One of the biggest changes the e-reader has brought to the publishing industry doesn’t get much cyberink in the online book community.
It’s the huge international market that’s opening up now that we don’t have to pay to ship physical books around the world.
If, like me, you’ve ever experienced that terrible moment on vacation when you discover you have nothing left to read in your native tongue but a copy of Henry James’ The Golden Bowl you got in trade for your last Agatha Christie in that Athens hostel…you know how tough it used to be to find English language books abroad.
But no more!The e-age has given us a global book market.This weekend, some health challenges kept me from the Central Coast Writers Conference—a big disappointment—but it allowed me to stay home and see the first installment of PBS’s series of Shakespeare’s history plays, dubbed “The Hollow Crown.” I got to watch a breathtaking production of Richard II. It contains some of Shakespeare’s most eloquent love-letters to the mongrel language we call English.
Since I had just received this post on the international book market, I felt a small sense of irony when James Purefoy as Mowbray spoke those famous words protesting his exile from the Sceptered Isle.
“The language I have learn’d these forty years,
And now my tongue’s use is to me no more
Than an unstringed viol or a harp.”
They read it, too.
Which means there’s a global market for ebooks in English that indie authors can tap into—with no worries about translation, shipping, or “foreign rights.”But most authors who write in English still focus on selling exclusively in the U.S. That worked for some of the big indie success stories a few years ago, but this is a rapidly changing industry.
Do you know the country where people read the most books? I sure didn’t. According to a July article in the L.A. Times, it’s India. And you know where the second biggest population of English speakers lives? Again, it’s India. Followed by Pakistan and Nigeria.
Combined, those three countries make up a larger population of English speakers than in all of the US.
Why Every Author Should Start Thinking Globally
by Mark Williams
Given we only launched Ebook Bargains UK (EBUK) this summer, on a shoe-string budget from a bedroom in Bedford, with the impossible ambition of promoting English-language ebooks to a world that supposedly doesn’t know ebooks exist, we’re pretty pleased with how things are going.
We started the first EBUK newsletter because we were tired of seeing newsletters that only linked to Amazon—usually only Amazon US. We’d search for the book on Amazon.co.uk or another UK site, and find it wasn’t on sale to us.
We also wanted to know about ebook bargains to be found at our own UK bookshop sites, like Foyles, Waterstones, W.H. Smith, Tesco etc.
We soon realized such a newsletter would be useful in Canada and Australia and India…and English speaking countries all over the world. So our one newsletter rapidly expanded to ten. We hope to have twenty by the end of the year.
Okay, so right now our number of subscribers is pitiful compared to BookBub’s million. But it’s important to bear in mind EBUK is targeting the nascent markets, not a mature market like the United States. The vertical expansion (subscribers) is inevitably going to be slow to start. But the list is growing daily.
We believe the international English-language ebook market will dwarf the US market in the coming years. Which is why we’re happy with our gradual vertical expansion and are instead focused on our lateral expansion – reaching out to readers around the globe.
By the time you read this we will have just launched Ebook Bargains S.E. Asia, the twelfth of our international newsletters. By no coincidence it coincides with the launch of the new Kobo store in the Philippines.
The S.E. Asia newsletter (Not just the Philippines but Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc) will join daily promo newsletters already shipping to:
- Australia
- Canada
- Germany
- India
- Ireland
- the Netherlands
- New Zealand
- South Africa
- Spain
- UK
- USA
Ebook Bargains France, Italy and Scandinavia will be following next month, with another five to add before the year’s end.
Each daily newsletter carries the same titles, but the Australia newsletter only has links to retailers available in Australia. The German newsletter only has links to retailers available in Germany. The Dutch newsletter only has links to retailers in the Netherlands. Etc.
You’ve probably never heard of ebooks.com but they’ve been selling ebooks since 1997, ten years before Amazon introduced the Kindle – and are still going strong.
Amazon is estimated to have just over a 60% market share in Australia, which means four out of ten readers are shopping elsewhere.
