# American Editions of British Books post-Rowling **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [March 21, 2023, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423 "2023-03-21T03:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/1 "2023-03-21T03:23:26Z")
I think we’re all familiar with _Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s / Sorceror’s Stone_. But I was really shocked to find out that Holly Jackson’s YA _A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder_ is quite different in the British and American editions. Not only has Random House changed the setting from England to the USA, they omit whole sentences. Have a look at the preview of the first page of Chapter One on [amazon.co.uk](http://amazon.co.uk) vs [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) : there’s a half-paragraph with the word “verbatim” that’s cut. This is mostly a Café Society-style pitting (i.e. I want to whin(g)e about it), but also: - why do they do this? Are they dumbing it down for American audiences? Loads of YA books _are_ set in other countries, like Harry Potter, so the fact of a British setting can’t be a dealbreaker. I can’t imagine the author is keen to have the book bowdlerized. - how common is this? Are there other wildly popular series that have been heavily Americanized? I know changing to American spelling and maybe adjusting slang is common, but abridging (even lightly) feels different to me. - they don’t give any indication in the book itself that the text has been changed, only noting that it was previously published in England. Anyway: am I crazy for finding this appalling? It’s a YA book, and I’m sure Random House knows their marketing, but it feels patronizing and just… wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/2 "2023-03-21T05:35:29Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > how common is this? Are there other wildly popular series that have been heavily Americanized? I know changing to American spelling and maybe adjusting slang is common, but abridging (even lightly) feels different to me. Hearing Australian authors talking about their work being adapted when they’ve managed to crack the US market, it seems common and probably the standard for larger publishers. While it is mainly spelling and idiom, they have discussed changing plot details and concepts that might shift a work inadvertently into different audience segments. The Young Adult market is probably particularly sensitive to national shifts in what is considered normal or unexceptionable in different countries. What surprised me is that most of the authors seemed quite comfortable with it, but maybe that’s the trade-off that working writers who also like not starving reconcile themselves with early on, while getting published in a new big market. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/3 "2023-03-21T06:19:39Z")
The Ace Attorney series of video games are an interesting example. The original Japanese games are visual novel courtroom dramas set in present day (I.e. early 2000s) Japan and based on the Japanese legal system. For the English release, not only were the character names all Americanized, but the setting was tweaked to be Los Angeles in the near future where the legal system had been reformed to resemble Japan’s. There are some points where the translation results in some weirdness, like it snowing in LA in the winter and everybody being cool with Shinto priestesses working for the court as spirit mediums and testifying in court on behalf of ghosts. The English ports kept that up for over half a dozen sequels until The Great Ace Attorney, a prequel set in the late 19th century and set in Japan and the UK, where maintaining the premise would have stopped making sense and so they stuck with the original setting (aside from changing the name of Sherlock Holmes to “Hurlock Sholmes” because the copyright on Sherlock hadn’t yet expired in the US when the port came out). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/4 "2023-03-21T09:18:19Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > everybody being cool with Shinto priestesses working for the court as spirit mediums and testifying in court on behalf of ghosts Wait, is that actually something that happens in the Japanese legal system, or just part of the books’ premise? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/5 "2023-03-21T09:20:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Wait, is that actually something that happens in the Japanese legal system, or just part of the books’ premise? Probably not, but if it seems outlandish in the Japanese originals, then by comparison it seems very outlandish playing out in near-future Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/6 "2023-03-21T12:12:14Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Anyway: am I crazy for finding this appalling? It’s a YA book, and I’m sure Random House knows their marketing, but it feels patronizing and just… wrong. Yeah, it feels wrong to me, too. One, it feels unnecessary and dumb. But maybe I’m underestimating the degree to which kids in one country could be confused by language and references that would be familiar to kids in another country. Two, it reminds me of the recent furor over the [altered versions of books by Roald Dahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roald-dahl-was-anti-semitic-who-knew/927485/10) and R. L. Stine. Three, it’s arguably not _that_ different from books being translated into different languages, which I assume the vast majority of writers and readers are fine with, as long as it’s done faithfully. But translations are generally clearly indicated as such, with acknowledgement of who did the translation. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/7 "2023-03-21T12:59:02Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > aside from changing the name of Sherlock Holmes to “Hurlock Sholmes” because the copyright on Sherlock hadn’t yet expired in the US when the port came out I _really_ hope at some point somebody said “nose hit, Hurlock”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/8 "2023-03-21T13:00:48Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Wait, is that actually something that happens in the Japanese legal system, or just part of the books’ premise? Probably a play on _Rashomon_. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/9 "2023-03-21T13:43:15Z")
