Article
June 8, 2024
0 comment
by Stephen

Finding Your Indexing Niche

Last month was very busy for me, culminating in the Indexing Society of Canada’s virtual conference, where I co-presented with Enid Zafran on the current state and future of embedded indexing. I may write more later about embedded indexing, but in the meantime, our findings reminded me of how segmented publishing is.

Publishing houses range from small regional or literary presses that only publish ten or twenty books per year to the giant behemoths, such as HarperCollins or Penguin Random House, with their dozens of imprints. Or, from a small university press that specializes in a handful of subjects and, again, maybe only publishes ten books per year, to the massive scholarly presses like Oxford UP or Palgrave MacMillan. There is also now the distinction between traditional publishers, who buy book rights, and hybrid publishers, who give authors both more responsibility and more control. Self-publishing is also an increasingly viable option.

Some publishers manage production in-house and want to be in direct communication with their freelancers while other publishers prefer to make indexing the author’s responsibility and/or work through third-party production companies. Some publishers prefer embedded indexes while others want a separate back-of-the-book index. Some publishers care about the quality of their books and are willing to pay their freelancers a fair price while other publishers only seem to care about volume and spending as little as they can. 

Then, of course, there are the countless subjects that books are published in. Some publishers are very specialized, while others—especially large publishers—publish across a wide range of subjects.

What this means for you, as a freelance indexer (or editor, or designer, or project manager), is that the type of work you get, the type of clients you work with, and possibly even your income, can vary considerably depending on how you position yourself within these submarkets. 

Do you want to exclusively write embedded indexes? You can do that, and probably receive more offers for work than you can accept. Do you want to specialize in science and engineering texts? You can do that too. Work only with authors? Or only with publishers? You can market yourself to get those results. 

Being a freelancer within an industry as vast as publishing is both an advantage and a challenge.

The advantage is that you can’t possibly work for everyone. This gives you the freedom to pick and choose. Be competitive by choosing a segment or two that is interesting to you and that other indexers are maybe less active in. Only market towards the clients you want to work with and ignore the rest. Find a way to differentiate yourself.

The challenge is that it can be difficult to break into a niche. It takes time to build a reputation and for your name to be passed around word-of-mouth. It can be difficult to identity and contact the gatekeepers who hire or refer freelancers. I am currently trying to shift towards indexing more Asian studies and religious studies books, and even I am finding that to be a slow process. It can also be a challenge to know which niches to pursue.

But even if you experiment with a few niches to see which sticks (which is certainly fair to do as you get started), I still encourage you to try and narrow your focus. It is easier to build expertise in a subset of subjects or with a subset of clients than to be an expert at everything. And while it takes time to break in, once established I think you will find that you have more than enough work.

As you think about which niches to pursue and how to differentiate yourself, consider some of these questions:

  • What subjects do you enjoy? What subjects do you already have some expertise in?
  • Do you have a preference for trade books or scholarly books? What about other areas, such as journals, databases, and websites?
  • Do you enjoy embedded indexing? Are you willing to learn?
  • Do you prefer working with authors or publishers?
  • How much do you want to earn? Which clients are more likely to pay what you want?
  • How many projects do you want per month or per year?

Many indexers, including myself, work within a few niches. Having variety is both an insurance policy against one niche or client disappearing, and switching back and forth between different subjects or types of projects can also be more enjoyable. But I think most long-time indexers would also agree that they don’t try to serve everyone. That is simply too much to ask for one person.

Have a focus, or two or three. Become a recognized expert in those areas. That will serve you better in the long run. To be different is to be competitive. 

Article
September 9, 2019
0 comment
by Stephen

How to Set Prices that Sell and Earn Profit

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 a paycheque. Over time, I realized that different clients were willing to pay different amounts and that other indexers charged differently—some more, some less—than I did. Clearly other people had their own opinions for what was possible and appropriate.

