A couple of weeks ago I wrote about fine-tuning the client flywheel, in which I discussed the value of having a diverse client base and considered shifts I may need to make as I grow my business.

I received a thoughtful reply (thank you!), which prompted me to think further about the differences between authors and publishers as clients, and of how the two overlap.

The specific client mix is going to be different for each indexer. Some indexers work almost exclusively with authors. Other indexers, like myself, tend to work more with publishers.

There is no right or wrong client mix. You should aim for whoever is comfortable to work with and whoever is best able to meet your business goals. Your client mix may also reflect your personal background and connections. That said, there are also pros and cons to different types of clients. It can be helpful to keep these differences in mind when building and fine-tuning your client mix. 

Authors as Clients

Authors are fairly self-evident. They are either the person who (co-)wrote the book or the volume editor. Authors may be self-published, or the press has passed on the responsibility for the index to the author. Authors may pay out-of-pocket or, especially if they are academics, be using university funds. When the author is the client, you communicate and negotiate directly with the author, not the press.

The benefits of working directly with authors are that they:

• May have a larger budget, especially if they are drawing on university funds.
• Can be an effective source of referrals.
• Tend to be one-off contracts, so if the experience goes poorly, you less likely need to consider working with them again. 

The downsides to working with authors are that they:

• May have a smaller budget, especially if paying out-of-pocket.
• May require more educating about the indexing and publishing process.
• May not communicate effectively about schedules and other important details, either because they don’t understand the production process or because they are busy and forget.
• Being individuals, each author likely represents a single book. Authors can become repeat clients if they write and publish multiple books, but at best that is likely a new book every year or two. Maintaining a full schedule of authors means building and maintaining a large pipeline. 

Publishers as Clients

Publishers, in contrast, come with a different set of benefits and challenges. By publishers, I mean traditional presses, hybrid publishers, and book packagers. Basically, any larger company producing multiple books. Publishers may hire directly or be a source of referrals to authors.

The advantages to working with publishers includes:

• Repeat and regular work, if the publisher is able to send multiple books per year.
• Assuming multiple books per publisher, fewer publishers are needed to fill a schedule.
• Better understanding and communication about the production process and indexing specs.

The main disadvantages to working with publishers are:

• Smaller and fixed budgets (often, but not always).
• Risk of losing a larger chunk of work if the publisher leaves.

So far, it seems pretty straightforward. Authors can require more work to find and work with, but with greater potential financial reward. Publishers can be easier to work with and provide a greater sense of security by filling up a larger portion of the schedule, but they may not pay as well and losing a publisher as a client can be more devastating. 

There are two further nuances worth paying attention to.

Where Are Those Authors Coming From?

It can be an illuminating exercise to ask how authors find you. Are they coming via your website? A Find an Indexer listing? Referral from a friend or colleague? Or are they being referred by their publisher?

Most academic presses do not hire directly. Instead, they make the index the author’s responsibility and may give the author a list of recommended indexers. It can appear that you are being contacted by a lot of different authors (and you are), but look closer and you realize they are all being recommended by the same handful of presses. This has been my experience, for the most part.

At this point, who is actually the client? The authors are clearly clients, since they are the ones negotiating and paying. But I would suggest that the publisher is also a client. Getting those referrals requires somehow getting onto that list of recommended indexers, which likely requires marketing directly to the publisher. Being on that list, while a valuable source of referrals, also exposes you to the risk of losing all of those referrals should the press stop recommending you. 

So if you want to work primarily with authors, keep a couple of points in mind:

• The best way to reach authors may actually be to market to publishers, to get onto their recommendations list.
• Try to be referred by multiple publishers. This spreads out the risk of losing work should one source of referrals end. 

When Editors Move

If the publisher is the client, you are likely in contact with a specific editor. If it is a larger press, you may be in touch with more than one editor. The challenge is that editors can move.

An editor moving isn’t necessarily terrible news for you. The editor may take you with them to their new position and continue to hire. The editor may also pass your name to their successor, and you continue to work for that publisher. But just as often, I find, the editor doesn’t need indexers in their new position, or they don’t pass your name on, or their successor already has their own list of freelancers. It may be several months before you clue into the fact that a contact has moved, and trying to get re-established with a publisher can be like marketing to a new client. 

All that to say, while publishers can be a great source of reliable work, the real client is perhaps the editor. And editors can be much more transient. Positive relationships can end unexpectedly through no fault of your own.

To manage the risk, try to connect to multiple editors at a press (if the press is large enough to have multiple editors) or ask your contact for referrals to their colleagues. Also, work with multiple publishers. While some relationships will hopefully be long-lasting, assuming that others will end. Spread out the risk by working with a variety of publishers. 

I don’t want this post to be discouraging with all this talk about risk and the downsides to different types of clients. It is possible to thrive as a freelance indexer working primarily with authors, or primarily with publishers, or a mix of both. 

To thrive, though, I think it helps to understand who you are working with, so that you can adjust your marketing, scheduling, communication, and expectations. If you want to change or grow your business, then that may mean changing who your clients are, and how you approach marketing, communication, scheduling, etc…

Know who your clients are. Identify any weaknesses or risks. Adjust to strengthen your client base and put your business on a more sustainable footing to better withstand inevitable changes.