To Err Is human, To Fix Divine

I had a funny exchange with a colleague yesterday after she asked me to proof-read a newsletter she was about to send out. It referred to the forward of a book; I pointed out that the word was foreword. An easy mistake, and so as not to look like a grammar tyrant, I told her I’d once written ‘high jinx’ instead of ‘high jinks’ on the front page of a national newspaper. My message being, we’ve all done it!

That’s my theme – we all make mistakes, it’s what we do afterwards that counts. Yesterday I received an email about a new product which sounded worth a closer look… but there were no images attached. Aha, I thought – that’s one to flag to Roxhill. But one hour later came another email, this time with a link to the hi-res product pics. 

Bravo to this particular PR – often the temptation once you’ve pressed ‘send’, sat back and then realised your mistake is to think ‘agh’ and wait for the aftermath. The best possible next step is to put things right. And if that sounds melodramatic for something as trivial as forgetting an attachment, it also stands for really big deals and for crisis management too…

I recently had to write a complaint email to a publisher’s publicity officer with whom I’d secured an exclusive, because they’d allowed another newspaper to run material from the book before we did. I was really angry, as I knew I’d have to explain myself to my boss. I didn’t have particularly high expectations, but was pleasantly surprised that they took responsibility quickly and agreed to a reduction in the first-extract fee.

To paraphrase Alexander Pope, to err is human, to fix divine.