If a client contacts you about a project and your schedule is already full, then take the initiative to tell the client what does work for you. Something like, “I’m afraid I’m not available at that time, but I can write the index if the due date can be extended by two weeks.”

I am often pleasantly surprised when the schedule proves more flexible than it initially appears. I would not have known unless I asked.

This tactic does not always work, of course. Sometimes schedules are firm and the client decides to find another indexer. But if I am interested in the project, it is always worth asking.

(Of course, some projects I am not interested in and am happy to let pass.)

It is important to remember that we, as freelancers, have agency. Simply responding to clients with a yes or no, without any further information, is letting the client control negotiations. So if a schedule or other detail does not work, make a counter-offer. Tell the client what does work. Give the client an opportunity to meet you partway. Now you are taking the initiative. The client has agency too and may reject your proposal, but at least you have spoken up for yourself and explored all options.

Similarly, if you see an upcoming gap in your schedule, contact past clients to see if they have any upcoming work. Let them know your availability. Assuming you’ve previously had a positive experience with the client and want to work with them again, contacting past clients can be one of the easiest ways to market yourself, because you already have an established rapport and track record. A short message puts you front of mind and may prompt them to take action if hiring an indexer has been on their to-do list.

Taking this a step further, schedule a regular, quarterly check-in with past clients. Say hi, let them know your upcoming availability and that you’d love to work with them on another project. Maybe include an article or other tidbit they may find interesting. Be a good and proactive partner, so that they don’t forget about you.

Being a freelancer can involve a lot of waiting for that next project and hoping that schedules align. But this waiting does not need to be passive. Remember that you have agency too. Make counter-offers. Proactively share when you are available. You may be surprised at what becomes possible. 

Today’s question is from Reed, who asks,

How do you handle providing samples of past indexes for potential clients?

Thank you, Reed. That is an excellent question.

My short answer, to be honest, is that I currently do not provide samples.

In the past, I would often refer clients to Amazon to view indexes I had written via the “Look Inside” feature. I would also link directly to Amazon from the portfolio on my website. I don’t often do this anymore because Amazon has become much more unreliable about making the index visible. This strategy can still work, but I would double-check that the index is still there before directing clients.

Now, I simply maintain a portfolio of recent projects on my website. I am occasionally asked for a list of similar books that I’ve indexed, to which I reply with a short list. Would it be better if I sent them an actual index or two? Possibly. But these requests do not happen very often.

I realize that samples can be more important for others, though. Especially for someone who is still building their business or if their business is primarily built on continually finding new clients (say, mostly working with one-off authors rather than repeat work from publishers). Samples can showcase your indexing skills and establish credibility. If you find yourself in this position, I definitely recommend having a few samples on hand.

Samples can either be from past client work or written specifically to be a sample. Past client work can make a stronger case because it is proof that someone else thought you good enough to hire, but a practice index can showcase your abilities equally well. You can also replace samples with better ones as you gain experience and your portfolio deepens.

If using an index that you’ve written for a previous client, I would ask for permission from the author and/or publisher. I don’t know if permission is legally necessary—that may depend on the contract you’ve signed, if any—but I think transparency can go a long way to building good will and to avoiding awkward questions later. Asking for permission also signals that you think the index is worth showcasing, and that may cause the client to themselves feel better about the index and about you as an indexer, and may make them more inclined to return as a repeat client. So be transparent. I think it unlikely that the client will say no. The worst that can happen is that you end up choosing a different index, from a different client, to use as a sample.

When selecting samples, I would aim to have a variety on hand, to represent the various types of books or subjects that I specialize in or want to write. While any sample is better than no sample, it is best if you can send the client a sample that is similar to their own book. 

Once I have permission for the samples, I would make them accessible. Post them to your website. When negotiating with potential clients, either point the client to your website or offer to send them a sample. Personally, I would not send unsolicited samples. Not all clients want them and I don’t want to come across as pushy. Better to give the client a choice.

