I am not asking which is technically correct, because I already know that.  Here is my concern.  I have been hired to write a beginner beekeeping book for a publisher.  They are creating the chapter headings and deciding the content of each chapter, etc.  They know what they want and more or less how they want it.  This book was not my idea, it is theirs and they will own it, not me.  I will just be the author, as least on the US version. So, we are going through the TOC Outline now. Basically deciding what will be the topic of each 2 page "spread".  They are naming things differently than I would do and I am making recommendations to them what to change, what to add, what to do differently and what to include or not, etc.  They continue to use the word honeybee and I continue to use the word honey bee.  I have sent them the reason why I say honey bee and why it is correct, but they prefer to use the dictionary version, as they believe it to be more commonly recognizable, I guess.  One thing they are stressing is the importance of it being consistent throughout the book and it sounds like they want ME to use honeybee, too.  Because he replied to me with this:

   "Thanks for the TOC feedback and the information on whether "honeybee" is one word or two. I do understand your perspective on that, and I'm not one who takes everything in the dictionary as gospel, but in this case, because we're going to use the word so rarely, I don't think most readers will blink if it's one word. What someone will notice is if we're not consistent. And I think you'd agree that we can find many reputable sources (I guess that depends on how we determine that) that render the concept as one word. Language doesn't always evolve as we think it should, and some people force it into odd directions. But let's see if we can come up with a way to resolve this to take all sides into account—if possible."

I really want to write a book that is not only helpful for beginning beekeepers, but also one that is correct to the best of my ability.  How much do you think something like "this" matters?  If it is acceptable in speech and in writing (by dictionary definition), and I am writing a book, will it matter?  I would PREFER to use the scientific terminology. 

We are having the same issue with the word QUEEN EXTRUDER vs. what I say as queen excluder.  Is one way more proper than the other perhaps depending on what part of the US you live in?  Maybe I am making a big deal out of nothing and I am the only one who is bothered by this.  If the book is created for beginners, then none of you experts will be reading it anyway, right??? :) OMG.

Thanks,

Tanya Phillips

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