If you are pretty reliable on spell people’s names correctly, then I suppose for authors one of the next good things you can do is to get the titles of their books right.

Yesterday I posted here about Shel Israel’s new book-in-development, Global Neighborhoods, which he is writing through a process of sharing with readers of his blog.

Only trouble is, I got the name wrong. Twice. Once in the subject header of the post and once in the body of the post.

Actually, there was part of my brain which was not fully disengaged, because I recall thinking at some point that I must remember to spell the word as “neighborhoods”, not as “neighbourhoods” and thinking also that the difference in spelling, minor in itself, illustrated part of the challenge of building global whatevers.

Anyway, Shel left a comment on the post, a comment which I found very helpful in terms of appreciating the value of the sort of collaborative writing process he is using. The post confirmed my view that Shel is a smart guy, clearly able to manage that process.

But the really interesting part is that he did not say anything in the comment about my mistake. How many blogging authors would be able to resist that, I wonder? He did mention the title of his book in an offline communication, again without making a big issue or questioning my intelligence or attentiveness to detail. I would not have blamed him. I’m happy that I was able to get the point without him having to beat me over the head with it.

I know there are plenty of blogging awards, but when someone decides to start the Courteous Blogger 2007 Award, I will be nominating Shel.

Or maybe it could be Courteous Business Blogger 2007 Award?

I have edited the offending post, with a combination of editorial prerogative, changing the subject to have the correct title, and a nod in the direction of blogiquette by way of a strikethrough of the incorrect word and inserting the correct one. Of course, the original goofup is floating/cached in cyberspace, in RSS feeds etc.

Memo to Des: re-read your subject headings and posts before hitting Publish.

Post from: EveryJoe

Shel Israel is Courteous as Well as Smart