Going beyond samples, consider creating case studies. This is something I’ve been challenged about recently and am experimenting with, though I haven’t yet finished one. By a case study, I mean taking an index and walking through your decision-making process. What were the challenges of this index? What decisions did you make to meet those challenges? Why these decisions compared to other options? Where a sample simply presents an index for viewing, a case study unpacks the work that went into the index, showcasing your expertise and judgment. A case study can be more work to put together, but can also be more valuable.

If you don’t yet have any samples or case studies, I would begin by selecting, asking permission, and making accessible a few samples. Once those are in place, consider turning one or two of the samples into a case study. Experiment and see how potential clients respond and if either samples or case studies make a difference in landing projects.

Clients want to know that they are making the right decision in hiring you. There can be various ways to provide that reassurance, including positive recommendations or testimonials; an online portfolio or list of similar books indexed; or articles, blog posts, or conference presentations which highlight your authority and expertise. Samples and case studies can also add credibility. Ultimately, be able to show and explain that you know what you are doing. 

I received a thoughtful reply (thank you!), which prompted me to think further about the differences between authors and publishers as clients, and of how the two overlap.

The specific client mix is going to be different for each indexer. Some indexers work almost exclusively with authors. Other indexers, like myself, tend to work more with publishers.

There is no right or wrong client mix. You should aim for whoever is comfortable to work with and whoever is best able to meet your business goals. Your client mix may also reflect your personal background and connections. That said, there are also pros and cons to different types of clients. It can be helpful to keep these differences in mind when building and fine-tuning your client mix. 

Authors as Clients

Authors are fairly self-evident. They are either the person who (co-)wrote the book or the volume editor. Authors may be self-published, or the press has passed on the responsibility for the index to the author. Authors may pay out-of-pocket or, especially if they are academics, be using university funds. When the author is the client, you communicate and negotiate directly with the author, not the press.

The benefits of working directly with authors are that they:

• May have a larger budget, especially if they are drawing on university funds.
• Can be an effective source of referrals.
• Tend to be one-off contracts, so if the experience goes poorly, you less likely need to consider working with them again. 

The downsides to working with authors are that they:

• May have a smaller budget, especially if paying out-of-pocket.
• May require more educating about the indexing and publishing process.
• May not communicate effectively about schedules and other important details, either because they don’t understand the production process or because they are busy and forget.
• Being individuals, each author likely represents a single book. Authors can become repeat clients if they write and publish multiple books, but at best that is likely a new book every year or two. Maintaining a full schedule of authors means building and maintaining a large pipeline. 

Publishers as Clients

Publishers, in contrast, come with a different set of benefits and challenges. By publishers, I mean traditional presses, hybrid publishers, and book packagers. Basically, any larger company producing multiple books. Publishers may hire directly or be a source of referrals to authors.

The advantages to working with publishers includes:

• Repeat and regular work, if the publisher is able to send multiple books per year.
• Assuming multiple books per publisher, fewer publishers are needed to fill a schedule.
• Better understanding and communication about the production process and indexing specs.

The main disadvantages to working with publishers are:

• Smaller and fixed budgets (often, but not always).
• Risk of losing a larger chunk of work if the publisher leaves.

So far, it seems pretty straightforward. Authors can require more work to find and work with, but with greater potential financial reward. Publishers can be easier to work with and provide a greater sense of security by filling up a larger portion of the schedule, but they may not pay as well and losing a publisher as a client can be more devastating. 

There are two further nuances worth paying attention to.

Where Are Those Authors Coming From?

It can be an illuminating exercise to ask how authors find you. Are they coming via your website? A Find an Indexer listing? Referral from a friend or colleague? Or are they being referred by their publisher?

Most academic presses do not hire directly. Instead, they make the index the author’s responsibility and may give the author a list of recommended indexers. It can appear that you are being contacted by a lot of different authors (and you are), but look closer and you realize they are all being recommended by the same handful of presses. This has been my experience, for the most part.

