One of my fellow ProfHackers recently got a query about indexing software. None of us have experience with such software, but a couple of us have handled the indexes for our books in other ways, which we thought might be useful to share.
Despite the fact that books are increasingly becoming searchable in their electronic formats, the metadata that’s provided by a good index can have a great influence over how the book is discovered, and how it’s used. A good index is more than just an alphabetical list of all the text’s proper nouns and their locations; it’s a way of thinking about the ideas within the text that can guide a reader to the sections they most need to consult.
My experience indexing my first book remains awfully vivid, nearly five years after the fact. I’d been told by some colleagues that I might want to hire someone to produce the index for my first book, but I was feeling a bit possessive of it, and a bit curious about the process, and so I decided to do it myself.
I got a bit of advice about method from a friend who’d done the index for her first book. Happily, my first press gave me a searchable PDF of the proofs, and so I opened the PDF and my text editor, and got started.
My method went something like this:
- Read line by line through the manuscript until you come to a proper name or key term that needs indexing.
- Type that name/term in the proper alphabetical spot in the text file that contains your list, and add the page number.
- Search the PDF for all instances of that name/term.
- Check to make sure that all the instances that come up really refer to the right name/term. If so, add the page numbers to the entry.
- Attempt to think of other ways that the person/concept referred to by that name/term might be phrased.
- Search for those variants and add them to the entry.
- Repeat, ad nauseam.
- Realize about a third of the way through that there’s a key concept that needs indexing that you’ve overlooked. Go back to the beginning.
- Realize about halfway through that there’s another key concept that you’ve missed because it doesn’t really have a term that can be searched for, per se, but is more amorphous than that, and yet is super important and is the kind of thing people will be looking for. Go back to the beginning.
- And so on.
The process, all told, took me about a month — and I was on sabbatical at the time. It was an exhausting and frustrating project, to the extent that it was difficult for me to maintain focus on it. I kept running up against problems describing abstract concepts, and difficulties trying to imagine the kinds of things that readers might want to find in the book. And I spent much of the time worried that I was either over-indexing or under-indexing, and was unsure how to tell the difference.
On the one hand, I’m glad to have had that experience. But it’s 100% clear to me, as I await the proofs on my second book, that I will not ever do my own indexing again.
Several colleagues of mine have opted to produce their own indexes out of necessity; they couldn’t afford to pay an indexer, a problem I completely understand. Others have done their own indexing because it seemed to them that the expense of hiring someone would eat whatever meager royalties they might earn from the book. This, I don’t quite understand.
It’s true that it would be nice to feel as though my writing were producing actual income. But holding onto that feeling at the expense of a month’s worth of working time, not to mention the intense frustration I experienced, is hardly worth it.
Professional indexers are professionals for a reason. They have developed the skills necessary to find a text’s core concepts quickly, including those that may not be mentioned specifically by name. They also have a perspective on the text necessary to figuring out what a reader might be searching for, and how best to categorize and describe the text’s contents.
Indexers typically set their rates per indexable page (generally between $3 and $6 per page, depending on the type size and the content), though some do charge per-entry or per-hour rates. A typical monograph in the humanities would likely cost somewhere between $500 and $1000 to have indexed — an investment in the book’s future usability (not to mention preserving my own sanity) that I’ve decided is well worth it.
But how about you? Do you have an indexing system you’d stand by? Or an argument for using professional indexers? Let us know in the comments.
[Creative Commons-licensed flickr photo by KF]
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24 Responses to How to Index Your Book (And Why I’ll Never Do It Again)
brianborchers - November 16, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I produce my manuscripts in LaTeX and use the makeindex program to automatically get create the index of terms that I’ve selected. The publisher rebuilds the index in the last stage of type setting the book. The only hard part is deciding which terms to index in the first place…
agallcdc - November 16, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Authors in the humanities should never rely solely on automated indexing, since the programs recognize terms (or character strings) rather than higher-level concepts. One can easily identify any index that has been computer-generated because it is only useful at a very basic level.
bibliothecula - November 16, 2010 at 4:18 pm
I’ve indexed three of my books now (humanities). I start building the list of terms well before I ever get page proofs; I often build it as I go along, so that terms and relationships are fresh on my mind. I stick them in a single column of Excel so that I can automatically alphabetize them later. With this done when the book goes to the publisher, I can turn around the index in several days or a week rather than a month or more.
And as much as I’ve been tempted to hire a professional indexer at times, I really do believe that the author knows the book and topic best, and provides indexing insight that an outside reader might not see.
mlmcgill - November 16, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Radically enough, I used index cards for my index, following the procedure outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style. Basically, you use a (small) card for each term or concept as you read through the MS chronologically (adding a page reference to each card), then sort the cards by term, alphabetize, and transcribe. I learned a lot about my book that way — and you can iron out slight differences in terminology along the way. It’s labor intensive, but I thought it was worth it. Proper name indexing can clearly be automated, but conceptual indexing needs to be done by an actual reader, I think.
piusxii - November 16, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Indexing is a specialized skill. If you are interested you can read all about indexing on the American Society for Indexing home page http://www.asindexing.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3267.
