convoluted tech stuff was factually accurate.
Only when I emailed the story to the source, I’d forgotten to remove some notes at the top that I’d written to the editor, notes that included some less than flattering comments about the source – nothing defamatory, nothing horrible, but embarrassing nonetheless.
That’s what prompted the editor’s comment to relax and forget about it because I’d never be talking to that person again.
It’s advice I promptly ignored.
Maybe that’s the way she does business. But it’s not how I operate.
To make a proper go of it as a freelancer, you’ve got to be a beat reporter, keeping up on the latest news and events in fields you cover. That means keeping in touch with a ever widening circle of contacts, because you never know when you’ll need to talk to someone or ask for a referral to someone they might know.
Over the years, I’ve prided myself in my source list. A friend and former co-worker still talks about the extensive list of contacts I left when she took over my newspaper beat while I went on maternity leave.
These days I use LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Desktop to keep tabs on sources and manage contact information online and within my computer files.
Sources are my pot of gold, my secret weapon. They’re the reason I can take 500-word assignments that only pays 50 cents a word, because I can tap into my source list to turn a story around in less than a day, making it financially feasible when calculating the work on an hourly basis.
I may treasure my sources, but I’m no pushover. The only times I’d let a source see quotes before they’re published, go off the record or talk anonymously is if the editor asked or the circumstances warranted it. And asking tough questions is par for the course.
After I realized what I’d done and called the editor, I picked up the phone again and called my source. Even from across the the country, I’m sure they could tell my face was red. Luckily for me, they were pretty good about the whole thing and there were no lasting repercussions.
Moral of the story: Never, ever, include notes on a story that you wouldn’t want the world to see. And whatever you do, be good to your sources.
Michelle, it takes a big person to own like that! Good for you. I have a trade publication that requires me to let sources preview their pieces, and I’m of two minds on the issue. On the one hand, I do want the article to be accurate and this ensures that it is. On the other, a lot of sources go beyond checking for accuracy and try to rewrite the whole article (one even added sections that were in first-person but not in quotes!). It’s a fine line.