At this point, who is actually the client? The authors are clearly clients, since they are the ones negotiating and paying. But I would suggest that the publisher is also a client. Getting those referrals requires somehow getting onto that list of recommended indexers, which likely requires marketing directly to the publisher. Being on that list, while a valuable source of referrals, also exposes you to the risk of losing all of those referrals should the press stop recommending you. 

So if you want to work primarily with authors, keep a couple of points in mind:

• The best way to reach authors may actually be to market to publishers, to get onto their recommendations list.
• Try to be referred by multiple publishers. This spreads out the risk of losing work should one source of referrals end. 

When Editors Move

If the publisher is the client, you are likely in contact with a specific editor. If it is a larger press, you may be in touch with more than one editor. The challenge is that editors can move.

An editor moving isn’t necessarily terrible news for you. The editor may take you with them to their new position and continue to hire. The editor may also pass your name to their successor, and you continue to work for that publisher. But just as often, I find, the editor doesn’t need indexers in their new position, or they don’t pass your name on, or their successor already has their own list of freelancers. It may be several months before you clue into the fact that a contact has moved, and trying to get re-established with a publisher can be like marketing to a new client. 

All that to say, while publishers can be a great source of reliable work, the real client is perhaps the editor. And editors can be much more transient. Positive relationships can end unexpectedly through no fault of your own.

To manage the risk, try to connect to multiple editors at a press (if the press is large enough to have multiple editors) or ask your contact for referrals to their colleagues. Also, work with multiple publishers. While some relationships will hopefully be long-lasting, assuming that others will end. Spread out the risk by working with a variety of publishers. 

I don’t want this post to be discouraging with all this talk about risk and the downsides to different types of clients. It is possible to thrive as a freelance indexer working primarily with authors, or primarily with publishers, or a mix of both. 

To thrive, though, I think it helps to understand who you are working with, so that you can adjust your marketing, scheduling, communication, and expectations. If you want to change or grow your business, then that may mean changing who your clients are, and how you approach marketing, communication, scheduling, etc…

Know who your clients are. Identify any weaknesses or risks. Adjust to strengthen your client base and put your business on a more sustainable footing to better withstand inevitable changes. 

I don’t want to change the publishers and authors that I work with. There are a handful of publishers I’ve worked with for almost as long as I’ve been freelancing. I am grateful for these long-standing relationships and would hate to lose them. Yet as my business changes, I wonder if some of my clients and I will part ways.

My main concern, right now, is with price. I have been raising my prices to help raise my income to a level which is in line with my current financial needs and goals. I had a good discussion earlier this year with one of my anchor clients in which my contact acknowledged that they want to continue to work with me and that they want to pay me fairly, and yet there is a limit to how much of a price increase they can accommodate. We did settle on an increase, for which I am thankful. I would be very sad to lose this client. Yet a part of me is still uneasy, wondering about the next time we have this conversation.

For me, a key part of running a sustainable indexing business is having a diverse mix of clients and projects. Even my biggest clients provide no more than fifteen or twenty percent of my total income. I currently work with about fifteen different publishers, both trade and scholarly, who either hire me directly or refer me to their authors. Some of these publishers only hire or refer me for one or two books per year, but cumulatively it all add up. 

I don’t want to be too dependent on any one source because clients come and go. Over the fifteen years I’ve been freelancing, it has happened at least five or six times that a publisher I’ve worked with has gone out of business, was downsized, my main contact left, or… I don’t fully know the reason why I stopped hearing from them. But because I have a diverse mix of clients, occasionally losing one, while sad, doesn’t make much of a difference to my schedule. There are enough other offers coming in to fill the gap.

Maintaining a good mix also means that I am not tied to any single production schedule. Publishers tend to follow an internal production cycle, which depends on the types of books they publish and the audience they sell to. Think trade publishers releasing books in time for Christmas or textbook publishers preparing for the start of the next academic year. By working with a variety of publishers, there are certain times of the year I may index more trade, other times of the year more scholarly. Either way, my schedule stays full. 