More recently, I have noticed pricing come up a number of times on some of the indexing email lists. One common theme is uncertainty over what prices to set—a position that all freelancers have probably been in at some point. Among more experienced indexers, there seems to be some anxiety about prices falling, as book production by some publishers is outsourced to third-party companies, often overseas. There is also a sense that we, as freelancers, have little control over prices, as in if we do not accept the prices offered, the client will walk. 

I disagree with this sense that we as freelancers lack agency and control over pricing. I agree that we cannot compel clients to pay a certain amount and that clients do have the right to walk, if they wish. However, to say that we have little control is to cede too much control to customers. I believe that we do have a measure of control and agency, and that this issue of price has two dimensions. The first is the actual prices that we set for our services and products. The second is the customers that we engage with, the ones who are paying us for our work. 

Know Your Customers

To address the second dimension first, obviously it is a problem if our customers are not paying the price that we want or need in order to make a living. What seems to be forgotten or not mentioned is that clients vary greatly from one to another, including what they are willing and able to pay. What a small trade press is willing to pay for an index may well be different from what a large trade press is willing to pay, which may be different from a university press, which may be different from a book packager, which may be different from an author paying out of pocket, which may be different from an author paying with a university grant, which may be different from a client in New York, which may be different from a client in rural Arkansas, which may be different from a client in Tokyo, which may be different from a client who is a single parent, which may be different from a client who is a pensioner, which may be different from a client who is the CEO of a business. 

So one consideration, if current clients are not meeting your financial needs, is to change clients. This can be difficult, but I believe that it is possible. Indeed, I believe that one of the advantage we have as small businesses is the ability to pick and choose who we work with, as we simply do not have the time and resources to work with everyone. If you find that prices are low in one segment of the publishing market, then find other segments that pay better. The publishing industry is not static or uniform, nor do you have to serve all segments.

Value-based Pricing

The other part of pricing, as mentioned, is the prices themselves. I do not have a background in business or pricing either, so I decided to do some reading and have so far found and read the book The 1% Windfall: How Successful Companies Use Price to Profit and Grow, by Rafi Mohammed (HarperCollins, 2010). I don’t claim to be an expert, but I did learn a few things which I think are applicable to our work as freelancers. 

First, let’s look at a traditional approach to pricing, which is what I recall being told when I asked around for advice when I first started freelancing. This approach is to figure out living and business expenses, and then charge enough to cover expenses plus a little extra. As Mohammed writes, a lot of large companies approach pricing this way too. The downside is that this approach can miss out on a lot of potential profit. For example, I may need to charge $40 per hour to cover expenses, but what if my client is actually willing to pay $60 per hour? This approach also implies that competitive advantage is primarily a matter of who has the lowest price, which means that whoever has the lowest cost of living or business—who can therefore afford to charge the least—wins. But again, this can lead to the person with the lowest price missing out on profits as not all clients are motivated by the lowest price. What this approach fails to consider is what it is the customer actually values.

Mohammed calls this focus on the customer value-based pricing. While earning enough to cover expenses is certainly important, I suspect that most clients don’t actually care all that much about our expenses. So in value-based pricing, the goal is to understand what the customer finds important in our service or product, and then to position our service or product to meet those values, with a price to match. The question about price switches from, how much do I need to make, to, how much is the customer willing to pay?

In addition to value-based pricing, Mohammed also discusses fifty different pricing strategies. I was also surprised at the variety. They are not all applicable for every business, and Mohammed’s suggestion is to find the handful or more that work for you. These strategies are divided into three broad categories—pick-a-plan, versioning, and differential pricing. These all have different goals, ranging from attracting new customers to setting premium prices, but collectively their purpose is to appeal to a wide variety of customers, who will each value your service or product in different ways. The idea is that by employing multiple strategies, you will appeal to different segments of the market, both higher and lower, resulting in a broader client base and likely more profit. 

As I was reading, some of the strategies stood out to me as possibly applicable for indexing. Some of them, I realized, I already use, though probably not as well or intentionally as I could be. (You may recognize some of them too.) So below are some ideas and comments on a few of the different methods. I make no guarantees as to their effectiveness, nor have I personally tried them all. This is just me brainstorming in public. Feel free to try some of these yourself and let me know how it goes. 

