Hi JH,

I've actually questioned a few of my readers on this and they prefer to stay with the original spellings. My book is set in Britain, and readers have said that the English language used in the books helps them to immerse themselves into the setting and environment. That being said, if your title is set in America, or has American characters, it might be important to think about changing.

As long as there is consistency in your work, I wouldn't worry. 

 

I'd use the spellings that match the country where your novel is set. I'm also British and write for both audiences. My first 3 books were written using US English, as I set them in San Francisco. My current book is set in England, so I used the British spellings.

 

This is something I pondered long and hard. I'm British. My books are fantasy so they aren't set in a recognisable location that would help me decide on spelling. Initially I was going to do separate British and US versions, but after the massive  headache it caused me, I decided to go with US spelling throughout. This is my largest market so I figured keep them happy! (sorry, fellow Brits!)

 

Thanks Guys.
It is a difficult one as we do not want someone to bad review us for it! I would hope that the majority of readers would see past this, but I have been noticing a lot of negative reviews lately for spelling etc.
I have three books on Amazon, one is a fantasy set in the times of the sword, I have a crime thriller set in sixties London and another fantasy novel which is modern day America.
So the settings and feel are completely different for each book.
I think I might just change the manuscript to suit each country, A pain because I am sick of revising!
Thanks again guys I value the input.

 

This topic comes up fairly frequently; if you do a search you'll see a recent thread on it, I think. I already commented on the last thread, but will repeat what I said. Yes, if you use British spelling, you may get the occasional bad review from an American who doesn't know "realise" is a correct British spelling. But most of us do know British spelling when we see it.

Also, there's slightly more to it than correcting spelling. There are large quantities of idioms that are used on one side of the Atlantic and not the other. (Nappies are diapers over here, prams are strollers, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.) If you decide to try to make your book look American, then I would suggest having an American go over it to get rid of any overtly British idioms. Otherwise it may confuse readers worse than if you left the spelling alone.

I would tend to agree with what JH said-- a book set in England should sound British, and a book set in America should sound American. At the least, you don't want your American characters wittering about adverts on the telly, or whingeing that the food in a pub is absolute rubbish.

 

Thanks Ellen
That is very interesting and some realy good advice! I try to adapt the story the best I can like in the UK we call a cell phone a just a mobile. But you opened my eyes up and I will definitely try to be aware of the differences in the future.
(By the way our pub food is Fantastic!) 

 

It's up to you. But if you produce two editions then make very sure the book is thoroughly edited by a reputable native speaker of the second language - UK/US differences go a lot deeper than a few obvious spellings and also involve intricacies of grammar and terminology. What you don't want is a hybrid.

 

Also, there's slightly more to it than correcting spelling. There are large quantities of idioms that are used on one side of the Atlantic and not the other. (Nappies are diapers over here, prams are strollers, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.) If you decide to try to make your book look American, then I would suggest having an American go over it to get rid of any overtly British idioms. Otherwise it may confuse readers worse than if you left the spelling alone.

I would tend to agree with what JH said-- a book set in England should sound British, and a book set in America should sound American. At the least, you don't want your American characters wittering about adverts on the telly, or whingeing that the food in a pub is absolute rubbish.

What she said. Though I couldn't get past a couple chapters, I've heard 50 Shades had lots of British-isms in it even though it's set in Seattle. If I'd read farther and found them, I would have been pretty irritated (well, I was already pretty irritated, so "even more irritated" is more like it). That kind of thing really just pulls you right out of the story.

 

Always go USA spelling. Americans will complain if words aren't spelled correctly for them. I am from Canada, which uses the UK spelling, but it didn't take me long to realize the rest of the word is more tolerant of USA spelling than the USA is of UK spelling.

 

Always go USA spelling. Americans will complain if words aren't spelled correctly for them. I am from Canada, which uses the UK spelling, but it didn't take me long to realize the rest of the word is more tolerant of USA spelling than the USA is of UK spelling.

Same for me. USA! USA!

We have some Canadians on the board who feel differently, though. I expect them along with their knives and rolling eyes any moment ... heheh.

 

Canadian English is a hybrid of British and U.S. English. I could write in U.S. English because it's familiar to the Yanks. But I know U.S. English, so I can. As others have pointed out, your problem will likely be that you're not familiar enough with Yankee-speak to pull it off. If you don't know that we all go to the hospital over here, I suggest you stick with English conventions.

