It might be cheating kind of, but...

Wow, great job. It just goes to show you that a little extra effort goes a long way.

I have no problems with Britisms. But I was just reading Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses (Royal Shakespeare Company), and all I could think was "What a shame. Amazing book. Will never do well in North America" I mean, for starters, the title is a Britism, and the whole imagery of "noughts" and "crosses" doesn't translate. In North America, the game is called Xs and Os.

It's a YA dystopia, with detailed social criticism and a great message. It's exactly the kind of thing that would be popular right now. It would have to be translated, though, for most North American readers to get it.

Hmmn, now I am none the wiser?!

Well, it is now #39, so some of the Brits like it! 

What a clever idea to make it North America friendly!  I wish you great success in the US and Canadian markets. 

That's kind of interesting
the British / American effect - from an Aussie point of view, either bias would be acceptable.

Begs the question, does it work the other way around as well - if your an American writer will you sell better at Amazon UK, if you produced a British version ? Do all books have to be output in a US and a British version, to maximize sales ?  

How far can this go ? Change the names of cities, counties, characters, universities, police procedures, spelling, details of the characters back stories, common phrases ..etc .. wow ! 

I actually love hearing British and Aussie expressions.  I may not understand what they are always meaning, but I don't know why...I just love them. 

I know a lady in Australia and when she would write me, she was always calling me, Mate.  I got such a kick out of that. 

What can I say?  New England in the US can get a little boring at times.  LOL

Very clever.  I am British but I seem to write my books with the American market in mind because when I read back my work, I notice that there are no "British-isms" at all.  Sometimes I hope that doesn't make my writing sound too generic or flat.

I like the idea of doing different versions, though.

I've read this before, and I think, in fact, some changes were made in the Harry Potter books, the titles at least if not more, for the American market.

And I don't get it....  I don't WANT everything to sound alike...  I like hearing different voices.  (That's as opposed to the little voices inside my head.  )

Betsy

Betsy the Quilter said:

I've read this before, and I think, in fact, some changes were made in the Harry Potter books, the titles at least if not more, for the American market.

And I don't get it.... I don't WANT everything to sound alike... I like hearing different voices. (That's as opposed to the little voices inside my head. )

Betsy

Click to expand...

LOL..Have your voices call my voices. Maybe they can do lunch.

I actually rewrote my stories into American English (I'm Irish so we use a slight variant of UK English) - and my copy editor picked up whatever expressions I missed.

I did this because Amazon don't make it easy to have two versions.

And I figured that UK audiences would be more forgiving of US spellings and expressions (they are used to them) than vice versa.

It seems to be working, and doesn't seem to have turned off UK readers (in proportional terms, sales are bigger there).

I wish Amazon could just let me list a UK English version on Amazon UK and a US English version on Amazon US and link my listings as the same book in their system. I think I heard somewhere that they might have plans to do just that.

Dave

Glad this has worked for you. Congrats!

Dave, that's interesting and could be useful!

Thanks LC Evans! 

Saffina Desforges said:

...we can now officially claim 2 books in the Top 50 Police Procedurals on Amazon UK!

#1 and #50!

As an experiment, we re-wrote Sugar & Spice for the US market, after comments about 'Britishisms'. We kept the story the same, but researched US place names etc and police procedurals. It has sold WAY more in its first 4 weeks than the first book did and although it isn't setting the world on fire, it is steadily gathering pace.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sugar-Spice-Thriller-re-written-market/dp/B004W0IJCU

Has anyone else tried this and what are your thoughts?

Click to expand...

I'm actually doing this with my current WIP. I'm Australian but the story is set in the US, uses US spelling and phrases and this I admit is a pure cold-hearted move into the largest market in the world.

I've done plenty of Australianisation of US books for here and also plenty of Americanizing (with that Z in there) for Aussie books going over there and so I thought if it works for children's titles, why not my own?

I think we'll see a lot more of this - the UK and US really are foreign markets that require different approaches, even down to different covers.

Hmmm. Speaking as someone who's books are extremely British in tone and content, that's a great idea Saff

I can never really understand why American readers are so opposed to Britishisms. I read a lot of American crime fiction and Americanisms don't bother me in the slightest. In fact if a book is set in the US the settings and language fit the style, so why can't it work the other way round? My newest book is a historical family saga set in a small Scottish fishing community and as far as I'm concerned American spelling and expressions would be totally out of place.
Chris L. 

Betsy the Quilter said:

I've read this before, and I think, in fact, some changes were made in the Harry Potter books, the titles at least if not more, for the American market.

And I don't get it.... I don't WANT everything to sound alike... I like hearing different voices. (That's as opposed to the little voices inside my head. )

Betsy

Click to expand...

I'm with Betsy. I frequently prefer British books--especially for mysteries. I don't want everything to sound the same. If this starts happening more, I'll have to buy books on the UK site to get the original.

Interesting that it's working for you.

Some great/interesting comments guys.

Weird thing is, Sugar & Spice is currently in the hands of a NY lit agent and she read BOTH versions (at the same time, 50 pages of one, then 50 of the other) and she said that she much preferred the British version (although she admits to being a mega Anglophile), so go figure!

Way to go in trying to find your niche market! I do believe that Harry Potter was done in this same fashion.

Nicholas.