It was back to working on the book today. This has meant sorting the running order of chapters and trying to allocate the position of text boxes. I’m happy with the structure as we now start with the Italian Mafia – ‘Tutto è mafia in Italia’ (Everything in Italy is Mafia), finishing with Key Figures – Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey saying: ‘There’s no such thing as the underworld – just known criminals. I’m also pleased to see that my editor is planning on the basic of both using my Introduction and having an Index compiled. She has also spotted that I’m 8,900 words over the 100,000 limit, but that should not be too much of a problem.
Allocating the text boxes is as much a creative as logical problem. Does the mini-piece on prostitution work best work best in context of the Russian Mafiya chapter of slotted into the entry on organized crime in France and the porcelain-masked prostitutes’ protest? Does highlighting people trafficking give more to an entry on the 14K or the Nigerian Syndicates? Picture balance, pace and spread impact also come into the process. I always knew there were reasons I have never designed a book to feature text boxes before.
6 comments:
Hello,
Now imagine the editor and the layout guys trying to manage the main text part, boxes and pictures after the book has been translated.
Im glad to be the guy who translates your book and doesn't have to worry about layout stuff :)
Cheers,
Pawel
Which language are you translating it into? Shout if you have any questions.
Polish. Ok, I will - thanks for the support. :)
Of course, as the author no-one has bothered to tell me about any of this... I am pleased to finally add Polish to the languages I have been translated into.
The pleasure's all mine :)
Especially that organized crime is something I like to read about. I do have some knowledge about Italian and Polish organized crime, so my work on your book will surely a good lesson in other crime groups.
And it's a really nice change after the last few books I translated.
The book should be out in Poland by December 2009.
BTW: a friend of mine is writing his final thesis (political sciences) on organized crime issues. He owns a copy of your book in english, but as his English competences are limited he's waiting for my translation to use it in his work.
I am glad you are enjoying the project. If you friend has any questions that he wants to pass on via you, I will be happy to answer them. Now I will try to answer your translation question on ‘big sticks’.
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