I learned a valuable lesson the other day: don’t take things for granted, no matter how “reliable” they appear to be.

Last week I heard from my publisher that the illustrator for my non-fiction picture book had signed his contract. Although I was joyful, my excitement was marred a bit by a question the illustrator had about one fact in my manuscript. I pulled out my sources, double checked the facts and realized his point was correct and I was wrong. How did this happen?

The fact had been a last minute addition on the encouragement of my critique group when I had presented the original manuscript to them in the Fall of 2007. I knew I had to verify this suggestion, so I grabbed one of my sources from a big name publisher and confirmed what I thought was accurate information. However, I didn’t verify that this big name publisher was correct. In my rush to send out my manuscript as soon as possible, I relied on one source of information instead of my normal three sources.

I was very embarrassed by my carelessness. I apologized to my publisher, concurred that the illustrator had been right, and admitted I had not checked out this one fact as thoroughly as I should have. Then, I retyped the information as it should have been presented.

Never assume your reference sources are accurate, no matter what publishing house they come from. Anyone can make a mistake and editors can fail to catch information. Check, recheck, and check again. It will save you from having to send out embarrassing e-mails to admit you were wrong.

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