Article
June 8, 2024
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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
October 25, 2023
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by Stephen

Persevering Through the Dip

It’s tough becoming established as a freelancer.

In my last two posts, I’ve written about marketing and money. Today I want to acknowledge that it also takes time to become established as a freelancer. And that time can feel painfully slow and leave you wondering if you are ever going to succeed.

The time and space on the way to being established can be described as the Dip. This is a concept I learned from Seth Godin, from his book The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (And When to Stick). The book is indeed little, and I highly recommend it.

The idea is that there is always a Dip on the way to mastery and success. The Dip comes after the fun and excitement of learning a new skill or beginning a new venture. The Dip is the long slog towards success, wondering if anyone will hire you, wondering if your skills are good enough, wondering if your business is a failure. 

When it comes to indexing, I think the Dip can include the struggle to market and find work.  It is discouraging when you don’t know who to contact, no one seems to want to hire you, or when there are large gaps in your schedule between projects. The Dip can also include struggling to improve your skills. It takes practice to gain proficiency. If you are still struggling after the fifth or tenth index, doubt can creep in on whether you will ever get the hang of this. The Dip can also involve a project or client relationship blowing up in your face. Do you really have what it takes to run a business? Do you dare try again and accept a new project?

I want to assure you that yes, it is possible to get through the Dip. I also want to acknowledge that getting established is hard. I’ve often heard the rule of thumb that it takes about three years to become established as a freelancer. That was true for me. I noticed that the number of queries I was fielding seemed to pop in my third year, as did my income and the number of indexes I wrote. Though I also know other indexers who have found full-time work sooner, and others who are in the Dip for longer. The Dip varies from person to person, though everyone faces it one way or another. 

Godin writes that when in the Dip, you are faced with two choices. Do you quit, or do you persevere?

Quitting isn’t always bad. I knew an indexer, who started about the same time I did, who later quit indexing to focus on being an editor. They realized that they were better at editing, earned more from editing, and found editing more enjoyable, and so it made sense for them to quit indexing. Similarly, a few years ago I made the decision to quit proofreading, as indexing is a better fit for me. If indexing is not a good fit for you, or if freelancing is not meeting your needs and goals, then quitting might be the right decision. Quitting strategically is not failure. What I don’t want you to do is to quit because the Dip just feels too hard.

The trick to getting through the Dip is to keep moving. As Godin writes, “The Dip is flexible. It responds to the effort you put into it.” Keep practicing your skills and accepting new projects, knowing that each index is an opportunity to learn and improve. Keep marketing, reaching out to authors and publishers who might want to hire you. You never know who is going to write back. Keep networking with other indexers and editors, attending conferences and participating in online events and forums. You may gain a referral or advice for a sticky problem, or at least feel less lonely in the profession. Move through the Dip rather than being stuck at the bottom.

Lastly, be realistic about the fact that the Dip exists and that you may be in it. Whether it takes a year or three or more to get out of the Dip, it will be a stressful time, with a lot of uncertainty and doubt. It will take a lot of work to get out of the Dip. And that’s okay too, because the work you do now is laying the foundation for your future success.

It is possible to succeed as a freelance indexer. You can build the business that you desire. I believe that you can do it.

Article
September 27, 2023
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by Stephen

Marketing and Building a Client Base, My Two Golden Rules

Marketing is tough. It may be the most fear-inducing part of being a freelancer. Especially if you are an introvert, like most indexers are. How do you find publishers and authors with books that need indexing? How do authors and publishers find you?

Publishing is a vast, global industry.

Where do you start?

It can feel overwhelming and paralyzing.

I also want to acknowledge that you may not have previously worked in publishing, so the inner workings of the publishing world may be even more opaque.

So, let’s start with demystifying publishing. Once you understand the industry a little better, the way forward with marketing may be clearer.

I’m going to share with you my top two rules, or insights, which have made the biggest difference for me when marketing and building my client base, and end with some additional tips.

Rule #1: You Don’t Need to Serve Everyone

It is impossible for you to serve everyone.

According to these statistics published last year by Wordsrated, approximately 3.52 million nonfiction books are published annually, worldwide. The proportion of English-language titles will be smaller, but still at least in the hundreds of thousands. How many of those books do you think you can index?

Personally, I index about 65 books per year. Your mileage may vary. I also turn down maybe another 20-30 books, mainly because I don’t have room in my schedule.

Another angle to consider is that the publishing industry is not monolithic. Yes, there are the Big Five trade publishers in New York and a few massive companies that dominate scholarly publishing. But many smaller companies also exist which publish excellent books. Publishing is also broken up by subject matter, with almost all presses and imprints focusing on different areas.

