Spelling choices when writing an international setting?

You write the text for the publisher style or audience. The exception being any direct report of local spelling like names and brands.
In general I have found US audiences are more likely to take regional spelling as an error than vice versa--so there's that too.

LuaVerena said:

Pretty basic question - if say, you're writing a British setting, but publishing for an American audience, which standard of spelling would you write in, UK English or US? I'm leaning towards changing my standard (UK) while writing this story firmly set in America, but I'm curious to hear what others think.

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Leave that up to your publisher.

If you're self-publishing, work with a native speaker. It's not as easy as you might think to write American if you haven't actually lived for some time in the U.S.

I wrote my first US-set story when i had only lived here for a short time. It came out well but I am glad I had a publisher and editor to pick up cultural errors. There were a lot of them! Even now I do pretty well as writing American adults but not their childhood memories and experiences.

I'm American and my last WIP was set in the UK around 1900. I adhered to British grammar and usage but used American spelling and punctuation because I didn't want to be thinking about every word that ends in -or/-our or the single versus double quotation marks. It's easy enough to change spelling later if you're consistent. The important part is getting the actual dialect/cadence/language and culture right.

I was reading a book that must've been by an American set in the UK, and she didn't seem to quite understand how Eton works (it was only a mention, but the mention was a bit off in context). Conversely, a book I recently read was set in America and mentioned a "football pitch". It stuck out to me like a sore thumb because Americans don't play sports on "pitches", and certainly not football (I have to say that otherwise, the author got American culture right).

At this stage, plump for one system of spelling and be consistent. What's the easiest for you to write in?

If you are so fortunate as to be published, let your publisher handle it. If you decide to go for self-publishing, you can address it then, should you want to make changes. The beauty of find/replace, which is why be consistent.