Crime Beat

Joanne Hichens gives insights into compiling and editing Bad Company,(Pan Macmillan) the buzz publication in local crime circles at the moment. The Cape Town launch will be held at the Book Lounge tomorrow night - Friday 20th March at 5.30 for 6.00pm. It’ll be worth fighting the fires to get there…

This article was first published in the Sunday Times

Editing Bad Company…
By Joanne Hichens

South African crime-thriller fiction is certainly making waves as it exposes and explores the base, primal and often violent nature of man, as well as – of course - providing mystery and thrills and spills.
As far as the mechanics go of getting an anthology off the ground, it’s the part of me that likes directing, dare I say ‘being in charge’, that the process seems to suit. And in compiling and editing the crime-thriller short-stories collection Bad Company, I enjoyed every step. From casual chit-chat with writer friends before the fact, tossing about how great it would be to feature crime-thriller writers in an anthology, to then discussing the concept with the commissioning publisher, to the reality of signing on the dotted line, then calling and emailing authors to secure stories, and dealing with agents and contracts, I loved every bit of the organising of it.
Indeed there was the rush at reading contributions. Whether set in the bedroom or boardroom, peopled by psychopaths or shysters, cops or robbers, I hoped for, and got, stories uniquely different from each other to showcase South African crime-writing in its diversity. And once the stories were finalised, I enjoyed talking with the authors about ‘writerly’ concerns, plot and character and such like, always bearing in mind that an editor’s work is in the background.
The question is, how eagerly does an editor go about the job? How much advice does an editor dish out? When to stop with the suggestions? My aim was to be objective, see the merits of each story in whatever style it was written, to focus on polishing, while always knowing the text in no way ‘belonged’ to me. Editing is really about the capacity to respond to someone else’s vision - to read a text, then to nurture that text if need be, and at last step back and allow the story, hopefully more fluent after editorial feedback, to stand on its own. Certainly in the case of Bad Company, editing had nothing to do with rewriting, but rather involved fine-tuning stories – mostly curing intermittent hiccups along a narrative line, or paying attention to language - without trespassing (lest I ended up dead as one of the victims in the stories!) on the content, style, or wishes, of the authors.
And this slew of authors showed enthusiasm I reveled in, as deadlines were met and suggestions graciously considered, then either accepted, or not. An editor, unlike a customer, isn’t always right! The author knows his own characters best. Whether deciding speech patterns, personality traits, foodie preferences, sexual appetites, or ways of killing – whether by scissors or rolling pin - the author is the ultimate director.
At the last I relished – I’m afraid so - in finding inconsistencies. The nit-picker in me got a thrill at spotting a word misspelled, a licence-plate number wrongly recorded, a red panty that somewhere in a story morphed to black.
Then my work was done. With the text emailed to the publisher, designers and printers and marketing experts stepped in to do their part. It was at this stage I felt bereft. I wanted, indeed, to take over the whole process. Keep the anthology in my clutches. But it was time to let go.
The day my first copy of Bad Company arrived by courier, it was as if a revered friend had come to visit. I was so pleased to see this anthology which had been in my care for a short time. I smoothed my hand across the cover. I paged through the collection with pleasure, but also some trepidation - as is my nature. The low-point of editing must be spotting typos after 2500 copies are waiting for distribution at the warehouse. Damn those dreadful nits that got away! (See pages ix, 36 – mortified there might be more I’m already working on my defence! Oh, that steep learning curve!) There comes a time too, to stop obsessing.
Each story in Bad Company will give pause to reflect on the catalysts, the motives, and the consequences of crime, and each story will entertain.
As editor, as I’ve connected with the stories, and the many talented writers in the constellation featured in Bad Company, they’ve been, for me, damn good company.

Joanne Hichens is an author, freelance writer and editor.

P.S. I had a good laugh when the Sunday Times came out to see my name in bold type - spelt wrong! See, it happens!