  • Bundle indexing with other services, if you offer them. I sometimes do this with proofreading. It saves the client from having to find and coordinate with another freelancer, I get more income from the project, and the indexing is usually a bit easier because I have already read the book while proofreading. Because of the time saved, I may even give a small discount.
  • Offer a flat fee. I remember Enid Zafran talking about this at the ISC/SCI conference this summer. A flat fee offers peace of mind to the client because it removes the uncertainty and trouble of having to calculate page rates or waiting for the proofs to be ready. Instead, do that work for the client and give them a single number.
  • Offer to negotiate with the client to find a price that is mutually acceptable. I sometimes do this as well, and I really appreciate it when clients are willing to tell me what their budget is or if my initial quote is too high because that allows me to reconsider my offer. Maybe the project is still worth my while if I charge $100 less, for example.
  • Offer different versions at different price points. I think the trick with this is being able to clearly articulate, and then deliver on, what the different versions of the index will look like, and how each version still contains value. A price-conscious client will be still be happy with the cheaper and lower quality index, while the client who values quality or who has deeper pockets may be willing to pay the premium price. 
  • Offer priority indexing for a higher fee, or, conversely, a discount for being willing to wait. I think that rush fees are similar to this, which some indexers already charge. But not all clients are in a hurry, so some might be attracted by a discount where you fit their index in around other, more urgent, projects.
  • Offer a financing plan, perhaps by splitting payment into two or more chunks. This might work for the client who wants the index but who does not have enough cash on hand. 
  • Offer differential pricing based on client type or characteristics. This could work for either corporations or individual authors. Maybe clients who live in a big, expensive city, will be willing to pay more, while a senior citizen may appreciate a discount to afford an index on their pension. The variations can be endless, but if you can gain some insight into your potential client by looking for identifiable characteristics, you might be able to gauge how much they will be willing to pay.
  • Offer periodic discounts or promotions, which could include the client paying an amount upfront to lock in the price for a future project. This may work best if you have a large enough client base to do a mass email or marketing blitz. 
  • Guarantee prices for a fixed period of time. This could work with regular clients, and would eliminate the need to negotiate each time a project comes along, saving you both time. 
  • Incorporate a success fee. This would involve charging an initial base price plus a bonus if the index meets a set standard. The hard part would be establishing the standard and evaluation method, but this might work for clients who are unsure if they want to take a risk on you. 

By this point you may be thinking, “Those are interesting (or terrible) ideas, but I just don’t need that many pricing strategies. How am I supposed to keep track of them all?” I agree that what I have listed here is probably more than is necessary for a single business. I do not plan on using all of them either. The point, though, is that we can be creative with how we price, and that different clients will respond to different strategies. A one-size-fits-all pricing strategy is a strategy for missed opportunities.

Setting Your Prices

To bring all of these ideas together, I want to suggest five steps for setting prices, which is a process I will be doing myself. 

  1. Write a value statement. This is an exercise that Mohammed suggests in which you describe, in concrete detail, the value that your service or product provides. It is easy for conversations about price to be awkward, and I know I can feel embarrassed about making a profit, even though I obviously need an income to live on. But Mohammed suggests that a lot of this awkwardness can disappear if we can understand and articulate the value that we are offering. This knowledge can also make us more effective negotiators and defenders of our prices, because we understand the basis on which they are set. 
  2. Analyze your clients. What do they value? Why are they coming to you, or more importantly, coming back to you? Why are they turning you down for alternatives? What are their next-best alternatives, and what value do you offer in comparison? You can also analyze potential clients that you might want to attract or reach out to. 
  3. Analyze your prices. Based on what you know of your clients and of the value you provide, are your prices accurate? Should prices be higher? Lower? It is important to note that lower prices are not necessarily bad, as they can attract a different segment of the market, which could fill in gaps between higher priced projects or broaden your client base. You just need to make sure that those lower priced projects are still profitable and are not preventing you from accepting higher priced projects.
  4. Develop a pricing strategy. As discussed, pricing can be as dynamic and varied as clients. Think through the clients you have or want, think about what pricing strategies may be attractive for them, select a handful, and see what works. 
  5. Periodically review your prices and methods. Clients, the publishing industry, and the economy all change over time. To keep pace and stay profitable, you may at times need to change your prices and your clients. This is true for all businesses. So be willing to assess and reflect, and make changes as needed.

