Two days till Bad Girl is released...
I don't know who's looking more forward to it, me or my significant other!
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The Manuscript
I've received some feedback on my MS and have to say that some of it gave me a giggle.
Apparently, if I want to market the thing in the U.S. I have to use American spelling. It seems that adding a "u" to color, behavior, or honor will confuse the heck out of the American reading public. Not only will metre will not be recognized as meter, but if I am to go so far as referring to a social security number as a social insurance number my book would never sell. Heaven forbid that one might derive meaning from context should a term be unfamiliar.
Don't forget that Harry Potter had a U.S. version, I have been reminded.
Of course that was the case, but, frankly, it was something we laughed at. Canadians don't call sorcerers philosophers either, but we could figure out the gist of it.
This brings to mind a column I read recently about American and Canadian tourists. According to the premise of the article, Canadians make crummy hosts, but are great travellers; Americans are wonderful hosts and lousy tourists. The reason? Canadians are acquiescent and will adapt; Americans are inflexible and have higher standards. Canadians will eat different foods, sleep in less-than-perfect rooms, and attempt to honour local customs wherever they are. Because we Canucks are so compliant, however, means we make terrible hosts providing little direction or hospitality to guests. When Americans travel, they want to take America with them, but are wonderful hosts because they will ensure their guests have only the best.
Perhaps this is true of books as well.
But it's a pain because now I have to decide what to do about the damn spelling. I don't imagine Canadian publishers would be too crazy about a Canadian using U.S. spelling for marketing purposes. On the other hand, the MS might not sell in the U.S. anyway because of place setting, so maybe I should just go with Canadian spelling and market it here.
It seems the first element of the business side of writing has just hit me.
Like there wasn't enough to fret about.
Colleen
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4 comments:
It's easy to tailor a novel for American consumption. Just add tags: instead of "Did you have a good time?" write "Did you have a good time, like they do down in America?"
Instead of "Gosh, you look pretty today, honey," write "Gosh, you look pretty today, honey, like they do down in America."
See how it works?
By the way, early (unpublished) reviews of BAD GIRL indicate it's quite steamy.
You know, I'm not sure how much of an issue this would be to US agents and editors, who are used to getting works from other countries. If you blow them away with every other aspect of your book, I have a hard time imagining them turning the MS away because of "foreign" spellings. If you were an American who used those spellings just to try to seem British, well, that would be one thing, but in your case that's just a legitimate part of your culture.
Might the agents/editors ask you to Americanize it before submission/publication? I suspect many might. But I wouldn't let this issue determine which market(s) you approach. Presumably, you should approach both the Canadian and US markets. I don't think the location would be a turnoff; a lot of Americans are quite interested in reading about other countries and locales. I'd imagine that the pleasure-reading Americans fit that description more than most others, even.
But, if you're really worried about it, this is just the sort of question that Anne Mini, Nathan Bransford, or The Rejector would be great at answering.
Glad to hear you're having great progress, though!
Chris
I wonder if anyone has written a script in VBA (for Word, assuming you use Word, or AppleScript if you use a Mac) to change the spelling of certain words, in order to "Americanize" them? It might make the process a little faster, if you decided to do it.
Gentlemen:
First my apologies for being so late in responding to your comments.
SP: Oh! That's how it works. I give my thanks,just like they do down in America.
CP: My advice did come from one of those folks. Location seems to be okay... that said, it's difficult to Americanize everything and be true to the setting.
Someone from my writer's group recently informed me that I do indeed have to have two versions, one with American spelling and one with Canadian. Still seems silly to me.
JK: You are so ahead of me technically. What's VBA? I can set my spell check to American English or Canadian English and that will catch most the differences.I'm just not sure that I want to.
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