This post came about from a recent experience of taking on a commission that I was unsure of and I should have listened to my gut instincts, but didn't.
The job was to find three case studies for a piece about people celebrating Christmas in a different way to most of us and I initially thought I would be inundated with people telling me their tales of reaching the summit of a mountain on Christmas day. Not so - apparently the majority of us would love to do something different, but rarely do.
So after a lot of requests on social networks, and syphoning out the ones who 'would love to do something different' but haven't, I eventually found two people willing to tell me their stories of what they did one Christmas that was out of the ordinary. Both were lovely and were only too happy to tell me of their experiences.
Then came case study number three. An American gentleman contacted me to say he was happy to tell me all about the time he cancelled Christmas. He claimed to be a fellow writer and although he initially thought he was being commissioned to write the piece, he said he was more than happy to tell me his story in the form of an email interview.
One rule you're always taught in journalism (and one that most editors adhere to) is that once you have permission to interview a case study, you do not send the interviewee a copy until it has gone to press. I, on the other hand, feel it's only fair to ask the interviewee to check over my copy, just in case I have misinterpreted something, such as age, location and to make sure they are happy for me to submit the copy.
The original interview had to be heavily edited because the gentleman in question had gone off on a tangent, and the information I required equated to about one paragraph. With a 700 word count to write per case study, I had to fill as much as I could to make up the required amount of words, but on no account did I write anything that misinterpreted what this guy had told me.
I sent the gentleman my copy to verify that he was happy with it and the next thing I know, he has tracked down my editor to question why I had written it in the first person and to question my ability as a journalist.
Anyone who really is a writer will know that real-life case studies are usually written in the first person. I'm very fortunate that I have written for this particular publication for years and my editors are the most lovely people to work with.
Thankfully my editor copied the email this gentleman sent to her about me and copied me into her response, explaining that I was indeed a professional journalist and that I was working to house-style and that this is how we usually handle case studies.
I emailed the gentleman apologising that he was unhappy, but pointing out that I had asked him to come straight back to me if he was unhappy with anything in his story. I told him that I would no longer be using his story because I felt that he had deliberately tried to jeopardise my relationship with my editors, which was both underhand and unprofessional.
I then received another email from him apologising for his behaviour, shortly followed by another scathing email saying he would never work with me again, blah, blah, blah.
I was very tempted to name and shame this individual, but he knows who he is and despite his attempts to discredit me, he just made himself look a fool. Perhaps he thought if he contacted my editors they would commission him to write the piece instead? I don't know.
The moral of this story is; if you are asked to write a case study, follow your brief, write it to the best of your ability and don't send a copy to your interviewee to proof. So long as you have written their story as told to you and have not misinterpreted them and you have kept to the house style, there is no reason why the interviewee should need to see a copy before it goes to press.
Also, always conduct interviews by email and keep all copies of correspondence; then if a situation like this does arise, you can prove exactly what information the case study has provided you with. And if you are unfortunate to have an experience like this, copy your editor into all communication.
The majority of people willing to tell your their stories are lovely and most accommodating, but there will always be odd one who will try to spoil things for you.
Thankfully I managed to find another case study and get my copy filed in time, but I will be more wary in future of who I choose as a case study.
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