British-American Editing Question?

[iansales]

I think the "best" retitling of a genre novel for different markets has to be one by Michael Bishop. In the US, It was The Secret Ascension; in the UK, Philip K Dick is Dead, Alas; and in Germany, Dieser Mann ist wieder töt (This Man is Dead Again).

[scalem X]

Die Farben des Teufels. Oh my, grab a chair, Mary.

A very famous (german) romantic gothic novel (written in 1824) by E.T.A Hoffmann is called: "Die Elexiere des Teufels"
(The devil's elixir)

I suppose it's a sort of a wink. With the names of the two authors sort of being alike and now the titles too. I haven't read the falconer's knot, nor the devil's elixir, so I don't know if the contents are alike too.

In the end I think it does sound good. After all take for example GRR Martin and JRR Tolkien...

[Giovanna Clairval]

My worst fear has become reality.

The American editor who is making editorial notes on my novel is adamant (as they say in the States) about the B-A editing question.

No American publisher will accept the Queen's spelling (editor's words). It would seem that this strange way of writing words is tiring for the American reader.

But the copy-editor will transmogryphe the text back into B.E. when the book is published in the UK. No problem, the Editor says.

I am very sad...

I tried to relate the discussion that has been going on here.
His answer was:
A British board, you said?

[iansales]

It's unlikely the book will be "translated" back into British English if it is published in the UK. American books are routinely published unchanged now - except for the replacement of double quotes for dialogue with single quotes.

But then all national and international dialects of British are commonly presented to British audiences without any "translation".

[Giovanna Clairval]

Originally Posted by iansales

It's unlikely the book will be "translated" back into British English if it is published in the UK. American books are routinely published unchanged now - except for the replacement of double quotes for dialogue with single quotes.

Over my ploomped body, one of my characters would say.

And, if what you say is true (and I believe it is, because British editors say the same), I'll transmogryphe the darped thing myself.

[Havlen]

Originally Posted by Giovanna Clairval

My worst fear has become reality.

The American editor who is making editorial notes on my novel is adamant (as they say in the States) about the B-A editing question.

No American publisher will accept the Queen's spelling (editor's words). It would seem that this strange way of writing words is tiring for the American reader.

If that's your worst fear then, uh, you don't have many fears

Not sure why you would care so much about the spelling.

[Sephiroth]

Because it's important not to have all the words simplified phonetically?

[Giovanna Clairval]

Texas. Great place.

I see why you are answering as you do, Havlen

But why oh why should an European writer use American spelling, when she lives two hours away from London? And she learned British spelling when she was at school?

Because she is selling her stuff in the States, you'll say. Still, I hoped that when my editor said that we could keep a "British feel", that would include the tiny differences.

I understand that there are words that don't have the same meaning (I did put notes with the alternative American words: the famous "suspenders" instead of "braces", for instance ) I'm okay with the big differences.

But why would "colour" be difficult to read?

Should I have greater, darker fears? Maybe, but I happy that I don't.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Giovanna Clairval

My worst fear has become reality.


No American publisher will accept the Queen's spelling (editor's words). It would seem that this strange way of writing words is tiring for the American reader.

I am very sad...

I tried to relate the discussion that has been going on here.
His answer was:
A British board, you said?

It sounds like this editor may be inventing reasons retroactively for policies already in effect for other reasons. Increasingly, American publishing houses are insisting that books conform not just to US style but to a specific House style, under which they do not allow even alternate American spellings. If something isn't in the Chicago Manual of Style (or whatever guide they are using) it gets changed, not because somebody thinks that alternate spellings will tire readers, but because the corporate entity thinks (as corporate entities will) that conformity is tidier.

My own experience teaches me that there are all sorts of copy-editors. Most are noble individuals that do praiseworthy work. My first c-e used to smoke like six chimneys. I would get the manuscript back reeking of stale cigarette smoke, to the extent that going through the pages gave me a fierce headache. But he/she was good, and edited with a light hand, being most concerned with keeping me consistent with myself, and putting together elaborate style sheets based on my own eccentricities of style in order to do that. When a manuscript came back, when I opened the package and out came that blast of secondhand smoke -- and I saw on the first page that recognizable handwriting -- I was relieved, because I knew that my manuscript (though not my burning eyes and lungs) was in safe hands.

A later copy-editor went through and changed things like capitalization to conform to House Style -- but did so with such inconsistency that the end result is a total mish-mash. An even more recent c-e was so literal-minded that he went through and queried all of my metaphors -- annoying, but easily remedied. However, I have heard horror stories from other writers. Of these, undoubtedly the worst is the tale of a copy-editor who went through a manuscript and changed all the medieval French monks in the story into good little feminists by altering their dialogue.

So, Giovanna, if the worst thing that a copy-editor ever does to you is change your British spellings to American, don't be sad, be relieved.

As for trying to change any editor's mind about anything by quoting what everyone is saying on an online forum: they know what a miniscule sampling we represent of the vast readership they are trying to attract, and they do not care what we have to say here.

[Giovanna Clairval]

I know, Teresa, I know.

Chicago it is, and Chicago it will remain.

Forgive my rant.

Although I'm sure that, had you been on a message board at the time the copy-editors (the wicked ones) were playing with your typescripts (sorry, manuscripts), you would have aired your grievances, too.

[iansales]

Aren't the two classic copy-editor stories, the ones about:

The Brian Aldiss novel, Non-Stop, in which the characters only discover they are aboard a generation starship at the end. In the US it was retitled... Starship.

A comic genre story - I forget who wrote it - in which a vegetarian vampire is killed with a "steak through the heart". A copy-editor helpfully changed this to "stake through the heart"...

[HardScienceFan]

Englishman: what a thoroughly engaging bloke
American: what a cool dude,like

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Giovanna Clairval

Although I'm sure that, had you been on a message board at the time the copy-editors (the wicked ones) were playing with your typescripts (sorry, manuscripts), you would have aired your grievances, too.

I was, and I didn't. Nothing said online is private, not even on supposedly private boards (which is why I have been so artfully obscure about which of my books I was referring to) -- and I learned the hard way, long ago, not to say things in public that I wouldn't want repeated to the people in question.

[Giovanna Clairval]

I understand, but nothing that I said here I didn't say to Editor/God as well.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I find that people like being criticized in public rather less than they do in private.

Is this an editor who has already acquired your manuscript and is preparing your manuscript for production?