'Tutto è Mafia in Italia'

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.