Publishing Vs. Location

I am very unsure about the country I'm setting my novel in.
I plan on setting my novel in America and various states within the country, however I live in the UK myself. I also plan on submitting my work to agents and publishers here, so my question is whether or not the setting of my story could actually harm my chances of somebody being interested in it.

I just don't think an agent or publisher based in England will be interested in a novel that is based within America. Bare in mind that I am only just looking into the possibilities of publishing so I'm very new to the field.

Go easy on me!

Now I don't know much about publishing myself, but I think that a publisher, regardless of country, will be more interested in the content of the story, rather than its setting. Otherwise, alternate world novels (and most of fantasy) would die.

Content of the novel is important, like Louis said. People can enjoy works set in other countries, and that tends not to affect its popularity.

However, American fans might rip you to shreds for language usage!

There are lots and lots of variances between UK and US language uses. These three lists will probably come in real handy.

Past the obvious "chips" meaning this in the US and this in the UK, there are a bunch of little tiny nuances in languages that change regionally. Like whether or not you call carbonated beverages "soda", "pop", or "coke". Each particular state can have its own dialect (stuff even I'm not familiar with, seeing as I'm Canadian).

For an example I know, my friend in the Prairies calls the place you go to actually make your purchase in a store a "till". I call it a "register", and I'm in Ontario. For the meal at the end of the day, she says "supper" and I say "dinner".

The severity of swear words is different based on regions. Highly religious areas... Heaven help you if you use religion based swearing (that pun was intended) but in other areas, the worst thing you can say is the f-word. There are also the slurs that would be used. Some areas have it worse than others.

The US is a really big country, and even within any given state there can be differences in the language used. Research language really carefully and get people from those areas to edit your novel (aka, find people on YWS you trust from the right areas) and make sure you're being somewhat accurate and not slipping into Britishisms too much.

Just to give you an idea of how varied American English is, the state I live in, Pennsylvania, has 10 major dialects with a whole bunch of minor dialects. You can pretty easily tell where in the state another person is from by how they sound and the terms they use, and people from out-of-state are also easy to identify. It's pretty neat, and there have been quite a few linguistic studies conducted of my state as a result.

Another example is New York City. Each borough tends to have a distinct dialect all its own, so even though two people are from NYC, if one came from the Bronx and the other from Queens, they'll speak completely differently. You'll probably be able to find documentation of all sorts on the dialects used in NYC, since it's such a major city.

that's all related to market research, so first you should know if you want to try publishing or not

if so, do extensive market research

if you're writing more for enjoyment, then pick whatever you want

Not a expert on the matter, but i'm a rather skilled googler.. this is what i found out!

I did some quick googling and found out most of the UK publishers are international.
So i don't think they'll mind much about the country your story takes place, provided you keep the facts straight.

If you write about an existing place, you'll have to make sure the setting is right.. If you make inconsistencies in your setting the audience will get annoyed.
For example, i live in the Netherlands - Amsterdam a lot of ( American ) books or films describe it as a drug loaded, crime encrusted city where everybody is doing drugs and sleeping with hookers. I like many of my country men, get annoyed by it, so much that i'll just stop reading or watching.

However, most of the books published are about America, and i doubt they are all written there. For most Europeans it's a mystical place, so they'll believe anything you'll say.

In short;

I honestly don't think publisher will mind where it takes place, just as long as the contents are good. Audience is a different matter, they might get annoyed if you get the setting wrong.

Hope i contributed something to answering your question x]

I did some quick googling and found out most of the UK publishers are international.

Just because they are international doesn't mean your book will be published internationally.

First publishing rights are divided up by country. So, you can sell a book to a UK publisher and if you only sell publishing rights to the UK, then your book will only be published in the UK.

If, however, you sold the rights for the book to be published in, say, North America, then the publisher has the rights to publish the book in US and Canada (maybe Mexico, depending on the definition of "North America").

This article goes into more detail about first publishing rights. I'd highly suggest giving away as few publishing locations as possible. The more you can control where things are published, the better.