Some of you may be familiar with Angus & Robertson and Collins, both supplied by Kobo.
What you probably don’t know is that Australians can also buy ebooks from:
- Booktopia,
- Bookworld
- Dymocks
- QBD
- Fishpond
- Then of course there’s the Apple iTunes Australia store
- and the GooglePlay Australia store.
- And not forgetting the Sony Australia Reader Store.
All these stores are selling ebooks to Australians in Australian dollars. Well, all except Amazon. They haven’t got a local store yet. And Australians have plenty of devices to read on. Not just Kindles and the now ubiquitous Kobo range, either.
Then there’s the indie stores! Sydney bookstore Pages & Pages has been tempting patriotic Aussies to trade in their Kindle for AU$50 and buy a BeBook ereader instead. And for every AU$50 you spend on books or ebooks in a month in their store you get a AU$5 discount the following month.
Don’t under-estimate the niche marketing power of indie bookstores as they turn digital, be they in Australia, New Zealand, the UK or the USA.
What about Europe?
- The Kobo store is Germany’s biggest ebook store by far.
- There’s also an Apple iTunes Germany.
- And here in Thalia.
- And she’s only in Buecher too.
- And Sony Reader Store Germany, which is running a nice little discount on Anne R. Allen’s titles right now.
Sony also have a Reader Store in neighbouring Austria, and guess who’s there….
In fact there seems to be no escape from Anne R. Allen. It would be easier to tell you where she isn’t!
The Netherlands? No Amazon store there yet, so no Anne R. Allen, right? Ah, but there is:
- A local Dutch language Kobo store.
- And an Apple iTunes Netherlands store
- And a GooglePlay Netherlands store
And that’s before we start on the local competition: local Dutch ebooks stores. The Dutch retailer Bol has been busily selling ebooks in Holland since 2009, the same year Amazon launched KDP in the US.
No doubt you’ve been reading excitedly about the new US start-ups offering ebooks subscription stores.
Guess what? Skoobe in Germany and 24 Symbols in Spain have been doing it for years.
Denmark has two rival ebook subscription services, Riidr and Mofibo.Incidentally 24 Symbols is dual language Spanish and English, acknowledging the huge number of Brit expats living in Spain with nothing to read. Come to that Skoobe is dual language, too.
Far more people speak English in Germany than most people imagine. How does 40 million English speakers in Germany grab you?
GooglePlay has figured that out. They already had ebook stores in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Spain and Italy as of July this year. Oh, and also Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea and Russia. Pretty impressive.Then across the summer they rolled out additional ebook stores in the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. That’s twenty-seven ebook stores around the world. So far. Not in GooglePlay? Might be worth the effort.
South African readers can buy Anne’s books in the local Kalahari store, where they might choose to read on the local gobii e-reader rather than a Kindle or the Kobo devices sold nationwide by the country’s biggest supermarket chain Pick-N-Pay.
Nor is it just Europe, South Africa and Down Under that have been busily enjoying ebooks.
Argentina was the UNESCO Book Capital in 2011, and earlier this year managed to cram over one million visitors into the Buenos Aries Book Fair, so let’s be in no doubt Argentines like reading.But don’t go thinking BajaLibros is the only ebook show in town.Grammata have also been selling ebook and ereaders in Argentina since 2010, and are now pretty much everywhere where Spanish is spoken. In Colombia for example. They’re even in Spain! And if you don’t fancy buying from Grammata, pop along to Movistar (started 2011, has own ereader) or try Amabook. Amabook too has ebook stores across Latin America, as well as in the US! And it too beat Amazon to Mexico.This is just the tip of the iceberg. An iceberg growing at a phenomenal rate.Ebooks are being sold on six of the seven continents.
In Thailand Kobo is working hard to launch a Thai store, but meantime local retailer Ookbee has well over 80% of the market. Ookbee already has a three million strong customer base and is currently picking up new customers at the rate of 6,000 a day. Ookbee launched in Malaysia this summer, where it picked up 100,000 customers in its first two months.
