Many new writers defer to publishers decisions without question.
They think that publishers, specifically editors, know best when it comes to a writer’s work. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
At the beginning of the last century, a new writer had to go to battle for the spelling of the word ‘cocoa’. She felt the ‘a’ at the end was correct; however, a person at the publisher believed that ‘coco’ was correct.
She conceded.
In her autobiography she said: “I was not a good speller, I am still not a good speller, but at any rate I could spell cocoa the proper way. What I was, though, was a weak character. It was my first book–and I thought they must know better than I did.”
Fortunately, Agatha Christie soon learned to stand up for her work and her career.
The fact that she remembered such an incident decades later shows how much conceding one’s power can impact you.
Sometimes it’s better to be ‘wrong’ on your terms than ‘right’ on somebody else’s.
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