A mix of projects also provides variety and respite. Some books are more of a grind to read and index. Having a different subject to switch to, or a different audience, can feel like a break even if it is still indexing.

So if you are a newer indexer, I recommend diversifying your client base and project mix. Specializing can be a excellent tactic to be distinctive and to simplify marketing, as well as to play to your strengths and subject expertise, but try to have three or four specialities, not just one. An anchor client or two who send multiple projects per year is great, but don’t stop there. Try to have at least six publishers, if not a dozen, who regularly offer work. If you primarily work with authors, be intentional about asking for referrals and expanding your network. The best way to ensure steady work is to have work from multiple sources. 

Over time, a wide client base should self-perpetuate. Satisfied clients become regular, repeat clients. Satisfied clients also pass your name along, leading to new clients. The need to actively market lessens because enough offers keep coming in. This has been my experience over the last several years. It is an excellent and fortunate position to be in. 

And yet.

As my business goals change, as I seek to optimize income, as I seek projects and clients which are a better fit for me, I may also need to proactively shift who I work with.

This is the part which is a pep talk for myself, because change is hard. I want my clients to like me. I don’t want to say no to reliable sources of work. Yet while serving the client is important, I need to remember that my business also exists to serve me. I am choosing to freelance in order to earn a certain level of income and to have a measure of control and flexibility in how I work. My client and project mix should support these goals as well.

I am not planning on making drastic changes, but I think I do need to be prepared for some change. I need to be prepared that I may price out clients as I raise rates. Being proactive, I can identify and fire my lowest paying clients, to make room for those with larger budgets. I can also look to see which books and subjects are most lucrative for me to index and which I earn the least on. Either I need to raise prices for those low performers or I need to turn down those offers and focus marketing on what I am good at. I want to maintain a diverse mix of clients, while also acknowledging that there are likely potential clients out there who are a better fit for my current goals whom I am not yet working with. The trick is to somehow find them. 

For experienced indexers, I think it is important to periodically check in with our business goals and to see if our current work aligns. Change can feel risky, especially if everything seems to be going alright. But improvements can often be made. Change can be incremental, more like adjusting the course. Change does not need to be wholesale reinvention. 

Whether you are a new indexer or experienced, how do you find your current mix of clients and projects? Are there any relationships you want to keep and strengthen? Any clients you want to get rid of? A dream client you have yet to land?

Before I dig into this topic, I want to acknowledge that I write from a place of having previously been on the inside, and from also now having been a freelancer for about eleven years. When I first began working in publishing, I worked in-house for two different publishers. I developed a strong sense of publishing as a team effort, with each person, whether in-house or freelance, contributing to the finished book. As a freelancer, I have retained this sense of being part of a team, and in my ideal working relationship with a publisher, we respect each other as team members. That said, I am also aware that many freelance indexers do not have in-house experience, and that publishers can come across as opaque and unapproachable. 

This reflection draws upon my own experience and what I would like to see. Your experiences and ideal working relationship may be different. I am curious to hear what you think, in the comments. If you are a new freelance indexer, I hope this gives you some ideas for what a positive working relationship can be like.

To start, let’s look at a couple of recent experiences I’ve had.

The Editor Who Couldn’t Care Less

Some publishers, or at least certain editors within those publishers, couldn’t seem to care less about the freelancers supporting their work. I encountered this a few months ago when I was hired by an author to index their book, which was being published by an independent academic press. (For the sake of this reflection, I’m keeping authors, editors, and publishers anonymous.)

Indexing guidelines were scant, though it seemed that both run-in and indented formats would be accepted. Working with the author, I submitted the index in run-in format. To our surprise, the editor unilaterally changed the format to indented, on the grounds that indented is easier to read. I actually agree with the editor on the format, but that’s not the point. If the editor felt so strongly about the format, they should have made that clear upfront.

