Verify Your Book | Research, Rights & AI Intelligence
SELF-PUBLISHING INTELLIGENCE · SP06 · VERIFY
Verify the Book That Survived Development.
SP05 decides what belongs in the book. SP06 asks whether the surviving facts, sources, quotations, permissions, rights, authorship records, and AI provenance can withstand serious scrutiny before you spend time polishing and producing the final files.
Verification is not one search and it is not a legal guarantee. It is a controlled evidence process: identify what needs proof, investigate it, resolve what you can, preserve the record, and escalate what exceeds your competence or risk tolerance.
Bring forward the SP05 handoff
Use a stable developmental-manuscript version plus the verification queue produced during SP05. Do not waste publication-level clearance work on chapters, examples, quotations, images, or claims you still expect to cut.
1. Build the verification inventory
Scan the manuscript and its publication package for material that creates an evidence, rights, provenance, or currentness burden. Give each item an owner and a status instead of relying on memory.
- Claims, dates, statistics, technical statements, historical assertions, and other factual propositions.
- Direct quotations, close paraphrases, lyrics, epigraphs, excerpts, screenshots, tables, charts, or reproduced material.
- Book title, subtitle, series title, pen name, imprint, branded framework names, and other market identifiers.
- Third-party text, images, illustrations, cover elements, fonts, stock, archives, documents, or adaptations.
- Public-domain source material and the later adaptations or editions that may still be protected.
- Real people, interviews, memories, allegations, private information, likeness, voice, and attributed motives.
- Collaborator contributions, ownership, licences, releases, permissions, and contractual restrictions.
- AI-assisted drafting, images, research, transformations, prompts/references, human contribution, and source files.
- Volatile information that may be correct now but stale before publication.
2. Separate fact verification from rights clearance
A source can establish that a claim is accurate without giving you permission to reproduce the source. Permission can exist without proving that your statement is accurate. SP06 keeps those questions separate.
What supports this statement? Is the source authoritative enough for the claim? Is the wording proportionate to what the evidence actually establishes?
Do you have the right to use the material in the way you intend, in the relevant territory, format, and commercial context?
3. Verify claims at the level they deserve
Not every sentence needs a footnote, but material factual claims need a defensible evidence trail. Record the claim, location, source, date checked, source quality, whether another source is needed, and the final manuscript action.
For disputed or uncertain subjects, preserve uncertainty in the prose. Do not convert a plausible interpretation into a fact simply because it makes the narrative cleaner.
4. Control quotations and third-party expression
For every quotation, excerpt, lyric, image, table, chart, illustration, screenshot, substantial paraphrase, or other third-party material, record the source and the intended use. Determine whether the use is licensed, permitted, public domain, being removed/replaced, or requires professional review.
Do not treat attribution as a substitute for permission where permission is required. Do not treat the absence of a visible copyright notice as evidence that material is free to use.
5. Treat public domain as a source question, not a vibe
If the book depends on public-domain material, identify the exact underlying source and separate it from later protected translations, illustrations, arrangements, character designs, editions, annotations, recordings, adaptations, or franchise elements.
Specialist: Public Domain Contamination Audit →
6. Check the publication identity
Investigate the proposed title, series name, pen name, imprint, branded framework names, and other identifiers in the context in which you plan to use them. Exact matches are not the only relevant issue; confusingly similar use can matter.
Book titles and names raise different copyright, trademark, marketplace, and branding questions. Do not collapse them into one generic “copyright search.”
7. Handle real people and memoir material with extra discipline
Separate what is documented, remembered, reported by someone else, inferred, disputed, or unknown. Preserve interview/source confidence. Do not invent dialogue, actions, private facts, motives, or certainty to improve a scene.
When allegations, reputation, privacy, likeness, confidential material, vulnerable people, or significant commercial/reputational stakes are involved, professional review may be appropriate even if the manuscript feels factually strong.
8. Build the AI and human-contribution record
Record material AI use that affects authorship, provenance, rights, or explainability: tool/platform, relevant plan or licence, prompts or style/reference instructions where material, uploaded references, generated assets kept, human rewriting and selection, source files, and important revisions.
The purpose is not to claim that paperwork creates copyright. The purpose is to preserve evidence about how the work was made and what the human creator actually contributed.
Build a manuscript chain of custody →
9. Use the shared JR Clearance Method
Book verification plugs into the shared Creator Intelligence clearance system:
SEARCH → COMPARE → TRACE → CLEAR → DOCUMENT → ESCALATE
Use manual review, public/free tools, paid or professional-grade tools, and qualified professional review according to the stakes and ambiguity of the project. Preserve the evidence rather than relying on memory.
Open the shared Pre-Publication Rights & Provenance Clearance system →
10. Give every unresolved issue a decision
Every material flag should end in an explicit state: verified; rewritten; removed; replaced; permission/licence obtained; attributed/qualified where appropriate; unresolved but accepted with documented residual risk; escalated for professional review; or release-blocking.
Use a practical risk rating—GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, or RED—as a triage aid. The rating is not a legal opinion.
SP06 readiness gate
You are ready for SP07 when the manuscript is stable enough that finishing work will not conceal unresolved evidence or rights problems.
- The exact manuscript/version reviewed is recorded.
- Material factual claims have appropriate supporting evidence or have been revised.
- Quotations, excerpts, images, and other third-party material have a documented disposition.
- Public-domain dependencies identify the underlying source rather than assuming later adaptations are free.
- Title/name/brand questions have been investigated at an appropriate level.
- Real-person, interview, memoir, privacy, likeness, or allegation issues are documented and escalated where warranted.
- Collaborator ownership, licences, permissions, and releases are recorded where relevant.
- Material AI use and human contribution are documented sufficiently for the project.
- Time-sensitive claims have a currentness plan.
- All ORANGE/RED or otherwise material unresolved issues have a deliberate decision or professional handoff.
The SP06 completion artifact
Maintain a Pre-Publication Clearance Record + Source/Fact Ledger tied to the exact manuscript version. Preserve the evidence pack, risk decisions, permissions/licences, provenance, professional handoffs, and review triggers.
The result is not “legally guaranteed.” It is a manuscript whose important verification and release-risk decisions are visible, documented, and ready for the next production stage.
Next: finish the verified manuscript
SP07 is where line editing, copyediting, proofreading, formatting, front/back matter, cover/interior production, and file validation belong. Do not let finishing work become a substitute for unresolved SP06 decisions.
Need deeper verification support?
Use the free verification and clearance method first. Deeper research workflows, reusable records, currentness checks, tools, and eligible project support can sit in the appropriate paid access layer. Legal questions still belong with a qualified professional.
Jack Righteous · Create What You Love | Love What You Create.