When it comes to price and who you work with, you do have a measure of control. It may take some work finding the right clients and determining the right prices, but it is possible to be a profitable indexer and freelancer.

Article
May 14, 2018
2 comments
by Stephen

Strategic and Persistent Marketing

Marketing is probably the one area that most stumps freelancers. Unless the skill you are offering is that of marketing consultant, this is not what you trained for. The thought of cold-calling reduces your voice to a stuttering whisper. If you are new to freelancing, you might also be wracked with insecurity about your qualifications. Are you good enough for someone to hire?

Let’s say that yes, you are good enough to hire. If you have undergone training, have made opportunities to practice your craft, and gotten feedback from others, then you are already a big step ahead of the amateurs. You will continue to learn as you work, but for now, yes, you are good enough to open for business.

So, back to the question: how do we market ourselves?

The actual how is difficult to answer. So much depends on what you are comfortable doing, and what will most effectively reach your target clients. I once read an article in an indexing resource titled something like “A Hundred Ways to Market Yourself.” (I wish I could find that article again.) Some of the ways given were very practical and others were a bit goofy, but the point was, marketing is basically getting your name and services in front of the right people, however that happens. 

I like to think about marketing as forming relationships and connections with the right people. In a niche industry like indexing, it is only a small subset of people who actually need to hire an indexer. Trying to sell my services to the marketing team may lead to a referral to the managing editor, who is the person I actually need to be talking to, but it won’t be the most effective use of my effort. So one of the first considerations is, who do I actually need to talk to? 

To help narrow down the possibilities, answer these questions:

  • What is your market? There are hundreds of publishers out there, and who knows how many thousands of authors, not to mention journals and possibly corporations and government entities who could use an indexer. Unless you plan on starting a large indexing company, working across the whole field, you can’t possibly serve them all. So what kind of clients do you want to work with? Do you want to work with authors or publishers? Do you have a preference between trade, scholarly, or a speciality subject? Do you want to work with clients within a certain geographical area? Your market can overlap any or all of these areas. You can also choose to target different markets as your business grows. But to provide focus, pick a market and focus on that for now. 
  • Who, within your chosen market, are the gatekeepers to paid work? As I mentioned above, marketing is about connecting with the right people. Everyone else you can fairly safely ignore. I say fairly safely because even someone not directly connected to indexing might be able to refer you to work, so by all means make it widely known that you are open for business. That knowledge might just percolate and eventually turn into a job. But for more immediate results, find the gatekeepers. In a publishing house, this will probably be the managing or production editor. If you are not sure who is responsible for hiring indexers, ask. Finding the people who need indexers will take some time and research, and it is well worth the effort. When you do make your pitch, you do not want to waste your time or theirs talking to the wrong person. 

Once you have identified who to contact, these are a few points to consider as you plan your marketing strategy.

