Once your book is available on Amazon, you have access to a global audience. Conventions that are taken for granted your home country will be unfamiliar to other nationalities.
Keep in mind the following points when writing for an international readership.
- If you refer to place names and people, make sure they are truly international – folks have heard of the international London, they have not heard of the small coastal town of Ipswich. They have heard of the Queen. They may not be able to recall the name of the lead singer of the band Kasabian…
- Be aware that not all countries use the same date format – is it dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy – some countries even use yy-mm-dd. To avoid doubt, use worded dates, for example, 7th August, 2007 not 7/8/2007. Times are different too, varying between the 12 and 24 hours notation.
- Include international dialling codes and full addresses. This makes your information much more reader-friendly.
- Bear in mind, humour, sarcasm and irony do not translate well. Avoid adding these writing techniques to core learning material. They rely too heavily on cultural convention. Plus, it’s difficult to translate into different languages too. They are OK in supplementary material like case studies.
