The piece has been turned in, published, paid for, bang, you're done. Until an unhappy interviewee subject comes calling.

"You misquoted me!"

Oh great. You're going to be yelled at, sued, your name dragged through the mud. Your career is over.

Not quite. Politely tell the subject that you'll look into it and get back to them. Now, check your notes. This is a good time to mention that you should hold onto your notes for a while after publication, if you haven't already shared them with your editor.

If the case is that you are indeed correct, nicely tell the subject that you're positive that you got the quote right, and that you have the notes to back yourself up. Do not offer to share them, because you don't want to give the impression that you did something wrong and that you're 'proving' that you didn't. Sometimes subjects think that if you made an error, they can walk all over you. I'm ashamed to say that I wrote a piece that had two errors in it, both of which were corrected the next day. One of the interviewees also tried to claim that we misquoted her, but in that case, she was incorrect and even though we were wrong on two points, we stood our ground on the third. You might want to add that you're sorry that if they weren't aware that they were on the record the whole time they were speaking to you, but that's journalism.

If, however, it turns out that you are wrong, then you definitely need to speak with your editor. Apologize to the subject and if they are not mollified, let them know that a correction will be run ASAP.

Some reporters, to avoid this, run their quotes and stories by their subjects before the piece runs but this can be very tricky: you don't want to give the interviewee the authority to approve or disapprove of what you're writing.

Some subjects are going to be picky, and there's not much you can do about it other than make sure you don't make mistakes. There are some further tips on accurate reporting here on Romenesko.

If you have further thoughts or experiences to share on this, weigh in!