Behind the Name on the Cover

A Personal History of the Partnership Behind My Books

This is a somewhat different kind of post for Just the Facts.

Many of you come here for my reporting on current events and investigative stories. Others may have found me through one of my books. But I suspect a fair number of subscribers are not familiar with the full body of my work, much less the role my wife, Trisha Posner, has played in every one of those books.

So today I wanted to share something more personal. It is also, I hope, a glimpse into the real world of publishing and long-form investigative nonfiction as I have lived it. I’ll be back soon with the reporting I’m working on now. But in the meantime, I thought it was worth opening a window onto the story behind the books, and behind the name on the cover.

Readers see a single name on a book cover and assume authorship is a solitary act.

It rarely is.

Over the past four decades, I have written 13 books. My name is on the spine of each one, and with that I have gotten the the praise and the criticism. But anyone who knows me well knows tho…