We asked the editor about the change, and the editor confirmed that the press does indeed accept both run-in and indented formats, except, I guess, when the editor decides they know what is best. Reverting to run-in format was not an option. I followed up with some additional concerns, since the structure, as I originally envisioned it in run-in format, no longer worked quite as well. I also asked that in the future the editor provide clearer instructions, to avoid this extra and unnecessary work caused by this unilateral change. In reply, the editor made very clear that they had no interest in communicating with me nor in providing clearer instructions. The editor stated that they primarily work with scholarly authors who apparently get confused by too many instructions, and so the editor is used to taking whatever the author provides and formatting it as they see fit.

The irony is that I had already been hired by a different author to index a second book for the same press (which I submitted in indented format). The editor seemed unaware and uninterested in the fact that at least some of their authors were hiring professional indexers. Even if I am not in direct contact with the editor, I would suggest that we are still on the same team, and that better communication, whether directly or in the form of clearer indexing instructions, would make for a better book and a smoother production process for both of us.

The Editor Who Gets It

That same author who hired me to write the first index later passed my name on to a friend, who turned out to be the manager editor for two small university presses. That editor got in touch and, after a few emails back and forth sorting out the details for how we might work together, wrote, “Welcome to the team!”

Guess which editor I want to work with.

Being Part of a Team

Every publisher and project is going to be different. Some publishers prefer to be hands-off, making the index the author’s responsibility and not wanting to be in direct contact with the freelancer. I understand that the in-house editors are often very busy juggling multiple books. I respect the desire to be hands-off and I let the author take the lead on how communication flows between me, the author, and the press. In other cases, I am hired directly by the press, and so I am in regular contact with the in-house managing or production editor. For complicated projects, I may also be put in contact with the copyeditor, proofreader, or designer—whoever is best placed to answer my questions—which really does feel like I am part of the team. 

As a freelance member of the team, I recognize that I am being hired to perform a service. I realize that I don’t always get the final say, and if the author or publisher insist, I will revise the index as asked, even if I disagree. That said, part of being a team also means having my role and expertise respected. I appreciate at least being consulted on potential changes and to have my opinion taken seriously, even if the author or press ultimately decides otherwise. Respect also involves clear communication, whether direct, through the author, or through the indexing guidelines, so that I can properly do my job and have a way to ask questions. 

Being a freelancer also means recognizing when I am not part of the team. This took me a while to learn, as I was initially used to being part of the in-house team. But as a freelancer, I work with multiple authors and publishers. What is best for my business is not necessarily in line with what the publisher wants. While working together with authors and publishers on specific books, I also need to have boundaries with clients, to be able to say no when a project or publisher is not a good fit or if my schedule is already full.

For me, at least, it doesn’t take much to feel included. I don’t need a small gift or card at Christmas (though it is a lovely surprise when it occasionally happens), nor do I need to be included in company-wide meetings (though again, a nice gesture, especially if the meeting pertains to freelancers and my time is compensated, as did once happen). What matters is feeling appreciated. A word of thanks for the index. A willingness to answer questions. A desire to work together again in the future. Basically, an openness to a positive professional relationship that makes it easy to get the work done. 

What are your thoughts on the freelancer-publisher relationship? Do you feel part of a team? Or do you feel shut out or disrespected? What do you look for in a positive working relationship? Please feel free to reply in the comments and let me know.

Over the last few years, I’ve had the honour and pleasure of working with Elaine Thomas, an author and storyteller. Elaine is an Albertan transplanted to Fayette County, Texas. She regularly writes for a local newspaper, The Fayette County Record, including, for several years, a column profiling a wide array of locals, especially senior citizens who reminisce about their lives. Elaine is now collecting and self-publishing these columns in the Stories I’ve Been Told series. I have indexed all three volumes published so far, as well as three other books of local and family history that Elaine has written. Today, I want to discuss how I approach indexing the Stories I’ve Been Told series, drawing examples from the third volume that was launched last November.