  • Choose a marketing method. There are many ways to approach a potential client. I think if done rightly, there are no wrong ways. As mentioned, the main factors are, is it a way that you are comfortable with, and will it effectively reach the client. Personally, I prefer to make contact by email or to network at conferences and other events. I have also tried cold-calling, and once I arranged to meet a managing editor for coffee and tour their office, which I would definitely do again if I moved to a new city and wanted to meet the local publishers. I once heard a presentation from an indexer who conducted an extensive and successful snail mail campaign, and I’ve talked to an indexer who found work on business books through Google ads. Pick two or three ways that you are comfortable with and given them a try. If the first try does not succeed, try again. People will not always reply, so try several times to see if a method is effective or not. If a method is not effective, try something else. The point of choosing a method is to provide focus. It is not to lock you into a method forever. 
  • Show that you understand your potential client’s needs. I think it can be easy to assume that a publisher and an indexer are an obvious match. It can be tiresome to personalize forty emails. But while parts of that email can be the same across all forty, it is still important to show that you know something about the books or the needs of that particular client. Show that this is not just another email that you are dashing off, but that you have put thought into this effort to connect.
  • Talk about yourself with specific details. The flip side about being knowledgable about the client is being specific about your own abilities and accomplishments. If you haven’t yet landed your first project, then mention your training and any academic or employment experience which would be relevant to the books at hand. You can also mention indexes that you have written for practice or as a volunteer. If you have been hired for a few projects, then mention those, including the publishers. If you have a testimonial, put that in. You do not want to send a bland, generic message. Let the client know that you are a real person with experience and knowledge of the industry and the task. 
  • Pay attention to local and new publishers. I wonder if this is an area that some indexers overlook, because it seems like local or new publishers can’t possibly provide enough work. That is most likely true, but local publishers can still be a great starting point. You can use projects from smaller clients to show larger clients what you are capable of. And, I think it can sometimes be easier to get work from local clients. One managing editor told me that she prefers to hire local, even though she knows that with the internet, there is no rational basis for that preference. With someone local, you can also meet them in person, which, if you make a good impression, could be much more effective than an email or phone call. As for a new publisher, becoming their first freelance indexer could help ensure a steady stream of work into the future. So keep your eyes and ears open for changes in the publishing scene so you can respond quickly to new opportunities. 
  • Don’t despise the small clients. This relates to what I wrote last week about having a diverse client base. A small or medium sized publisher will not be able to provide full-time work, but a handful of small publishers might. So don’t be afraid to market to smaller potential clients. It is not a waste of time. 

By this point, I don’t blame you if you are wondering if we are done yet. There is a lot to consider. But take a deep breathe—I am almost done.  Just a few more big-picture points to consider.

  • Think long term. You may meet the perfect managing editor who can send you work, but they don’t need you yet. Indexing is just one part of the book production process, and maybe when you make contact, they don’t have any books at that stage. Or perhaps they already work with other indexers, and the editor is willing to give you a try but you have to wait until the other indexers are not available. It can sometimes take months or even years for a contact to actually send you work. To give an extreme example, I was recently hired, for the first time, by someone I first met at a networking event four or five years ago. She still remembered me, and when someone else recently recommended me to her, she decided that it was finally time to get in contact with a job. Thankfully the next longest span for me between first contact and a project was about a year, and with most other clients it was a matter of within a few months. But still, marketing may not yield immediate results. So do not be discouraged if work is slow to come. Keep trying, follow-up, and the work will eventually come. 
  • Remember that marketing is a numbers game. The more people you contact, the better the odds that at least some of them will reply with work. If you contact ten publishers, expect that maybe one or two will get back to you. If you factor in time, maybe a couple more will eventually respond as well. It can be discouraging to put in all that work to only receive silence. This is fairly common, unfortunately. So within your chosen market, and having done your research to identify the gatekeepers and how you can meet their needs, reach out to as many potential clients as you can.
  • Network. Like marketing, this is another of those dreaded words for freelancers, especially if you are an introvert and part of your motivation for freelancing is because you want to work at home by yourself. What does it mean to network? Like marketing, it is about making connections with the people who need you or who can refer you onwards. I don’t enjoy getting together with strangers either, but a lot of it is, honestly, just showing up and saying hello. Surprisingly, this is now one of my preferred methods. Networking does get easier with practice, especially if you can return to the same event two or three times. The first time may be awkward, but by the second or third visit, people will start to recognize you, and you them. 

Okay, you can breathe again. Thank you for staying with me to the end. 

Marketing is intimidating, but with a focused plan it is possible. You can gain clients and launch your freelance career. Be persistent, be strategic, and the work will eventually come.

