Welcome back to the third edition of the monthly Q&A, on the last Tuesday(ish) of every month. Today’s question comes from Kimberly: I’ve been giving each heading a subheading right from the start, with the idea that it might be easier to delete unneeded ones than to go back and… Read More »Q&A: Preemptive Subheadings?
When talking with newer indexers and people considering a career in indexing, I often get the question, “But when am I ready to begin freelancing?” Which is a very good question. Especially working alone, as freelancers tend to do, it can be tough to gauge our own skills. I often… Read More »Are You Ready to Begin Freelance Indexing?
As you’ve probably noticed, AI is still around, being pushed and integrated into almost everything. I find it interesting talking to friends and colleagues about whether and how they use AI. There are a few instances where it seems genuinely useful, but more often than not it still seems like… Read More »AI and the Nature of Indexing Work
I’ve gotten a few questions recently about increasing speed while indexing, including last week’s Q&A about subheadings. And while these are good questions and we can certainly discuss specific ways to increase speed, I think it is also important to keep in mind the foundations of speed, which I learned… Read More »The Best Lesson I Learned About Speed I Learned from Tree Planting
I’m adding a new Q&A element for my newsletter subscribers. I will respond to a new question on the last Tuesday of every month. To kick off this new Q&A, here is a question about subheadings. To summarize, “How can I become faster and more decisive when writing subheadings? I… Read More »Q&A: How Can I be Faster and More Decisive Writing Subheadings?
I want to write today about a request I receive maybe a couple of times a year, which is to update a previously written index. The usual advice is to avoid updating and to rewrite the index from scratch. The rationale, as counterintuitive as it may seem, is that rewriting… Read More »Four Questions to Ask When Considering Updating an Index
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 am back home and catching up on sleep after attending the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI)’s annual conference, held this year at the University of British Columbia (UBC), in Vancouver. I enjoy attending the Canadian conferences. Being Canadian myself, ISC/SCI feels like “my” society in a way… Read More »My 2025 ISC/SCI Conference Highlights
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
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