Advice about peventing libel issues for nonfiction?
I’ve written a nonfiction book on prayer, entitled A Pathway Through the Clouds, which chronicles intertwined true stories of answered prayers. I plan to launch this book in 2024 but have been warned that some of the content could be viewed as incendiary to some people and could attract attention from people who might hope to make money from a lawsuit. (They would be barking up the wrong tree because I’m not exactly Mrs. Moneybags, but I still don’t want to find myself in this situation.)
I had read another author’s question to Thomas about this topic, and he had responded that as long as you are telling the truth, you should be safe. In the writing of my book, I have been careful to make it very clear where I got my information and have verified the most snesitive information by getting two sources. I also placed a page at the back of the book where I explain that my telling of these stories is only for the purpose of investigating the topic of prayer and learning about how God responds to our prayers—not to bring harm to anyone.
In spite of this, I have been warned that I should change the names of certain people in the book. However, that seems useless since it would be all too easy for anyone who knows these people to recognize who each person is, especially if I only change the names of some and not all. Yet if I change all the names, it basically becomes a fiction book, and I want everyone to know that all of these things did actually happen. This is very important to me since the topic is answered prayer. Anyone could make up a story about an amazing answer to a prayer. I want everyone to know these things actually happened.
Does anyone have advice for me?