I’ve been writing fiction - it is meant for American readers, however, the story takes place in Asia, where the metric system is used.
Since the novel is rather techy in nature, a lot of units of measurement will have to be mentioned frequently - kilometers, meters, liters, kilograms, etc.
As I see it, there is a bit of a quandary: An American audience tends to think in miles, inches, pounds, gallons, etc. Terms like “kilogram,” “kilometer,” won’t be as intuitive. But if I write the Asian characters speaking in terms of miles, pounds, etc. then readers would complain - “that’s not the terminology they would use over there.”
So would I be better off just using the metric system?
If your target is the American audience, sadly you’re better off using American units (English Standard) unless it is a Sci-Fi genre, then Metric will be fine.
Maybe start by using the metric and giving conversions and then just gradual only use the English Standard.
If it’s techy content, the only people who will really get it will be the ones who prefer metric anyway. The ones who prefer American units will just go “Oh, there he goes with all the number stuff again”, regardless of what units you use.
On the other hand, if you describe a person as being 190 cm, most Americans won’t know if that means they’re short or tall.
The dialog should be metric, the descriptions should be imperial.
I have no idea how tall a 190cm man is and if you want me to have a mental picture of him, tell me in inches. However, I’m perfectly ok reading two characters argue back and forth over whether to use the 400ml gadget or the 500ml gadget because it doesn’t really matter.
I would guess that the overlap of readers interested in “techy” novels and readers hostile to the use of the metric system in a novel is pretty small. There’s more danger in readers being turned off by characters that should be speaking and thinking in metric using english units. It would be jarring.
Now, if there were an American character whose thoughts or words contained some translations to more familiar measurements (not even units, just measures that Americans might resonate with), then that could be used to mitigate any reader discomfort from feeling “bombarded” with the need to “constantly” perform mental translations. (quotes are there to emphasize this would be potential a reader problem, not necessarily a problem with the writing)
I guess my concern is that some words simply don’t have much of an impact if explained. For instance, if a sailor tells a passenger, “the water beneath us is 5 miles deep,” that would make a reader think “yikes.” But it won’t have the same effect if the sailor says it’s 8 kilometers deep and the reader is like, ‘how much is a kilometer for perspective.’
Yeah, this is an issue too. I want things to be intuitive enough that readers would have a ‘feel’ for things without having to consult a conversion table. But you can’t it both ways.
Even if the reader only knew a km was sorta-kinda the same order of magnitude as a mile, and wasn’t about the length of a US state nor of a US breadbasket, they’d still get that 8 of those is really impressively deep water.
The other thing is to have your characters speaking not in engineering measurements but in superlatives. The water isn’t just said to be 8km deep. Somebody then says “Wow, that’s like 50 lengths of our huge cruise ship!”
Sell the sizzle not the steak. The measurements don’t matter. The story impact of the measurements matter.
Whenever a non-American has to read an America-centric story, they have to do some mental gymnastics to adjust terminology on the fly. Tough biccies if Americans have to do the same in reverse. Be accurate, let the readers learn something.
“How tall are you?” asked the official, her ballpoint poised over the form.
He paused. He knew she would want the figure in centimeters, but he hadn’t memorized it yet and had to do the conversion. He was jealous of his colleagues who had been here for years; they’d already fully adjusted.
Let’s see, five foot nine and a half…
“175 centimeters. No, wait, 176.”
Do that a couple times early on, just to establish an agreement of sorts between you and the reader, and then play it by ear thereafter.
You could also fix the how-tall-is-the-character problem with a few choice adjectives. “He towered over the captain, at 190 cm”, or “He was of nondescript appearance, with an average build, medium-brown hair, and 178 cm”, or the like.
Depending on where (and when) you are in Asia, 190 cm could either be a bit over average height or a frakken giant. Best to still use descriptive qualifiers.