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
May 7, 2018
0 comment
by Stephen

The Value of a Diverse Client Base

One of the most daunting questions to face a new indexer is, where does the work come from? How do I land my first client? That experienced indexer over there has lots of work and it looks like they don’t even market. How does that happen?

I will write about marketing next week (I promise). Suffice to say for now that it is possible to get to a point where marketing can take a back seat, though I think one should always keep an eye out for new opportunities. The publishing scene is too dynamic to become complacent. 

Instead, today I want to write about the value of building a diverse client base. Marketing will certainly help you gain clients, but I believe that long-term sustainability as a freelancer comes from gaining and retaining at least a handful of regular clients. You don’t want to have only one or two clients, no matter how much work they provide, nor do you want to have a revolving door of clients who never contact you again. 

Why is this so? I have observed three reasons, from my own experience and from talking to other freelancers.

  1. Your mix of clients will change over time. Even if you are the world’s best indexer, your clients will change over time. Having one or two clients that provide all the work you need may be awesome in the short term, and it will also be disastrous should that client suddenly disappear. Changes in your client base is not a reflection of you. Instead, it is the reality of a changing publishing scene. In the last few years, I’ve had my very first client shut down and absorbed by a larger press. Another university press, which for a while was providing me with a fair chunk of my work, was downsized by its university as a cost-saving measure. An editor at a third press, who also provided me with a lot of work over a couple of years, decided to herself freelance. I still get the occasional project from the new editor, but nowhere near the volume of work I used to get. If any one of these had been my only or primary client, my schedule and income would have taken a major hit. As it was, though I was sad to lose those books and contacts, work from other clients filled in the gaps. I currently have about a dozen clients who regularly or occasionally send me work, and somehow it all balances out. 
  2. Because many potential clients are small. I live and work in Canada, and as author Eve Silver once told me, in a workshop, there are no big publishers in Canada. Not like there are big publishers in New York or London. I used to worry about this, thinking that I needed to find an in with the big name publishers so that I would have a guaranteed stream of work, or so that I could index New York Times bestsellers. I don’t worry about that anymore. Someone has to index those books, and if that person is you, congratulations! But still, as mentioned above, I would caution about relying too much on a single big publisher for work. I also want to suggest that if you are in a market full of small to mid-sized publishers, it is still possible to build a business. Most of my clients only send me a handful of books per year, because that is all they produce, but several handfuls add up quickly. If this is the kind of market you find yourself in, work with it. 
  3. So you don’t have to work on the same thing all the time. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy variety in my work. If my brain is getting tired wrestling with a scholarly text, a light trade book can be refreshing. If I am getting tired of economics, indexing a book about nature is a nice change of pace. This reason is more about personal enjoyment than the realities of publishing, but still, you will probably be more successful if you are enjoying your work. You may not always get work from the clients you want, but you should certainly pursue work that you will enjoy.

What I have written here assumes that your clients will mostly be publishers, book packagers, or other organizations. These are clients who can send you regular, repeat work. An alternative approach is to work primarily with individual authors, who can recommend you to their friends and colleagues, which is another way to build your client base and get additional work. A downside with authors is that they often have long gaps between projects, so you will probably have to wait at least a year before an author hires you again. This is why I have chosen to focus on developing relationships with publishers, who can either hire me directly or recommend me to their authors. But both approaches are possible and can lead to full-time work.

You may be wondering at this point, how am I going to get five or ten clients if I don’t even have one? Having to market is daunting enough. Now I have to up my goal for the number of clients I need? Well, yes and no. Keep working on finding that first client. Don’t worry about finding others for now. And when you get hired for that first job, celebrate and then get to work. Just keep it in the back of your mind that long-term one client will not be enough. You will want to find more. In my first few years as a freelancer, it was my goal to add each year at least one new regular client. Often I would end up with two or three new clients, and some years, as I mentioned, I would also lose a client or two. Building a diverse client base takes time. It is also well worth the investment.