From a marketing standpoint, I found this realization to be incredibly freeing. Instead of being overwhelmed by the sheer number of publishers I could potentially contact, there are instead whole swaths of the industry that I can safely ignore. Don’t index science and engineering books? Great! I can cross all those publishers off of my list. Can’t find contact information for the editors at Penguin Random House? I’ll cross them off my list too. That still leaves many possibilities.

As you think about marketing, think about who you want to work with (or what kind of books you want to index) and also who you do not want to work with (or what kind of books you want to avoid). It can be scary to declare a niche, for fear of missing out on work. But having a few markets or topics that you focus on can have at least three benefits. One, it makes marketing less overwhelming because you now have a more manageable number of potential clients to contact. Two, it helps to clearly define who you are in the eyes of potential clients. Clients want to know that you are a good fit for their book, and one way to build that confidence is to give clients something specific about your experience and expertise. And three, it is nice to avoid having to repeatedly say no to projects which are clearly not a good fit. Be clear up front, and the people who do contact you are more likely to be of interest.

Rule #2: Build a Diverse Client Base

My second rule may seem to contradict my first rule. After telling you that you can ignore whole sectors of publishing, now I want you to go wide?

It is going wide enough to provide steady work. I don’t want you to be reliant on one or two clients for all of your work. I have worked with publishers who have been shut down or downsized. I have also lost work when editors I worked with left the company and my name wasn’t passed on to their successors (or maybe their successors already had their own preferred indexers). As wonderful as that first steady client may be, keep looking.

However, there is probably also a limit to how many clients you can reasonably handle. For myself, most of my work comes from the same dozen or so publishers, either being hired directly or from referrals from the in-house editors. Some publishers only send me one or two books per year. Others send me four or five, or even upwards of ten. All together, it adds up to a full schedule. If I lose a client, I find there are usually enough offers from other clients to compensate. New publishers also occasionally find me – or I find them – and get added to this mix.

Even if I worked for a truly large publisher who was willing and able to fill my schedule, I’d feel more secure with a diverse client base. Keeping my first rule in mind, I don’t need or want to work with everyone. I don’t even work with all of the publishers within my niches. But I still want that happy medium of work coming in from multiple sources.

Additional Marketing Tips

Building upon these two rules, here are some additional tips for marketing and finding indexing work.

  • Look beyond New York and the Big Five. I’m sure someone indexes for the likes of HarperCollins and Macmillan, but those publishers can also be hard to reach. There are many smaller publishers outside of New York, which in my experience, can be easier to contact. Some editors also prefer to hire local. So, see if there are any publishers nearby, whether that means within your town or city, state or province, or region. Market yourself as a local indexer. If feasible, ask if you can stop by the publisher’s office to meet the managing editor. Attend local publishing or editing events to meet editors.
  • Don’t be afraid to contact smaller publishers. Even if they only send you one or two projects a year, projects from several such clients can add up.
  • Keep an eye out for new publishers. They may not yet have their stable of freelancers and may welcome you getting in touch.
  • Identify the gatekeepers. Indexing is a niche task, and even within a publishing company, it is usually only one or two people (or more, depending on the size of the press) who actually hire or refer indexers. Those are the people that you want to contact. They usually have job titles like managing or production editors, though in some cases, acquisition editors may also refer indexers to authors.
  • Identify and work your network. If you formerly worked in academia, tell all of those professors that you know, who are potential authors, that you are now an indexer. If you know someone in publishing, let them know as well. Attend local author, editing, and publishing events, and introduce yourself to people (which is scary, I know. But I’ve done it, and it can be a good way to meet people). Even if you feel disconnected from the publishing industry, tell everyone you know about your new career. Something will turn up.
  • Be specific. As I mentioned earlier, clients want to know that you are a good fit. Be specific when discussing your interests and experience. It is okay to mention books that you have indexed for practice.  Or, if you have been hired by one publisher, mention that when contacting a new publisher. Show why you are a good fit.
  • Be persistent and patient. Marketing is both a numbers game and a waiting game. Out of ten queries, you might get two or three responses. Or an editor might wait an entire year to get back to you (as happened once to me). Keep putting your name out there.

Most of this reflection has been aimed at marketing to publishers. That has been my primary marketing focus and it has worked for me. I kind of prefer working with publishers because, now that I have a good relationship with several, I don’t need to actively market anymore.

When I first started indexing, marketing directly to authors also felt completely overwhelming and unfathomable, and so I didn’t. However, I know some indexers, especially those with an academic background, who are able to successfully market to academic authors. Some indexers are also very good at asking for testimonials and referrals. So, it is also possible to market to authors and to primarily work with authors. As I discussed above, identify who you want to work with, what kind of books you want to index, and who you can access, and go from there.