I love Elaine’s work for a couple of reasons.

Elaine has a knack for finding and telling incredible stories of everyday life. These are ordinary, everyday people, and yet dig beneath the surface, as Elaine does, and extraordinary accomplishments and joy shine forth. It is an excellent reminder of the wealth of knowledge and experience that surrounds all of us, if we only pay attention and listen. Elaine’s books epitomize the value and importance of preserving our local history. 

I also love reading these profiles of people in Fayette County, Texas, because it is a completely different world than what I am familiar with. Add in the fact that many of the people profiled are reminiscing about life during the Depression, World War II, and postwar, and it is a whole other world yet again. Rural farm life among Czech and German immigrants is about as far away as you can get from the concrete Taiwanese city of a million people that I grew up in, except, maybe, for the shared summer heat. I get to explore a different perspective and way of life as I index these books, a way of life that is slowly becoming more familiar with each book.

From an indexing standpoint, there are a couple of challenges which I find are common to indexing local history. The first is, what in indexable?

Details

Local history books often contain a lot of detail. Because there is so much that could potentially be picked up, it is a good idea to decide ahead of time, as much as possible, what is indexable and what can be left aside. I find my approach often evolves as I work and better understand the text. The plan does not need to be rigid. But starting with a plan does help to avoid being overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential entries, and to avoid adding, and then later deleting, irrelevant entries.

For the Stories I’ve Been Told series, I make a distinction between Fayette County and the rest of the country and world. The people profiled are all from and live within Fayette County. I assume that readers of the book also have a connection to the area. So information about Fayette County forms the bulk of what I pick up. I index somewhat less detail about the rest of Texas, with most such entries being about neighbouring counties and cities that readers are likely to be familiar with, and where the people profiled may have studied and worked. I index the least amount of detail about the rest of the country and world. If someone spent part of their career in Virginia, for example, I will likely include that as a subheading, but I probably will not create main headings for places and businesses within Virginia, as I don’t think that readers will be searching for Virginia-related details.

I index all of the local people. This can lead to long lists of family members, if a person profiled mentions all of their grandparents, parents, siblings, spouse, children, and other relatives. But since this is intended for a local readership who may be searching for their families and friends, I think it is important to pick up all of the names, even minor mentions. This can also mean double-checking surnames with Elaine, to make sure I am properly identifying people.

I also pick up places. This includes all of the cities and towns within Fayette County. I also pick up churches, schools, local businesses, significant geographic features, and any other place that seems important. These are often minor mentions, but again, this is a book for local readers. There are memories attached to these places, and local histories can be an aid for people to access their own memories.

I also pick up details for various activities. These can be memories about Christmas or attending dances, childhood memories of working on the farm, or about people’s careers, such as delivering mail or running a flooring business. I also create arrays for local events, like the Fayette County Fair.

Several of the people profiled are veterans who reminisce about their wartime experiences. I’ve learned that honouring vets is important, in a way that seems more strongly emphasized than in Canada. I include several arrays for the different branches of military; the military bases where these veterans served, especially those nearby within Texas; and the wars, which is mostly WWII, along with a few mentions for the Korean and Vietnam wars. 

Basically, if someone or something happened or existed within Fayette County, I index it. Elaine and I want local readers to be able to find their family and friends, and places and events, that are significant to them.

Structure

With so many details, structuring the index is also important, to ensure that the index is easy to search.

I build the index structure around the book’s structure. Stories I’ve Been Told, Vol. 3 contains 30 profiles, with each profile about 8 pages, give or take. This includes 1-3 pages of photographs. Because it is these people who form the core of the book, I use subheadings for each person, focusing on what that person chooses to discuss. I also include a range, at the top of the array, for the whole profile. Photographs are indicated in italics. 