They are opening an ebook store in Vietnam where competition is already fierce from Aleeza and Biitbook `– Biitbook even has its own self-pub portal!
Ebooks have been slow to come to the Philippines. But that all changed this month with the launch of the Kobo Philippines store, in partnership with the National Book Store chain, which now sells both print and ebooks to Filipinos.
What if we told you National Book Store is not a translation from the local Tagalog language. Most of the signs in store – and most of the books – are in English?
There are 75 million English speakers in the Philippines. More than the entire population of the UK!Did we mention we launched Ebook Bargains S.E. Asia this week?
China is not the easiest market to get into, but just this month OverDrive signed a major distribution deal with the Chinese authorities, which means their entire catalogue will be available to Chinese readers in due course.
At Ebook Bargains UK we are trying to stay a few steps ahead as we watch the international ebook market blossom. What we lack in fancy high-tech websites and slick newsletters (that will come as the advertising revenue builds) we make up for in knowledge of the international ebook scene and unbridled enthusiasm.
We produce regular helpful newsletters for authors about how to reach and promote in these markets.We all know how difficult it is to break into a mature ebook market. Most best-selling indies got in to either the US or the UK markets very early on. Very few have managed to do well in both.
But what is happening now is unprecedented in publishing history. In the old world, book distribution was physical. It was simply not viable to print and distribute English language books en masse even to countries like Australia or New Zealand, let alone Iceland or Indonesia, or Paraguay or Papua New Guinea.
Digital changes all that. Here’s some numbers for you.
There are about 150 million English-speakers in India, and while local languages books and ebooks
are available, the ebook retailers’ sales report mostly English-language titles selling, and with increasing rapidity. The question is how to get your books noticed and bought in this huge potential market.
Indians have been enjoying ebooks for several years. The Amazon India store is actually a bit of a late-comer. Way back in 2011 Indian retailers were selling Android tablets for… wait for it… $35. And buying ebooks from local stores like Flipkart, Infibeam and Pothi. Here’s Anne R. Allen in India’s Infibeam, the country’s second biggest ebook retailer after Flipkart. (OK, but that’s the last one, guys…Anne)
Flipkart? India’s on-line giant Flipkart has an estimated 80% market share.
As of this month Smashwords is distributing ebooks in India. You can also upload direct to another key Indian ebook retailer, Pothi. Along with Amazon India that’s a great base from which to become a future indie best-seller on the sub-continent, if only readers there knew your books existed. (Say, did we mention we have an Ebook Bargains India newsletter?)
But back to those numbers. When we said we expect the international English-language ebook market to dwarf the US market we weren’t joking.
In just India, Pakistan and Nigeria, the number of English-speakers exceeds the entire population of the United States!
And the rest of the world? Well, there’s upwards of 75 million English speakers in the Philippines as we’ve mentioned already. Over 40 million English speakers in Germany. 30 million in Bangladesh. 30 million in Egypt. 25 million in France. 20 million in Italy. 17 million in Thailand. 15 million in the Netherlands. 15 million in South Africa. 12 million in Poland. 12 million in Turkey. 11 million in Iraq. 10 million in Spain. 10 million in China.
Then there’s Brazil, Sweden, Kenya, Cameroon, Malaysia, Russia, Belgium, Israel, Zimbabwe, Romania, Austria and Greece, all with between 5 and 10 million English speakers each.
A very conservative estimate puts the number of English-speakers outside the USA at around 750 million, quite apart from the UK (60m) , Australia (20m), New Zealand (4m) and Canada (25m).
Because of the logistics of print distribution English-language print books have never even begun to approach their true sales potential. Digital changes everything.
And you have a chance to get a foot on the first rung of the international ladder now, before everyone else does.
by Mark Williams September 22 2013
***
Wow, that's a lot of markets! But more than just people in the US read eBooks and we don't want to miss those opportunities. I know how well my books sold as eBooks in the UK, and there's a lot of room for growth.
