Taking a sabbatical has been one of the best decisions I have made for my business. I am already thinking about doing it again next year. For those of you who don’t know, I recently took nearly six weeks off work, from mid-January to the end of February. I did… Read More »What I Accomplished During My Sabbatical
Ten Characteristics of Quality Indexes: Confessions of an Award-Winning Indexer, by Margie Towery (Medford, NJ: Information Today Inc., 2016) I must confess that while I bought my copy of Margie Towery’s book shortly after it was published, and while I have dipped into it occasionally, I had not actually read… Read More »Book Review: Ten Characteristics of Quality Indexes
The title for this post is, admittedly, tongue in cheek. I am not suggesting that those of us with our own businesses are lazy. It does point towards the reality, though, that it can be so hard to make time, or even know where to start looking, when it comes… Read More »The Lazy Person’s Guide to Business Development
Deep work, as defined by Cal Newport in his book of the same title, is “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.” As I was reading Newport’s… Read More »Indexing as Deep Work
Happy New Year! I hope your holiday festivities were heart-warming and restorative. My wife and I started ours with our car dying the night before we planned to hit the road, though the holidays did get better from there and we are thankful for a few days with family. I… Read More »Making Friends with My Calendar
I recently indexed a book for children, which is a departure from my usual work. Making the project even more unique, the book was adapted from the original adult version, which I indexed a couple of years ago. I believe the book sold quite well, and hopefully this children’s version… Read More »Book Review: Indexing Children’s Books
This is my sixth anniversary as a freelance indexer! It was the end of October, 2012, that I left my job at Harbour Publishing and moved back to Vancouver with the intention to work for myself. That first year I received only a few projects, which I have to admit… Read More »Freelance Anniversary Reflections
Happy Hobbit Day! September 22 is apparently the shared birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. I wonder how old they would be. Today is also a good excuse to examine the index for the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. I was quite surprised to notice, a couple of years… Read More »Indexing Fiction: The Lord of the Rings
This last week I finished the index for a large institutional history, 550 pages, including endnotes. It was one of the more challenging books I have indexed. I will not yet reveal the name of the institution, or the title or author, as the book is not yet published, but… Read More »Indexing Institutional Histories: A Case Study
Indexes for fiction seems to be a recurring topic among indexers. I do not know of anyone who has actually written an index like this, but we sure like to talk about it. Someone recently raised the issue again on one of the indexing email lists, and it just so… Read More »Indexing Fiction: The Wheel of Time Case Study