Kea, Arleas Upton, 1–9

career with FDIC, 1, 7

childhood, 2–3

education and desegregation, 3–4, 9

family, 3, 7, 8, 9

photographs, 7–9

prayer and worship, 3

reflections on life and success, 6

at University of Texas, 5–6

I also do a lot of double-posting. All of the churches, for example, are both indexed as standalone entries and are gathered together in a single array. Gathering together does mean that the index will be longer, but I think it is helpful to provide a place for readers to scan if they can’t remember the name of a specific church or if they want to see which churches are mentioned. It is also generally a good practice to provide multiple access points, if there is space, to accommodate how different readers choose to search. If the community that the church is in is not obvious from the church’s name, I also include that detail in parentheses. (I also include the community in parentheses for main headings if the community is not obvious from the name of the church, school, or business.)

churches

Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Round Top), 189

Big Spring Hill Baptist Church, 79

Elm Creek Baptist Church (Seguin), 179

Holy Cross Lutheran Church (Warda), 143, 147, 149

Prairie Valley Lutheran Church, 181

prayer and worship, 3

Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church (Hostyn), 89, 92, 217

Sacred Heart Catholic Church (La Grange), 36, 91

St. James Missionary Baptist Church (Plum), 79

St. James Missionary Baptist Church (Schulenburg), 3

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church (Ammannsville), 83

St. Mary Catholic Church (High Hill), 40

St. Mary’s Catholic Church (Ellinger), 125

St. Paul Lutheran Church (La Grange), 27, 220

St. Paul Lutheran Church (Serbin), 97–98, 99

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church (Schulenburg), 54, 56–57, 101

Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church (Plum), 32

Swiss Alp Lutheran Church, 112

Trinity Lutheran Church (Black Jack Springs), 12, 154

I also double-post for significant events and memories that have enough entries to warrant subheadings, such as Christmas:

Christmas

Alvin J. Anders’ memories, 101–2

Christmas trees, 54, 57, 138, 143, 153

Frances Pietsch Schumann’s memories, 143–44

gifts for WWII soldiers, 51

Gracie Loessin Taylor’s memories, 153

Kahlich family traditions, 54–57

mail delivery and, 134

Santa Claus, 54–55

St. Nicholas (St. Nicholas Day), 53–54, 58

For military arrays, such as the wars and branches of the military, I suspect that some readers would like to see who else served, and so I double-post names in these arrays as well, in addition to double-posting military bases. For example,

U.S. Air Force

Bien Hoa Air Force Base (Vietnam), 225, 227–28

Eugene J. “Gene” Wessels, 177, 178–79, 183

Fort Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, 178

Harry Richard “Dick” Peck, 223–28, 231, 232

Lackland Air Force Base, 61

Laredo Air Force Base, 223–24

For Stories I’ve Been Told, Vol. 3, thanks to a suggestion from Elaine, I’ve also included cross-references from the various towns to the people profiled who are from those towns, so that readers can more easily see the connections between people and places. I should have thought of this for the earlier volumes, and I’m glad Elaine noticed this possibility. For example,

Rutersville (TX), 69, 89–90. See also Dixon, Richard; Fietsam, Lydia Eberenz

Working with the Author

Especially if you are not familiar with the area or history, take advantage of the author’s knowledge. When I first started indexing this series, Elaine’s insights were invaluable as I made my plan for how to index, as well as helpful feedback on the draft index. This can be a fruitful collaboration to serve the readers.

Indexing local history can often be more work than it initially appears. All of those details and entries can add up, and then you need to decide how best to organize. Indexing local history can also be satisfying, helping readers remain engaged with their history and community, as well as the reminder that each of us live extraordinary lives, if only we can see ourselves, and each other, from the right angle. 

If you would like to see the full index for Stories I’ve Been Told, Vol. 3, you can find it on Amazon, using the “Read Sample” feature. The indexes for the first two volumes are also available for viewing.If you would like to buy a copy, proceeds are being donated to assist struggling students at Blinn College, Schulenburg campus. Elaine also writes a lovely blog, Stories From the Slow Lane, where you can enjoy more stories about the past.