Thanks for the current information. I'm not finished with it yet, but the novel I'm writing has a big chunk set in India – I will definitely be looking for a way to market there.
And I grew up in Mexico – and have been toying with the idea of doing my own translation (and then running it past the family there). English is not the only important language in the world.
Wow. This is a very interesting article, Anne, and eye-opening. I learned a lot today. A lot. Thanks. 🙂
Eye-opening and inspiring! Thanks Jay & Mick for making all this amazing info available.
Remarkable post, Anne. I had no idea! I shared this with a note I hope my publisher is taking heed.
Alex–Great that you've been able to reach UK readers. They read a lot too!(All those rainy days 🙂 )
Leib–Wow. Sounds like the perfect book to become a global bestseller. Best of luck with it.
You're right of course that English isn't the only important language. If you can do your own translation, you'll have even more chance for global popularity.
Christine–I did too!
Ruth–I think we lucked out getting them to visit us.
Hope–I'm honored to have you stop by, Hope. You're one of my gurus! I hope your publisher will pay attention. Old school publishers still think in terms of translation and foreign rights, but we can reach a global market now without any of that.
Whodathunk? Amazing list of global markets. Just shared this post on FB and Tweeted. Well worth paying attention to. Hope you're on the mend, Anne. Take care too many of us depend on you.
I've been with Smashwords for a couple of years now, and every month I get reports from Apple, Sony, and Kobo from all over the world. It's surprising to me, however, as Mick and Jay say, English speakers are global now.
I'm so going to check out the newsletter as soon as I can. My next book is slated for release around Thanksgiving. Thanks for much for bringing this to my attention.
Hope you're feeling better, Anne. Sorry you missed the conference.
Phyllis–Thanks. I'm getting some rest this weekend. Looks like Smashwords is about to be a bigger player, doesn't it?
Julie–Kinda blows you away, doesn't it? I sure didn't know all this stuff.
Thanks for hosting us, Anne. And so right about the British weather!
Alex, the UK market is just beginnig to blossom. There are very exciting developments here right now, with the two biggest supermarkets selling ebooks and about to go head to head with Amazon.
Lieb, Spanish is the second most important language for ebooks right now, outside China. The Latin American ebook market is stilll in its infancy, but will mature quickly.
Christine and Ruth, what we touched on here is just one small part of the world ebook scene. Trad oublishers are already raking in big profits from English-language ebooks from their established distribution networks.
Hope, many small publishers are missing out on these overseas opportunities because they're locked into the old way of thinking about distribution. Non-indie authors need to do their own checks to see if their titles are everywhere they should be, and maybe give their publishers some friendly advice if not.
Amazing post. I will be bookmarking this for future reference. Thanks!
Goodness, Anne, you outdid yourself on this one!
If ever traveling abroad, I'll be sure to remember my Kindle!
Thanks for this post…the market out there is so vast and interesting.
M.L. Swift, Writer
Anne Gallagher, Smashwords still have some big gaps in their distribution. GooglePlay, for example. And for some reason they don't get you into all seven Sony stores. But the Smashwords deal with Flipkart will be a game-changer. And Smashwords will soon be anouncing another major distribution deal – with 'txtr.
Anne:
Wow! I've been selling books through Smashwords and am going to put my latest book there too. Thanks a million and get well soon.
Phyllis
I felt like I just had a mini-course in international book sales. Wow– so much great information. Thanks for the awareness that ebooks have created an international market and how to capitalize on that. Whew!
This is SO cool! I've been reading Coker's books recently and was blown away about India. I had no idea. Thanks for all this juicy information.
Good grief! There's even more to this than I thought.
I subscribed to the EBUK newsletter early on – and I bought the Camilla Randall Mysteries Set.