As an aside, I fail to see the relevance of the setting to spelling. If your globe-trotting American protagonist spends a week in old York, do you switch to BE spelling and then back to U.S.E when he returns to New York? I jest, I jest. I know you all mean the different regional idioms, but it's always worth preserving the distinction between different regional idioms and differences in grammar and spelling. The former differ considerably within the U.S. itself, for example, while the latter do not. And the difference between U.S. and U.K. grammar and spelling is minor, even though it's obvious when you read it.

 

No knives, Dalya, just kindly words of wisdom. 
Anyway, I think Ellen has explained things perfectly. If your characters are going to say "telly" and "whingeing," there's no point in using American spelling.
Use what seems natural to you.

 

My latest Kindle ebook, Blood Chords, is set in the UK but the lead character, Billy Blood, is a rock and roll singer who is a devotee of Eddie Cochran. Some sections of the book (e.g. song lyrics) are written in a form of Americanese. I do feel that this adds to the narrative in some ways as it reflects the character of the times that the book represents ( circa early 1970's ) when much of British popular culture was experiencing the later end of US dominance that had lasted from the 1920's.

 

Although some of my books are set in Victorian England, I use USA spelling because:

I'm from the US.

Reviewers who don't know UK spelling would hit me for "errors" if I didn't.

 

Pick one, preferably the variety that you naturally speak/write, stick to it and be consistent.

 

Pick one, preferably the variety that you naturally speak/write, stick to it and be consistent.

This, only without the "preferably".

 

I'm English but use American spelling (go figure). Why? Because I find most of the people who come to my website are from America, and I feel my overall audience will be of the American kind.

However, I do have two English characters in my book, and in their dialogue I use English spelling. Nothing like making things complicated

Matthew

 

Interestingly, I was reading the 'look inside' sample of The Casual Vacancy on the Amazon.co.uk site and found American spellings of some words ("realized" "emphasized" "visualized") in some places and British spellings of others ("labourer" "paralysed"). She also uses both "tarmac" (more common as a UK description of a type of paving material) and "asphalt" (more common as a US description of a type of paving material) within a few chapters of each other.

Weird.

 

Also, there's slightly more to it than correcting spelling. There are large quantities of idioms that are used on one side of the Atlantic and not the other. (Nappies are diapers over here, prams are strollers, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.) If you decide to try to make your book look American, then I would suggest having an American go over it to get rid of any overtly British idioms. Otherwise it may confuse readers worse than if you left the spelling alone.

I would tend to agree with what JH said-- a book set in England should sound British, and a book set in America should sound American. At the least, you don't want your American characters wittering about adverts on the telly, or whingeing that the food in a pub is absolute rubbish.

THIS!

I once critiqued a manuscript set in the US written by an Australian, and to this day, I still giggle about "the rowdy pack of footballers." I had to explain that if she's going to write a book set in the US with US characters, then it wasn't enough to simply use American spelling.

 

"Realize" and "realise" are both correct in British English. Academic articles from Britain often have the "ize" spelling.
I just checked my Oxford English Dictionary and both spellings are listed.

 

"Realize" and "realise" are both correct in British English. Academic articles from Britain often have the "ize" spelling.
I just checked my Oxford English Dictionary and both spellings are listed.

It's a British work of literary fiction, not an academic article. I assure you, you'll be very hard-pressed to find "realize" used anywhere in the UK (with the exception of, as alluded to above, more academic materials - the "z" spelling is actually an old English spelling, having been largely replaced by the "s" variant in modern times). The OED may list both, but that point is purely academic. Both are correct spellings, but only "realise" is in common usage in the UK.

 

Ms Rowling thinks otherwise.

 

Ms Rowling thinks otherwise.

The US editions of the Harry Potter books had some of the Britspeak edited out (I had to order the UK editions because I was curious). That might be the case here. Or it might not be. I don't know *shrugs*.

 

Ms Rowling thinks otherwise.

Apparently so. Or her lazy publisher

Ellen, that's interesting - and to be expected to some degree, I guess. It just seemed very odd looking at a UK version of it with both UK and US spellings jumbled in together, like some weird hybrid.

 

"Realize" and "realise" are both correct in British English. Academic articles from Britain often have the "ize" spelling.
I just checked my Oxford English Dictionary and both spellings are listed.

1. Academic articles published in the UK aren't all written by Brits. The journals don't edit them out because the spellings are still Standard English.

2. Dictionaries list alternate spellings. The common one in the region for which the dictionary was published is listed first.