Lastly, I want to acknowledge that marketing can be a slow process. It can take several months to find that first project. There may then be another gap until that second project, and then another year or two until your schedule is consistently full. That was my experience and the experience of many indexers I know. But it is absolutely possible to make those connections with authors and publishers and to find enough work to fill your schedule. Keep putting yourself out there. I believe that you can do it.

Article
September 9, 2019
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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. 

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October 3, 2016
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by Stephen

Decolonizing the Index: Indexing in Indigenous Studies

REDERMORRAJULY16colonial-problemIf you have indexed for long, you have probably been asked what areas you index in. You have probably also asked yourself this question when trying to market yourself more effectively. Is there a niche topic in which you can stand out?

Personally, I’ve had mixed results trying to market myself with specific subjects. It might be a foot in the door, but once I’m in I can end up being asked to index anything and everything. For example, an academic publisher who publishers in Asian studies and religious studies, two areas I am interested in, is also likely to publish in sociology and African studies, for example, and if they like me as an indexer I am just as likely to get any of the above or something else entirely. It really depends on what their next book is. So while there are particular areas in which I feel uniquely qualified or have a special interest in, I’m open to indexing almost anything within the social sciences and humanities. That seems to be as narrow as most of my clients are willing to pigeon-hole me. It might be different, though, for subjects such as law or medicine, which have their own dedicated publishers and conventions.

All that said, in this post I am going to briefly discuss a niche that I inadvertently discovered and have had opportunity to reflect on, most recently in The Indexer, the international journal of indexing, which is a wonderful publication and a must read if you are an indexer.

Indigenous studies is an area I first grappled with as an indexer when writing my award-winning index for the book Strange Visitors. I go into more detail about that book and winning the Purple Pen Award here. For now, as a recap, it was my first introduction to the contested language that so often surrounds Indigenous issues in North America, as well as the emotionally charged tensions that surrounds colonialism and the ways in which we tell these stories. I also found this topic difficult because I am myself a white settler. In the story of colonialism, I am the bad guy, to put it simply. How do I deal with that when indexing a book that is angry at people like me?

In other ways, however, is Indigenous studies really all that different from other disciplines? If Indigenous history, how is that different from other types of history? If Indigenous literature, how is that different from, say, Chinese literature? I think this is a good point to make: the type of content and how it is indexed may not be so different from other disciplines. What is different is how contested and emotionally charged the material can be, which includes my own personal involvement in the issues by virtue of living in a country in which colonialism and reconciliation are contemporary realities.

I was able to first explore these issues in a short article I wrote last year for Geez (Fall 2015, issue 39), a Canadian magazine which bills itself as “contemplative cultural resistance.” Then, earlier this year, Maureen MacGlashan asked me about writing something for The Indexer. Bouncing ideas back and forth, I mentioned the Geez article. Maureen liked it, asked to reprint it, and asked if I could expand my reflections, so The Indexer version (just published in vol. 34, no. 3, Sept. 2016, and also available online here) contains a postscript which is longer than the original article.

Now, I don’t want to claim that I am an expert just because I have some published thoughts on indexing in Indigenous studies. At the same time, I’m no longer a complete novice in the subject either. I think I can claim an edge when it comes to indexing Indigenous studies. Let’s call it, then, an edge in process. I hope to continue indexing in Indigenous studies and increasing my knowledge and effectiveness. I hope you have a chance to read my thoughts, in either Geez or The Indexer. If you do, perhaps send me a note or leave a comment below. I’d be glad to hear your thoughts on this subject as well.

And, for those of you curious, below is a list of Indigenous studies books I’ve indexed so far.

Teach, Learn, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures, edited by Deanna Reder and Linda M. Morra (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2016)

The Colonial Problem: An Indigenous Perspective on Crime and Injustice in Canada, by Lisa Monchalin (University of Toronto Press, 2016)

From Treaty Peoples to Treaty Nation: A Road Map For All Canadians, by Greg Poelzer and Ken S. Coates (UBC Press, 2015)

We Are Coming Home: Repatriation and the Restoration of Blackfoot Cultural Confidence, ed. by Gerald T. Conaty (AU Press, 2015)

You Will Wear a White Shirt: From the Northern Bush to the Halls of Power, by Nick Sibbeston (Douglas & McIntyre, 2015)

Strange Visitors: Documents in the History of Indigenous and Settler Relations in Canada from 1876, ed. by Keith D. Smith (University of Toronto Press, 2014)

Conversations With a Dead Man: The Legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott, by Mark Abley (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013)

We Are Born with the Songs Inside Us: Lives and Stories of First Nations People in British Columbia, by Katherine Palmer Gordon (Harbour Publishing, 2013)