American English, British English, Canadian English… which to use for your book?

Sound advice from Roz 👍🐵

Roz Morris @Roz_Morris's avatarNail Your Novel

w&alogotomayto tomato what brand of English should you useYesterday I spoke at the Writers & Artists self-publishing conference, and one of the attendees raised this subject… which led to an interesting debate.

First of all, does it matter if your editor is American, British, Canadian, Australian, or any other flavour of English?

Not for developmental editing, because that’s about the substance of the book. The editor won’t be recommending line corrections or studying your phrasing or grammar (although they might remark on it).

But in copy editing and proofreading, your use of language will be under scrutiny. That’s where you need an editor in tune with your territory. (Here’s a post on the different editorial processes and the order to do them.)

You say tomayto…

In case you’re wondering, there is far more difference than spellings and vocab. I’m a thoroughly Brit speaker, and I couldn’t copy-edit or proof a US book. Or an Australian book…

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12 thoughts on “American English, British English, Canadian English… which to use for your book?

  1. Being an early reader/writer born in S. California I had the good fortune to have a grandmother who wrote to me. During much of that time she lived in Canada but she was Welsh. Ergo, I am bilingual! As soon as I was old enough to begin school, the trouble started. My ignorant teachers corrected my spelling which was saying my grandmother was wrong… Who was to be believed, some silly teachers or a beloved grandmother? 😉 Countries divided by a common language…

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  2. Oh gosh, I wore a red face the first time I had to edit a digital magazine following the addition of those who wrote in British English. I was hacking away at words with no mercy, and had pretty much pruned back something lovely into near recognizable, until… Thank goodness everyone was understanding, kept their originals to send me AND they allowed me to stay. Geesh, I forget that we are and always have been an international publication. Cheers, ya’ll. 😉

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    • Indeed – PLUS, no matter how often the point is made, authors STILL only give links for their books at Amazon USA, although some also give Amazon UK, but most seem to forget about Canada, Australia and India where English is widely spoken and read…

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