For those of you who followed my writing and publishing journey, you would have seen my copywriting fiasco where the copyediting department at my publisher has changed all my UK spelling into US spelling. Their reasoning was that as an US publisher, it makes sense for their books to be in US English.

But up until that point, none of my other editors or wranglers had an issue with my UK spelling. Chiefly because I’m a British author writing a novel set in London. Shocked and appalled, I sent a series of messages to my wrangler and also posted my question to an online community: shouldn’t a story set in London be in UK English?

For the most part, people agreed with me. Because UK vs US spelling isn’t just about adhering to a style guide when it comes to fiction. It is about the essence of a story. Especially in a novel where I want to portray my own voice, my experience, changing it from what I know – UK English – into US English simply because of style and to fit an audience did not sit well with me. I simply cannot imagine the story in anything other than UK English.

While some might think that it mostly pertains to swapping lise to lize or vour to vor, it also concerns some frequently used vocabulary. In London, the metro is underground or the tube. It would be jarring to those who live or have been to the city to read a story set in London where the characters head to the subway. In fiction, choice of language as minute as spelling is the key building block to creating an atmosphere, and not something that I think is remissible.

There are some that would argue that using US spelling would give the book a better boost into the US market. One of the most famous example of books having an US version is JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. The title of the first book was changed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone instead of the Philosopher’s Stone, among other changes inside.

In my opinion, the title change was not entirely necessary, and that as a children’s book, it was perhaps better for students. But with millions of people consuming US English literature and book and vice versa, it seems redundant and even detrimental to alter the spelling of a book from its native state to adjust for the audience. Because isn’t reading a way to expand horizons? And in the age of the internet, looking up a new word has never been so easy.

And if people are happy to read Shakespeare as it was written, it really shouldn’t be that hard to read a book with UK spelling.

In case you are interested, here are some of the ones that are less common:classmates vs coursemates – in university (at least, in mine), we referred to our classmates as coursemates, since we’re taking the same university coursetakeout vs takeaway – we don’t takeout food in the UK, we get takeaway!sweater vs jumper – although you might catch me saying sweater, we call them jumpers in the UK.closet vs wardrobe – closet is not really a word we use here. Not even water closet.digestive biscuits should never in any circumstances be called digestive cookies. Just no.Bandaid vs plaster – this one I’m a little worried that people might not know, and they might mistake plaster for something on the wall…Lastly, when someone is studying to be a doctor, their course is Medicine. So they are medicine students, not medical students.

The post The case of UK vs US spelling in publishing appeared first on Samantha Cheah.