I think books have always been "translated" between UK and USA Editions. Earlier we had a dicussion about "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" which is called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the USA.

Because of copyright it hasn't been possible in the past to sell books across regions. The publishers have to pay for separate rights for the UK and USA.

I'm looking at a copy of Truman Capote's "Breakfast at Tiffany's", copyright 1958. It looks like the UK edition dates back to 1961. All the spellings are in UK English - colour, not color. I assume the same "trnaslation" would apply to a copy of, say, George Orwell's "1984" bought in the USA.

Apart from travel, academic study and making an effort to read, say "The New York Times" is the first exposure many people have had to the differences in our languages.

I know that pronunciation of words like "gallo" differs between South America and Spain - do the spellings differ too?