I also advertised my debut novel THE PRINCE'S MAN on there for a week (and I have 2 further week runs booked) and no doubt at all, it had a great result. I'm not talking hundreds of purchases a day, but certainly enough to take me into the Amazon UK Top 100 list for Epic Fantasy, and I'm still there, 2 weeks later, which I'd put down to the increased visibility that has conferred.
I've also sold a small number in India – I wonder why? 😉
I do have a query after reading this article – for sure my novel's listing in the EBUK newsletter has been successful, but I'm still only selling on Amazon (it's available on Kobo, Apple and B&N, but not shifting on those platforms). Should I be spending time trying to get it onto all those other platforms mentioned in this article, or will most recipients of the newsletter just buy from Amazon anyway?
As usual, I'm late to the party Anne (Sundays are too full). And as usual, I finish your blog feeling I've read the most important news of the week. What fantastic, encouraging news.
I must say, I feel validated on the whole to have placed my meager pile of chips with Smashwords. I knew from the start I wouldn't be able to market myself aggressively, and there is no better place I can think of to upload your manuscript then there. The work Mark Coker is doing will indeed change the publishing picture, I sincerely believe that.
But if I took a second step, it would probably be to EBUK. Definitely sharing. All power to the indies, and to this mongrel language.
Julie M–I think it's so hopeful for the indie movement. So many markets now open to small publishers and self-publishers!
Rosi–It sure helped me!
Katie–I think it helps authors at all stages of their career to be aware non-US readers may be our best customers. Sometimes that makes you think more globally in your diction and plotting.
Christine–I think they're a wonderful resource for new writers. Inexpensive but effective advertising.
Deborah–I'm glad to hear you're having Amazon success with EBUK ads, too. Once you get into the top 100, your book can really take off. as far as success on the other plaforms, it seems to be a crapshoot. My EBUK ads really helped me on B and N. I'd been dead over there until my "spotlight" week, but now I'm selling briskly. Why that happens, I don't know. But B and N tends to have a lot of young women buyers and I write chick lit. Could be that. Hope you have fun with the Camilla stories.
Trelkeny–Thanks! I thought of you when I read about Coker's big move to India. It's not a bad idea to put energy into SW right now. It's about to be a bigger player. Amazon will probably always dominate, but not for every niche.
And obviously, I'm very impressed with the results I get advertising with EBUK. Only about 10 bucks to get on bestseller lists in all those markets.
Wow, what a great resource. Thanks for putting this together. Definitely bookmarking.
Exciting information. Images of an actual world of potential readers floated through my brain. Wow! Thank you for helping us to keep on top of it all. When my YA series is ready I will most assuredly check out the EBUK newsletter.
Thanks to all who have commented.
The query Deborah Jay raises about Amazon and sales on ther platforms is an intersting one.
In the key US and UK markets Amazon's current dominance means inevitably Kindle sales will do well, but elsewheere the feedback we have from subscribers is that they want to buy from local stores in their countries, but that most of our listings are for Amazon (which in places like Singapore is actually off-limits – downloads are barred there).
Important to understand there are a ton of "other" ereaders out there, and have been for many years. Our Dutch subscribers say they use European devices and buy from European stores. They have a great choice of expensive trad-pubbed ebooks English language ebooks – and almost no cheap and cheerful indie titles in their local stores.
A lesson to be learned…
But perhaps most importantly, as mainstream print readers transition to digital they will largely shop where they bought their print books, and pay a premium for the privilege. For the US market the indie booksellers now partnering with Kobo provide a rich source of future earnings for authors. There's a full list of US indie booksellers selling ebooks at http://www.indiebound.org/ebooks.
Exciting news as I publish my first book. Hope you're on the mend now. I know how frustrating it is when your health interferes with your life.
Sheana–Congrats on publishing your first book. That's a major life achievement! I hope you're celebrating.
Lexa–Well, now I'm going to have to look it up. But I think it might be a real word. If it isn't it should be!
