I live in England, but, am the daughter of two British Army soldiers, and was born in
Germany and brought up in England, Malta and Cyprus.
You probably know that England’s part of the United Kingdom, and sometimes we consider ourselves part of Europe and sometimes we don’t, depending upon context, opinion and accuracy. England’s a small country with a big asset – its native tongue, English.
Writing in English opens up a lot of markets. My books can be distributed in the UK, US, Australia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand etc without having to be translated. OK, I may write ‘colour’ where you write ‘color’ or use S in word endings where you use Z, but that just celebrates my Britishness.
And hot heroes are hot heroes, however they're spelled.
My hot heroes and dauntless heroines have made it in all English-speaking markets, plus been translated into Italian, Portuguese and Turkish. It’s interesting how these different markets react.
It’s too early to talk about Italy, as the first book’s barely made it onto the shelves, but in Portugal I have a lot of young women following me on Facebook, and I’m thankful for that little ‘translate’ button on FB posts. Some want to read my books in English, which is widely spoken in Portugal, and I’ve written blogposts for them and sent out my usual written-in-English bookmarks.
Turkey’s different. I’ve had as many messages from male readers as female. Is it the way my books are marketed out there? Or that Turkish readers don’t need to be directed to read according to gender? Or that Turkish men like romance?
My hot hero/English village books attracted attention at the two RT Booklovers conventions I attended in the States (if you want to read the series, begin with Starting Over) and my American heroine Honor, in Love & Freedom, was popular here in the UK! I like travel, including teaching a residential course halfway up a mountain in Italy, and I’m very happy if my work travels, too.
That’s the English language for you.
Award winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary romance with occasionally unexpected themes.
The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is this Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards.
Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013.
Sue’s a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and editor of its two anthologies.
Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, and writing ‘how to’.
Sue’s latest book: The Wedding Proposal
Website: www.suemoorcroft.com.
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Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor
Twitter @suemoorcroft
Google+: google.com/+Suemoorcroftauthor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suemoorcroft
6 comments:
Welcome to RTG, Sue! It's amazing how English is spreading around the world. I think it speaks to the need in this day and age for a universal language. Although English is not exactly an easy language to learn!
We native English speakers are a lucky bunch!
Thank you! And thanks for having me over to chat.
Yes, we are lucky. I'm currently trying to brush up my French language skills, for the next book, but I don't find languages, other than my own, easy.
So glad you could join us today, Sue. I loved "Starting Over" and am now a Sue Moorcroft fan!!! RTG gets about 1/3 of our readers from countries where English is not universally spoken (think China and India for example). Sarah and I've thought it is because reading RTG is a fun way to brush up on one's English skills.
BTW: How do you track your readers? You mentioned Facebook and I'm wondering if it gives you more data than your other social media, etc.
Hi Judith!
Thank you. I'm so glad you liked Starting Over :-) I have never completely fallen out of love with Ratty and he's the only one of my heroes to have received his own fan mail. SO is the first of my linked books, set in the village of Middledip - there are three more.
I don't know that I track my readers particularly assiduously. People follow me on Twitter or Facebook (or LinkedIn or wherever!) and I'm happy to chat. I feel I'm privileged to be writing in this era of accessibility and every time a reader sends me a Facebook message or a Tweet to say that s/he enjoyed my book, it makes my day. Few things give me more pleasure than people enjoying my writing.
And I'll be reading the other books in the series. I'm learning about village life in England along with picking up some "slang" and enjoying getting to know folks.
I totally agree about the pleasure gained from people enjoying reading our stories!
I love writing about villages. One day, I really should live in one. 😊
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