Last week was a strange work week for me. I had two indexing tasks to complete, neither of which I typically do or enjoy. The week felt like a long grind, like I wasn’t really indexing even though I was. My first and primary task was to update an index… Read More »How to Cut an Index By Almost Half
I’ve been freelancing for almost thirteen years now, and I feel like I am at another juncture at which I am reassessing my business and contemplating how best to move forward. I periodically find myself here. This is partly driven by external factors, often the need to earn a little… Read More »Freelancing Within a Niche
Before I begin another mini-series, I want to touch on a topic that has been on my mind again recently, which is turning down projects that I don’t want. This has been a persistent struggle for me throughout my freelancing career. As a new freelancer, FOMO, or the fear of… Read More »Learning to Say No (to Projects)
Welcome to this last reflection in the mini-series on the basic elements of an index! Over the last three months I’ve discussed entries and arrays, main headings and subheadings, locators, cross-references, and format. Today I look at sorting. Sorting and format are like twins. They both have to do with… Read More »Sorting: Putting Entries in Order
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been exploring the components of an array—main headings and subheadings, locators, and cross-references. It’s time to now look at how these are all held together. Formatting the index, by which I mean either run-in or indented format, along with punctuation, has to do with… Read More »Format: Pulling the Index Together
My original plan for today was to write about indexing Oxford University Press (OUP) titles, of which I recently indexed two. I will still reflect on OUP, but as I was writing this, I realized that my main issue with OUP’s system is its impact on cognitive load. So partway… Read More »Cognitive Load and Indexing Oxford UP Titles
Welcome back to this mini-series on the basic elements of an index. I’m currently looking at what makes up an entry, which I described as “what this thing is + where to find it.” In my previous post I discussed main headings and subheadings, which form the first part of… Read More »Pointing Readers in the Right Direction
So the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style dropped in September. I have to admit I have not bought a copy. While I think their recommendations are solid, I find I don’t use it very much, since I only index and not edit. But I do know some… Read More »Making the Index Invisible
I am writing today about some decisions that I needed to make on a recent index. In the grand scheme of the index, these decisions only affected a few entries. I am tempted to brush these off as not very important and not worth discussing. Yet much of indexing is… Read More »Paying Attention to Terminology
Last time I wrote about reading like an indexer and what it is I do and look for when reading a text and writing the rough draft of an index. Today I’d like to reflect on my editing process. A few months ago I started tracking my time when I… Read More »My Index Editing Process