Wow! What an incredible post – it was encyclopedic! (Yes, I know it's probably not a word.) Thanks so much for all the info. You do so much to support our community. <3
UPDATE: As if the point needed driving home, GooglePlay has, in the few days since this post was published, opened ebook stores in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysis, Singapore and Vietnam.
GooglePlay now have over 35 international ebook stores.
J. M. That link seems to be broken. I apologize! Here it is http://www.ebookbargainsuk.com/pub.html
That should take you right to the author page.
Stephen–The best way is to use an aggregator like Smashwords or D2D. You can do it yourself, but it can be tedious. Smashwords is cool. Mark Coker is the friend of every indie who ever was. Even though his "meatgrinder" is like going through several circles of Hell. 🙂
So…EBUK folk, if I wanted to buy an ad in your newsletter, where do I find you online to do so? The website seems to be for newsletter subscribers. The Facebook page…is a Facebook page. I don't yet know my way around google+ and don't feel like bushwacking there tonight. So…?
Maybe I missed something, but how do you get your books in all of these overseas bookstores? Are they all affiliated with Kobo?
Anne, thanks so much for this post. I'm blogging at http://www.romanceglobalbound.wordpress.com to link romance writers and the global community. My focus is writing romance novels set elsewhere than the U.S. and on cultural ties expressed via cover art and illustration. Your blog post dovetails with what I'm doing, so I've shared your link with my readers. Thanks so much. This is very informative.
Mary–What a brilliant idea. I'll check out your site. I've read that Harlequin romance novels are one of the ways that new immigrants learn the culture of the US and Canada. But we can learn the ways of many cultures with multi-culti romance. A great way to learn about people all over the world. Thanks for the link.
J.M. I apologize for the bad link. I usually check them all before we go live, but I must have missed that one. Congrats on having such good UK sales. Definitely a little promotion should boost them. As they get better known, I think EBUK will be a big player. And now, for the price, you get a nice little spike in sales, especially if you're in non-Amazon sites.
Thanks for the link, Anne. Much appreciated. My UK sales currently equal my US sales (with no promotion at all). So I think there might be a real opportunity in the UK, if I did some promotion.
Wow, I've never thought about marketing globally (altho I'm not quite to that point yet anyway). But good to know, and you're right–English is learned in all those other countries, and they're definite potential markets. Thanks for the info!
Great info. I am bookmarking this to help me figure out how and where to make my book available in the international market. I will probably use the newsletter to advertise at some point, too.
Carol–It does make you think differently when you're writing. "Will this make any sense to a reader in India" isn't something I used to ask myself. Now I will.
CPBookworm–I think using something like Smashwords is the easiest way. I'd hate to try to do each one separately. The newsletter has worked for me.
If you're trying to promote ebooks in the UK, there's also bookangel.co.uk. We've been going for a few years now, and have an established daily newsletter and site to help promote books to the UK market. It's also free to list your books with us, as long as they are family friendly.
ebookangel–Thanks for the tip! Free is always welcome. I'd be happy to put your service in the OPPORTUNITY ALERTS section if you send me a 2 or 3 sentence paragraph with links.
I have almost finished the final edit and proofreading of my short e-book (137 pages). It is aimed at those novices that are seriously contemplating taking up the craft of street photography. I have created the book using Blurb Book Wright, and that has gone well, but one thing has started to bug me – what version of the English Language should I have been using.
I use the British English that I have grown up with and will continue to do so (am I right or wrong in doing this?). From my viewpoint, even though the USA is a massive market, using American English will just as likely upset UK and Australian readers, both having their own spelling differences and nuances of language.
If we are now as global as everyone tells us we are, then I see no reason for favouring one version of English or another. I understand that makes it a nightmare for English language students, but nobody has ever said that English is easy to learn.
Language has evolved, and is, evolving all the time. I happen to believe that readers are intelligent people. Differences in the spelling of some words can surely be overlooked providing the author has grabbed the reader’s interest in the content, and that the grammar is of a good and consistent standard, of course, as opposed to expecting perfection, which you will not get from me. These are my thoughts anyway. I would be really interested to here your thoughts on this subject.