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
April 30, 2018
0 comment
by Stephen

The Benefits and Practice of Practice

So you have decided to be an indexer. Maybe you have taken a course to learn how to index, and perhaps you have started to build your bridge so that you can transition to full-time freelance indexing. But still, a question remains (well, probably several questions, but we’ll get to the others later). How do you become good at indexing?

I have heard some new indexers talk about the course which they have taken as being a good starting point, but they are still not confident in their indexing abilities. They still have questions about how to construct a index, or about what terms to include, or about when subheadings are necessary and how to phrase the subheadings. This is an astute observation on the part of the new indexer, and I think it reveal the importance of practice.

About ten years ago, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea of needing to put in 10,000 hours of practice in order to achieve excellence. That claim is much disputed (more about that, and practice, here), and I do not think that you need to put in 10,000 hours to become an excellent indexer. Practice, though, is still important, especially deliberate, focused practice, in which you are able to be aware of what you are creating, and to find ways to improve. This ties nicely into the idea of life-long learning and professional development. I still try to improve my craft, even though I have been indexing for about seven years now, and have written around 200 indexes. I believe that I can get better.

The good news from this is that you do not need to be an expert to start freelancing. You need to be good enough so that you can do a decent job. You do, after all, want the client to hire you again or to recommend you to others. But practice is, essentially, deliberate doing, and once you have achieved a certain level of competency, you can practice as you work. 

But still, how to practice? Especially if you are at the start of your freelance career and no one has hired you yet. Perhaps you are like the new indexers I have talked to who have completed training, but are not yet confident in their abilities. There still are ways that you can practice. Practicing now, before your first paid job, will solidify your skills, give you confidence for when you do land that first job, and might also give you a portfolio which you can use to market yourself.

Here are a few suggestions for how to practice.

  • Critique published indexes. Examine the indexes that are already on your bookshelf, visit the library, or browse indexes on Amazon using the Look Inside function. What does the index do well? What is done poorly? Is there anything unique about the index? Any rules broken? Why does it work or not work? Try to critique both poorly written indexes and excellent indexes. What differentiates the two? Look at several indexes from within the same subject or genre. What makes the good ones good? This is actually how I learned how to index. I had a short-term work placement with a university press, and one day I was handed an index, the press’ indexing guidelines, and the Chicago Manual of Style chapter on indexing. My job was to figure out if the index was ready for publication, and, if it was not, to fix it. After doing this several times, I was ready to try writing my first index.
  • Find a book or report and index it. This can be a book off of your shelf or a PDF pulled from the internet. It can already have an index or you could be writing its first index ever. The point is that you are writing an index. No one is paying you for it, but you can use the resulting index in your portfolio.
  • Volunteer your indexing services for a friend or local society. I know that as professionals, paid work is what we strive for, and I do not want to advocate doing too much for free. However, if you are trying to build confidence, your skills, and/or a portfolio, and you know of a person or group that could use an indexer, volunteering to write an index might be a win-win situation for one or two projects. Be clear on your reasons for taking on the project, and be clear with the client on the parameters of the project, and this could be a good stepping stone towards your freelance career.
  • Ask for feedback from other indexers. And, see if you can critique other indexers’ works-in-progress. This can be a great way to both gain feedback and see what others do. If you are interested in this, there is an email group, Index Peer Reviewers, for this very purpose.

Practicing can feel like a chore, and it can feel disconnected from what you really want to do, which is to be a professional freelance indexer. But if you keep that goal in mind, and take the time now to practice, either while waiting for that first paid job to arrive or in anticipation of launching your freelance career, I think you will find that you will have greater confidence in your abilities, and be working at a higher level, which will help you find success sooner as a freelancer. So pick an approach and start practicing today.

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal. 

Article
April 23, 2018
0 comment
by Stephen

Freelance Career Launch Series: Building a Bridge

So you want to be an freelance indexer. The idea of being paid to read is alluring, or you need a more flexible job that will fit around the rest of your life, or you just want to work from home. Whatever your reasons, welcome!

