Will the beginning of a novel taking place outside US turn you off?

Verrell_Rain 2020-09-08 19:04:38 UTC #21

Most Manwha take place in Korea and do just fine. Just create the story.

GNADBUX 2020-09-08 19:20:06 UTC #22

Well my story start in China and goes all over the place (at least that's the plan) and if people like it we are all happy if people don't like it well there are a lot of other webcomic. what you want is to find the right audience.

https://tapas.io/series/Randomaru

domisotto 2020-09-08 19:25:17 UTC #23

I have a decent working knowledge of the country I am writing about.

BlunderingAlbatross 2020-09-08 19:32:23 UTC #24

I, not being American, don't give a damn where the book is set so long as it's an enjoyable read!

Freemints30 2020-09-08 19:34:17 UTC #25

not born there. So that is irrelevant to me. Really if someone's willing to drop a web novel cus its not from the US. They probably not worth your time anyway. If I and many other can watch things from outside our country (mainly from American) and not have a seizure, so can they.

essem 2020-09-08 23:03:55 UTC #26

Tangential to what you're asking - I am extremely over the basket case that is the USA currently. But it wouldn't stop me reading something set there, or anywhere else for that matter, as long as the rest appealed

KJBatson 2020-09-08 23:05:50 UTC #27

I mean, I'm not bothered by it, but I'm not American. I have my paranormal romance set in Toronto Canada and it will have other locations inside Canada as well.

MeltingCORE 2020-09-09 00:27:02 UTC #28

Not at all, I don't care where the story is set as long as it's written well haha.

Kura 2020-09-09 00:35:08 UTC #29

The beginning of a novel taking place inside the US is more likely to disinterest me than one taking place outside of it.

MorganaMevil 2020-09-09 00:36:00 UTC #30

As an American, I really don’t care. I might even be more interested because this isn’t as common as USA settings. But, be careful you don’t use the location as a cliche. Like, if you lean into stereotypes about a place or a people group, it’s a red flag for me. I spent part of my childhood in the UK (and I’ve been all over the world), so any time I read about a place and the person seems to just highlight the Wikipedia summary points of a country, it makes me a little sad. (Plus, stereotypes are bad.)

vblairehawthorne 2020-09-09 00:36:56 UTC #31

I say go for it. If there are people who would undermine your work for having a non-American setting, let them. Watch them cry over your non-American setting and let them promote your work for free for you! Hahahahaha!

domisotto 2020-09-09 01:07:31 UTC #32

I am not worried about stereotyping as I am familiar with the setting.

L_e_fty 2020-09-09 01:12:15 UTC #33

No location doesn't matter to me. I don't see why this would be a turn off for anyone at all Personally I'd probably be more interested.

nostalgicroxas 2020-09-09 01:13:44 UTC #34

No but that's because I grew up reading classics like The Chronicles of Narnia and Greek mythos. If anything a story taking place in the US is a turn-off to me because it's too local.

rajillustration 2020-09-09 01:30:40 UTC #36

Americans do not care. We, in fact, tend to like it when people write about far away places.

CosmicLeon 2020-09-09 03:49:57 UTC #37

why does it matter? I like stories in other parts of the world, or other worlds entirely. So i don't think it matters. It also helps bring in a world audience, i think.

elisabeth_ist 2020-09-10 00:36:08 UTC #38

Honestly, it would be a huge selling point for me! I'm American, but if I have the option to read a story that takes place somewhere else, I'd actually prefer that.

Penni 2020-09-10 00:40:26 UTC #39

I'm from the U.S. and I have zero problems with this. Stories take place all over the world!

Kura 2020-09-10 00:50:59 UTC #40

In all seriousness though, I think I have only seen this as an issue when it's a place written outside the USA, but it's written by someone that lives in the USA, but the author has NEVER BEEN to the country to they are writing about, with their only research on the country being either 'none' or 'popular media'

There was a HUGE rise in that when manga and anime became popular. Lots of people writing stories that took place in Japan without actually living in Japan and only knowing what they know about Japan from Anime. And you would get this really really weird cross culture confusion from American ideologies, social norms and idioms being thrown around in a Japanese setting that just didn't make sense????

DiegoPalacios 2020-09-10 01:04:17 UTC #41

Some dubs people be like: "everyone knows that japanese eat some sort of riceball things and calls them hamburgers, right?"