Keith–Mark Williams wrote this nearly four years ago, so I’m not sure he’ll get a notice of your comment. I know he’s had issues with his own bestsellers with illiterate Americans complaining about “misspellings” because he used Commonwealth spellings. He even published a separate version of his thriller, Sugar and Spice with US edits. But I don’t think it sold as well as the original
I say, let your Brit flag fly! The reason the US spells things differently from the rest of the English speaking world is one man, Noah Webster, who decided it would save ink to leave those extra “u”s out of color and honor and spell program without the “me” on the end and all the rest of it.
But educated Yanks know that different people do things differently and that we’re not the center of the Universe.
I grew up reading books from England and i could figure out that a “jumper” was sweater and “trainers” were sneakers and the colour yellow with a “u” was just as bright,
If you want, put a caveat in the front matter that says “published in the United Kingdom, using British spelling and punctuation” to help the terminally provincial. But some people are not very bright and I fear nothing will help them very much.
Hi Anne
Thank you for your reply. I should check the dates of articles before replying to blog posts. However, your reply is current and I am grateful for the advice you have given me. Webster’s Dictionary isn’t one that I usually turn to, preferring the good old Oxford English Dictionary when I need one.
I will take your advice and let the Brit flag fly for now. I have already added a caveat to the Preface of my book on this subject (see below). I may also add a ‘Published in the UK’ stamp on the front cover. I hope that this is enough. It is hard enough for most of us Brits to understand our own version of English without having to understand other versions of the language too, not that I am against doing so.
“A brief note: I accept that language evolves and that there are several different versions of the English language to challenge us. I wrote this book using the British-English version because that is what I know best. I believe readers are intelligent people and will accept the differences. I would be happy to hear your views on this subject. You can reach me through my agent:”
It is a shame that people criticise the different versions of our language based on a few spelling differences. I often wonder how these critics would get on with Shakespeare who was a master of the double negative. I hope that my readers will overlook such nuances and pay more attention to the content.
Keith–The problem is with US readers, not with you, so I wouldn’t be too concerned. I had to deal with this in reverse because my first publisher was in the UK. They could put up with some of my Americanisms, but not others, like putting the punctuation inside the quotation marks and saying different “from” instead of different “to.”
As they pointed out, “it’s not US vs UK but US vs UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, India, Ireland, and the rest of the whole bloody Commonwealth, so you Yanks are the ones with the problem.”
England is the mothership for the English language, so that’s where we should look for final authority. That’s what we did in my family, where many an argument was solved by bringing out the OED–the huge 2-volume one that came with the magnifying glass. 🙂
Yes, you are right, it isn’t about one version vs, another, it is more about tradition and what people have grown up with. Every country has its own ways of doing things with almost every aspect of life. Most of the differences are minor, and perhaps irritating, rather than being grammatically incorrect. I respect those differences, even if I don’t fully understand the reasons for them at times.
I have always put punctuation outside quotation marks. The reason for this is that quotation marks are part of the sentence. Once a period/full-stop has been made for example, the sentence – or part of a sentence if using a comma – is closed. A comma usually gives us a short breathing space/ separation between two independent clauses so finalising quotation marks belong before the pause or break not after closure.
Paying editor/proofreaders to do the work would be nice. They are paid to shoulder the burdens we are faced with as creative authors. I can’t afford this service right now so I push on with my book and learn to do it myself as I go. It has been fun I have to say, with lots of learning curves and challenges; but perfect it will never be.
Funnily enough, I prefer double quotation marks – “66 and 99” as we came to know it at school. However, UK publishers prefer single quotation marks. They don’t look as pretty, but they do look tidier on the printed page. I have forced myself to adopt the single quotation mark for this reason, but can’t say I am happy with doing it. It doesn’t matter which is used providing one is consistent with the choice.