An old example of this was the first American edition of _A Clockwork Orange_ in the 1960s, which removed the final chapter. Burgess talked about it in an [intro to the 1986 edition](https://thefloatinglibrary.com/2009/04/20/a-clockwork-orange-resucked/): > Those twenty-one chapters were important to me. > > But they were not important to my New York publisher. The book he brought out had only twenty chapters. He insisted on cutting out the twenty-first. I could, of course, have demurred at this adn taken my book elsewhere, but it was considered that he was being charitable in accepting the work at all, and that all other New York, or Boston, publishers would kick out the manuscript on its dog-ear. I needed money back in 1961, even the pittance I was being offered as an advance, and if the condition of the book’s acceptance was also its truncation — well, so be it. So there is a profound difference between _A Clockwork Orange_ as Great Britain knows it and the somewhat slimmer volume that bears the same name in the United States of America. He sounds pretty bitter about the missing chapter, but if you read the whole essay he’s very bitter that that’s the book he’ll be remembered for, when he thinks he wrote much better books that are ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/10 "2023-03-21T17:04:05Z")
Thanks for the replies. I had known about minor and pointless changes ever since I read about the British vs American editions of the C.S. Lewis Narnia series (1950s). I _hadn’t_ known about _A Clockwork Orange,_ which is much more egregious than my OP. So _why_ do American publishers do this? I’m sure it’s because of a belief that the books will sell better, but is that a valid belief or a false one? I don’t think it is equivalent to translation because American / British / Australian / etc. are still well over 90% mutually intelligible. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/11 "2023-03-21T19:07:37Z")
I guess it depends on the intended audience. For adults, 90% intelligible may be good enough. For “Young Adults”, i.e. teenagers, it may not be. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/12 "2023-03-21T20:49:03Z")
Not a book, but I believe the Bond film Licence to Kill was planned to be called Licence Revoked, but apparently the title was changed because, similarly to the first Potter book, the producers feared American filmgoers wouldn’t know what it meant. All very patronising frankly. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/13 "2023-03-21T22:44:40Z")
And the irony is that they changed from something that Americans might not know, to something they were guaranteed not to know. If anything, kids probably pick up on such things quicker than adults. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/14 "2023-03-22T01:53:32Z")
I think that in general American readers have no problems with the original British editions of books. The problem is the American publishers. I think that they don’t test out both the original British editions versus their Americanized versions with the changes they’ve decided on to find out if American readers have problems with the British texts and only like the Americanized texts. I think that they just make any changes they want to and don’t consider it worth their time and money to try the changes with a test group of American readers before publishing the book. I think that many publishers have established policies on the texts of the American editions which they just decided by themselves without consulting anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/15 "2023-03-22T02:00:34Z")
I believe the stated reason was License To Kill sounds like a Bond movie, License Revoked sounds like a teen comedy movie about someone who lost their driver’s license. But I feel that was a good change, since License To Kill is both snappier and “License to Kill” is something already established in the Bond universe, so people familiar with James Bond would already be familiar with that phrase. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/16 "2023-03-22T15:07:11Z")
Yes, to be fair, ‘Licence Revoked’ sounds like a rubbish film title. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/17 "2023-03-22T18:33:29Z")
We don’t have a good answer to the OP’s question because it’s a really hard question. To answer it you’d need to have both the American and British editions in front of you and then go through them literally word for word to spot any differences. I’ve needed to do that on smaller scales and it’s brain-destroying tedium piled on hyperawareness. Little wonder that most cases found are from titles or early pages or blatant omissions. And one can never discount the propensity of American proofreaders, copyeditors, and editors to change stuff just because they have the power to do so. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/18 "2023-03-22T22:58:39Z")
U.S. publishers think “famine” has 7 letters. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/19 "2023-03-23T18:51:37Z")
The American translated version of _Harry Potter_ is a little annoying to me. But I realize that 99% of Americans aren’t going to know or care about British English. It’s marketing plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423/20 "2023-03-23T18:56:29Z")
I don’t think “marketing” explains it. There’s a kind of protectionist assumption that British English would be problematic. It might well be imperfectly understood (see: _The Office_ and American remake), but in the context of novel, would it really be problematic? To the point that readers would… what, identify British slang on p. 63 and decline to continue reading the book they’ve already bought? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-editions-of-british-books-post-rowling/981423.md?page=2)