diff --git a/lib/json_writer.c b/lib/json_writer.c
index 5004c181..88c5eb88 100644
--- a/lib/json_writer.c
+++ b/lib/json_writer.c
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ static void jsonw_puts(json_writer_t *self, const char *str)
 			fputs("\\b", self->out);
 			break;
 		case '\\':
-			fputs("\\n", self->out);
+			fputs("\\\\", self->out);
 			break;
 		case '"':
 			fputs("\\\"", self->out);