It is once again the last Tuesday of the month. Today’s question seems appropriate in anticipation of the New Year, as it is about beginning a freelance indexing career. The question is: I’m looking to get into the business of freelance indexing, and I am wondering if the primarily bottleneck… Read More »Q&A: Biggest Bottlenecks Starting as an Indexer?
So, I won another indexing award. A couple of weeks ago the American Society for Indexing (ASI) announced that I won the ASI Indexing Award, in the scholarly/technical category, for my index for Dialectics of the Big Bang and the Absolute Existence of the Multiverse, by Gregory Phipps (University of… Read More »Indexing Hegel, the Big Bang, and the Multiverse
Welcome to this month’s Q&A. I have to admit I am enjoying these. You all are asking some great, practical questions, which are getting me to think. Today’s question comes from Reed, who asks, How do you manage the stress of lulls between projects? I’m still in my first couple… Read More »Q&A: Dealing with Lulls Between Projects
What is structure within an index and is it actually important? I’ve been thinking about this question over the last couple of weeks. There have been parallel discussions on the Indexer’s Discussion Group (IDG) and CindexUsers email lists about AI and indexing, in response to Ben Vagle’s announcement of his… Read More »Intentional Index Structure
How do you know when an index is finished? I think this is an important question, and also a question that is difficult to answer. “Good enough” can be subjective. Time and space constraints may be factors, as well as skill level or knowledge of indexing best practices. What an… Read More »When is Good Enough Good Enough?
Welcome back to the third edition of the monthly Q&A, on the last Tuesday(ish) of every month. Today’s question comes from Kimberly: I’ve been giving each heading a subheading right from the start, with the idea that it might be easier to delete unneeded ones than to go back and… Read More »Q&A: Preemptive Subheadings?
When talking with newer indexers and people considering a career in indexing, I often get the question, “But when am I ready to begin freelancing?” Which is a very good question. Especially working alone, as freelancers tend to do, it can be tough to gauge our own skills. I often… Read More »Are You Ready to Begin Freelance Indexing?
Fall is off to a roaring start for me. September was busy. October is so far a little slower, which is good as I am still catching up on projects I didn’t complete in September. And November and December are shaping up to also be full. With a full schedule… Read More »Taming Schedules, Trying to
As you’ve probably noticed, AI is still around, being pushed and integrated into almost everything. I find it interesting talking to friends and colleagues about whether and how they use AI. There are a few instances where it seems genuinely useful, but more often than not it still seems like… Read More »AI and the Nature of Indexing Work
I’ve gotten a few questions recently about increasing speed while indexing, including last week’s Q&A about subheadings. And while these are good questions and we can certainly discuss specific ways to increase speed, I think it is also important to keep in mind the foundations of speed, which I learned… Read More »The Best Lesson I Learned About Speed I Learned from Tree Planting