Secrets of a Successful Indexer

In olden days, indexing was a valued craft and an art. Publishing has undergone radical changes, particularly over the past decade. The editing of books is not as careful; publication schedules are shorter. Forty years ago a month was considered a minimum for indexing a 300-page book, while now two weeks is generous. Quantity seems to be valued over quality. Indexing is purely business now. The bottom line is the main driver of this change.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is important not only in publishing but for indexers as well. For both beginning and experienced indexer the crucial question is—can I make a living at indexing? A rate of $3.00 to $5.00 a page is now typical, with hourly incomes often averaging $40.00 to $50.00 gross for experienced indexers. The net income, however, is around 50% because there are no paid fringe benefits. The individual must bear all the costs of maintaining an office as well as pay self-employment tax and insurance.

Consequently, it behooves an indexer to maximize the amount of material indexed per hour. At a rate of $4.00 per page, ten pages per hour equals an hourly rate of $40.00 ($20.00/hour net). Indexing twenty pages an hour at that page rate, will earn you $80.00/hour with a net of $40.00/ hour.

An indexer often can do this by following some simple principles. Sufficient quality can be maintained, but the user will not win the H. W. Wilson Award for excellence in indexing.

Speed Indexing

1. Do not read the book before starting indexing.

2. Do not mark pages for entries.

3. If possible, obtain a PDF copy of the page proofs and display it either in a separate window on the PC or a second monitor. If not, think about looking for another book to index. The time saving advantages of working with PDFs will outweigh the loss of a particular job.

4. Skip to the first subhead in the text and enter one or two key words from it, with subentries if needed and the page number. If the section continues on more pages, quickly page down in the PDF text to find the end of this section and enter that page number.

5. Scan the paragraphs under the subhead. Look for personal names, proper nouns, keywords, etc. that stand out. In the case of names and proper nouns, use the Search capability of Acrobat to pull up repeated use of these terms and add page references.

6. Proceed to the next subhead and repeat steps four and five until you finish the book.

7. Invest in and train carefully, voice recognition software, and use it when feasible.

8. Refrain from editing the index until you finish input. When editing, banish from your mind principles such as content analysis, information architecture, thematic analysis, internal structure—and do not dither or fret over terms you have already entered. Worrying about this kind of thing only gets in the way of speed indexing.

9. Print the draft index in page number order and read quickly through the copy. Using your own shorthand, for example a plus (+) sign to indicate need for a cross reference, a single quote mark (“) for double posting, or the copy editor’s transpose sign to indicate an inverted entry (unless you have done this as you entered terms). Watch for typos and spelling errors as you read but also run spell check as a final edit before submission.

10. Finally, go back to the PC and enter the corrections and emendations. Use Adobe Acrobat’s GO TO page number (Ctrl-Shift-n) to find a questionable entry. Do a second read through, let the results sit for twenty-four hours, read rapidly one more time, and submit.

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