Posted by K. S. Dearsley on Saturday, March 3, 2012
When e-publishing is it better to use American English (spellings, vocabulary and grammar) or UK English? If you're submitting to an e-zine or publisher, they will usually say which they prefer in their guidelines and, if they like your work enough, will correct one or two oversights that might occur if, say, American English isn't your first language. However, if you're self-publishing you have to decide which one to use–or do you?
There's less risk of making mistakes if you stick to UK English if you're from the UK. It's all too easy to get tripped up by using words such as 'lorry' instead of 'truck' or 'centre' instead of 'center', although setting your computer's spell-checker and proof-reader to the target language will help. If most of your readers are in the US then it might be a risk worth taking, but be aware that whichever language you choose there will always be someone ready to tell you that you've put too many 'ls' in 'traveller' or vice versa. Perhaps the answer is to publish two editions as you would have to if you wanted a French (or Spanish, German etc.) version and an English one.
If you do decide to use an English other than your own, and you don't know a friendly native who can check your manuscript for you, using a copy of The Oxford Manual of Style (published by the Oxford University Press) will help to save you blushes.
Tags:
copy-editing proof-reading e-publishing "online publishing"