Maintenance
Part of Books and literary culture reporting: a practical guide
Book reporting checklist: quotations, formats and fair use
Check book quotations before publication: match the copy reviewed, fit the locator to print, ebook or audio, quote only what is needed and clear images.
What to take away
- Match every quotation, page number, and judgment to the edition reviewed.
- Give each quotation a locator that fits its formatprint, ebook, or audiobook.
- Quote only what the purpose needs; no word count makes a quotation lawful.
- Confirm permission to publish an image, not only to inspect or photograph the object.
- Correct false quotations and credits wherever the false claim traveled.
Reviews, interviews, profiles, publishing reports, prize stories, archive features, and reading lists all need the same pass. Keep a source log beside the draft. An unchecked box means the copy is not ready or the item must be marked not applicable.
Match each quotation to the copy you reviewed
Compare every quotation with the reviewed copy, not with memory. Check punctuation, capitalization, spelling, italics, line breaks, omissions, and brackets, because those are the places where a quotation quietly changes. For the reviewing routine itself, see writing a book review.
- Identify speaker, narrator, epigraph, note, jacket copy, and interview language correctly.
- Credit the translator for quoted translated text.
- Preserve ambiguity when the work does not settle a point.
- Recheck character names, relationships, event order, setting, and ending claims.
A missing translator credit travels with the quotation into every later use. The fictional wrong-translation correction case follows a correction of that kind from the first report to the fix.
Fit the locator to the format
A page number means something only for the print edition it came from. An ebook uses a location system, and an audiobook has a narrator and a runtime, so each format needs its own locator and no borrowed pagination.
| Format | What to record | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Edition statement, page count, ISBN, and page number | A page number taken from a different edition | |
| Ebook | The location system the reader uses | Unsupported print pagination |
| Audiobook | Narrator, runtime, production credits, and abridgment status | Treating an abridged recording as the full text |
Introductions, notes, images, chapters, and pagination can differ across formats, so the edition record comes before the quotation does. A review does not always need page numbers, but the newsroom should retain locators for quotations and consequential passages.
Quote only what the purpose needs
Use only the amount of quoted text the piece needs for its purpose. No word count or percentage makes a quotation automatically lawful, and a checklist should never promise one.
The U.S. Copyright Office says there are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or a percentage of a work. Whether a use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances.
The test itself sits in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 107. It weighs four factors:
- Purpose and character of the use
- Nature of the copyrighted work
- Amount and substantiality of the portion used
- Effect on the potential market for the work
Write down how each factor applies to the quotation before you rely on it.
Columbia University Libraries' fair use guidance describes fair use as an opportunity to make reasonable and limited uses of copyrighted material, weighed under the four statutory factors, and points writers to a checklist for applying them. Escalate uncertain or high-stakes uses for legal review rather than inventing a safe quota.
Clear images before they run
An image needs its own clearance, separate from the text it illustrates. Record the creator, the source page, and the license or permission for each one, and make the caption match what that record shows.
- Confirm every image subject, date, creator, source page, license or permission, caption, and modification.
- Distinguish permission to inspect or photograph an object from permission to publish an image.
- Check provenance, restrictions, and reproduction permission for archival material.
- Confirm that a scan is complete, in sequence, and connected to the correct item.
Permission to look is not permission to publish. A researcher who may photograph a manuscript in a reading room still needs a separate answer about reproducing the picture.
Keep the source log and correct everywhere
A source log beside the draft makes the final check quick: the edition, the format, the locator, who confirmed it, and when. Before release, run the headline, deck, caption, metadata, rating, and social text against the same log.
Correct false quotations, credits, editions, and publication facts visibly, wherever the false claim traveled. Use dated updates for later awards, new editions, schedule changes, and corrected printings. The wider patterns behind such errors are collected in common literary coverage problems.
Disclosure belongs in the final pass too. The arts reporting checklist covers blurbs, acknowledgments, friendships, shared agents, and other ties that a reader would want to know about.
Common questions
Must page numbers be included in a review?
Not always, but the newsroom should retain locators for quotations and consequential passages.
Does a word limit make a quotation lawful?
No. The U.S. Copyright Office says no legal rule permits a set number of words or a percentage. Fair use depends on the circumstances, so escalate uncertain uses.
Can an ebook quotation carry a print page number?
Not unless the print edition was checked. Use the ebook's location system and avoid unsupported print pagination.
Does a correction need the edition number?
Include it when the error or corrected passage differs among editions.
