I think every indexer will, at some point, experience a baptism by fire from updating a previously written index. It is tedious. It is time-consuming. It is mental gymnastics trying to get into the mind of the original indexer and trying to figure out what has changed. My first freelance… Read More »Updating an Index: Worth It or Not Worth It?
I want to shift focus this week to a thought experiment. Fiction is rarely indexed—I have never been asked so far. Yet as an avid reader of fiction, I have often thought about the potential advantages and what the challenges might be. I have blogged before about indexes for fictional… Read More »Indexing Fiction: Thoughts and Suggestions
Specificity is one of the elements we need to strive for in an index. We are, after all, as indexers, in the business of directing people to information, and to do so accurately and efficiently entries needs to be specific enough for the reader to quickly grasp. But this can… Read More »Writing Index Entries with Appropriate Specificity
A few months ago I wrote about using triage to shorten an index to fit a tight space limitation. Today, I want to approach the same problem from the other side, which is to proactively index in such a way that triage and cutting are not needed. Because while cutting the index… Read More »Indexing within a Space Constraint
I was recently prompted to think about what advice I would give myself as a new indexer. My indexing origin story is that I was largely self-taught. How I index has definitely changed over the years, both through trial and error and through learning from other indexers at conferences, the… Read More »Advice to Myself as a New Indexer
I recently received the longest list of terms from an author that I have ever received. The list was so long that I immediately contacted the publisher and explained that even with the extra space I had already asked for and received for the index, there was no way that… Read More »Dealing with Authors and Their Lists of Terms
Indexing is so often about following the rules, but today I want to write about breaking the rules. Specifically, the alphabetical sort that is often the basis for organizing entries. Force-sorting is when an entry is deliberated taken out of alphabetical order and placed elsewhere in the index. This can… Read More »Do’s and Don’ts for Index Force Sorting
Subheadings are, I would argue, essential for a good index. Not everyone would agree, apparently, as evidenced by the indexes one finds with long strings of locators with perhaps the odd subheading tacked on at the end. But as a way to deliver additional information to the reader, and to… Read More »Index Subheadings Q&A
When I first began to freelance, I did not know how to set a price for my work. Instead of being proactive, I accepted what my first few clients offered me, as what they offered seemed fair, I had no prices for comparison, and I was simply thrilled to receive… Read More »How to Set Prices that Sell and Earn Profit
Words matter in the index. This may be stating the obvious, but I think it is worth repeating. The terms and phrasing used need to be readily understood by the user of the index. The text, of course, is the first place to look for terminology that can be transposed… Read More »Translating the Text for the Index