But how, you ask, do I become a freelance indexer? Or a freelance anything? Where does the work actually come from? Is there enough work out there for me, and for everyone else who is also freelancing?

The answer is yes, I do believe that there is enough work out there for all who want to freelance. And yes, initially finding that work will probably be difficult. It will take effort to connect with the people who need your services, and it may take time before those people are ready to hire you. I have heard it said, and found this true for myself, that it takes about three years to build up a business to the point where you are consistently working full-time. Freelancing is not a quick fix for a sudden financial crunch. Successful freelancing is a long-term endeavour.

But still, how do you start? Because we all have to start from somewhere.

In his book The Art of Work, Jeff Goins discusses the concept of building a bridge to achieve your goals. In this way of thinking, you work systematically towards your goal instead of taking a drastic leap. You do not need to do everything at once to achieve your dream. Instead, you are always asking yourself, what can I do next? In freelance terms, this likely means preparing to freelance prior to quitting your previous job. It means that you have certain conditions in place that give you the confidence to freelance, because you have already done some of the work, and what you have done leads naturally to the next phase.

For me, I was confident about quitting my in-house publishing job and starting to freelance because I had learned how to index while working in-house, I already had some guaranteed work from previous employers, and I had some money saved which I could live off of for the first few months. This was my bridge that allowed me to build a freelance business. Was it enough to provide me with full-time work when I first started to freelance? No, I was only working part-time, at best, in my first year as a freelancer. But I had enough to pay the bills, and I had enough to build upon, which was what I needed.

So what can you do to build your bridge? We all start from different places, so your bridge may look different from mine. Here are a few suggestions, though, for where to start. How many of these you need is up to you.

  • Learn how to index. You can take a course, you can teach yourself, or you can learn while working in-house for someone else. But your first freelance job, working under a deadline, is not the best time to learn. 
  • Moonlight. If you have a full-time job, start freelancing part-time on the side. This will give you experience and you can start to build your client base. When you do decide to freelance full-time, you will probably have to expand your client base, but that should be easy compared to starting from scratch.
  • Secure promises for work. Do you have an employer or previous employers who can send you work when you switch to freelancing? Do you know of other potential sources of work? Talk to them now. The best piece of advice I received when I started is to have some work already lined up. This alleviates the financial stress of not knowing how you are going to pay your bills in those first months. It also gives you a portfolio right from the start that you can show to other potential clients.
  • Build a financial cushion. As mentioned in the previous point, stressing out about how to pay your bills is not fun, and is not conducive to the mental and emotional space needed to build your business. Also keep in mind that clients usually pay after the job is completed, so even if you do have work lined up for when you start freelancing, it will probably still be a couple of months before you see that money. If you can, save some money to live on for those first few lean months. 
  • Network. Even if your previous employer can send you work, you will likely need a larger client base than that. Are there local publishers that you can contact and ask to visit their offices or meet for coffee? Are there local editor and author groups that you can join or visit? Are there relevant conferences that you can attend? Can you get to know other indexers? Finding work is about connecting with the right people. Start building those relationships now, so that you are not completely isolated when you start to freelance. 
  • Create a plan. What kind of indexing do you want to do? How much money do you need to make? How do you define full-time? How are you doing to market yourself? Where are you physically going to do the work? You do not have to implement this plan before you start to freelance, and the plan will probably change over time as you gain experience and as circumstances change, but having some amount of plan will help tell you what the next steps are, and will help to give you a sense of momentum.

Starting your own business is never going to be easy. It will always carry some risk. I do believe, however, that it is possible to manage the level of difficulty. If you can think of launching a business as a series of smaller steps, some of which can be done prior to launch, you will be setting yourself up for a greater chance at success, and an easier, less stressful beginning. That is what building your bridge is about.

If you have already launched your freelancing business, what steps did you take to ensure success?

The Freelance Career Launch Series is a set of posts about how to start your freelance career. The focus will be on indexing, because that is what I do, but the principles are universal.