22231114 - November 16, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I trained as an indexer while working on my PhD in English and had a freelance indexing business for several years, working primarily for academic presses. Structuring an index, identifying key concepts and recognizing them when they are called by a different name, constructing the cross referencing system and the heading/subheading system that will provide readers with the best access to the information … all of these have to be handled simultaneously while creating an index. Indexing is a craft that takes time to develop. Knowing the book’s content does not enable one to put that content into a useful index. If you’re going to do it yourself, you should look into Cindex — software that won’t search and create the index because software can’t make the decisions necessary, but it will make the formatting easier and will check for consistency in terms. (I should say, I quite indexing over 10 years ago, and cindex has changed a lot in that time. I think it’s easier to use now, but it’s expensive, and the index will still take time to create. Better to hire someone.
kaitlinwalsh - November 16, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I helped a professor with an index once. I got such a migraine from it that I had to quit after one day!
conjob - November 16, 2010 at 11:04 pm
throughout my graduate career, i have indexed several books for advisors and professors. indexing is tedious, but it pays well (compared to what i regularly earn as a graduate student), it saves the author some money (compared to hiring a professional indexer at $6 per page), and since these are texts in my field and written by people i know, i have an easier time understanding the major concepts and ideas other than proper names and important terms.
daveapostles - November 17, 2010 at 7:40 am
I probably tend to under-index, perhaps because I hope that people will read the book rather than dip in through the index, although, of course, when/if they have read it, they may wish to return through the index. As to the process, I use a highlighter when reading the proofs, but I also mark on the pages conceptual and wider terms which relate to specific word items in the text. I then start over again with the proofs and type up from the pages in a single column in Writer (OpenOffice) and then use the sort facility. I then rationalize the index, consolidating the repetitions. I thus have a copy which I can forward to the publisher in the required format (usually Word) with an additional .pdf.
ironman28 - November 17, 2010 at 8:25 am
I just wrote a brief blog post about my experience indexing my book Technologies of History that I titled “The Pleasure of the Index” http://www.technohistory.net/?p=928 In the past, I have occasionally assisted with the indexing of other people’s work and found it to be very much the experience of frustration and uncertainty that you describe. However, I approached the indexing of my own work as a final opportunity for creative reinterpretation of the book’s contents, more akin to an exercise in interface design and remix. This may well have been to the detriment of the index by professional standards, but it allowed me to think of the index as an extension of the information architecture of the book as a whole, rather than an external, posterior filter.
wfwbooks - November 17, 2010 at 9:46 am
As a professional book indexer, I have to both applaud and laugh at some of these comments. For some authors, indexing their own books is important and necessary. But for most, the lack of indexing skills and the huge investment of time makes it simply unfeasible. The commenter, 22231114, provides a nice summary and Cindex hasn’t really changed much in the last 10 years. If you are going to index more than a couple of your own books, you absolutely should invest in it (or Macrex, or Sky Index). Well worth the investment, and the article author would have found her time indexing cut by at least 1/3, and perhaps half, with it’s use.
Professional indexers do an outstanding job of indexing scholarly books. Many are Ph.D’s themselves, truth be told. They are usually highly-educated, trained and experienced. I’ve indexed several hundred books in the humanities. Indexers are easy to find with comprehensive web sites that list books they’ve indexed and pay rates. My rates for scholarly material ranges from $3.50 to $4.50 per page.
Regardless of whether you do it yourself, or hire out, you have the obligation to your readers and your field to have a good index in there. Quality matters in indexing and my advice is that if you can’t do it, hire it.
kfitz - November 17, 2010 at 9:53 am
Thanks so much, all, for the comments. I knew people would feel strongly about their indexes! My sense is that some of you have more indexy minds than I do (I’m looking at you, @mlmcgill) and thus can both keep the overall goals of the index in mind as you’re working and find pleasure in the process in ways that I’m just not able to do. The good news is that I’m now very (painfully) aware of those shortcomings, and relieved that there are reliable indexers out there who can help.
duxomnium - November 17, 2010 at 10:11 am
Don’t be scared of indexing. There are ways to do it that are far simpler and just as effective as the one set forth in this article. I’ve used it for a number of books — all university press books — and it’s worked flawlessly. I won’t take up space by setting forth the directions here, but if you want them, send me an email — clifford@middlebury.edu.
Maybe there’s some good indexing software out there, but I’d be surprised if it did things like ideas and concepts.
englishlibrarian - November 17, 2010 at 10:47 am
I’m with you, 22231114, conjob, and wfwbooks. I was a freelance indexer for over 10 years, working on academic monographs in the humanities and social sciences. It provided a great supplement to my graduate school stipend! And, indexing was what propelled me out of the faculty job market and into librarianship, which has been an astoundingly satisfying career move.
I understand and deeply sympathize, bibliothecula and ironman28, with your argument that that an index should be the author’s “final opportunity for creative reinterpretation of the book’s contents.” But consider that the index, like a catalog record or a citation in a bibliographic database, is a tool for the discovery of information. Sometimes authors are so deeply engaged with their writing — which is a good thing! — that they can’t be as objective as a well-educated, experienced indexer would be in creating the metadata and controlled vocabulary that will make the book’s content accessible to readers. I’ve always seen the author-indexer relationship as a creative partnership: authors provide the scholarship; indexers provide the tools that will help propagate it.
magistrahf - November 17, 2010 at 11:42 am
This may be slightly off topic, but how would one go about becoming an indexer? I saw the ASI page, but is there a particular path people usually take? I’ve enjoyed preparing vocabulary lists and proofreading for textbooks, and am curious about doing more in this line.
Thanks.
bookishone - November 17, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I bought SkyIndex in order to index my book, since I’ve always been interested in the process. I bought the just-barely-outdated version when they’d recently released a new version, so there was a significant discount, and I’ll use it for my current book as well. It’s Windows-only but I was able to run it on my dual-processor home Mac (it’s the only thing on the Windows side, in fact).
SkyIndex allowed me to index a 100,000-word scholarly book in two weeks, while teaching full time (2 courses). You have to do the work of going through the pages and identifying the concepts (and alternate words for the concepts), but the software helps tremendously in the process of entering and alphabetizing and formatting the data.
There are good arguments on both sides for either indexing yourself or hiring a professional indexer. It seems like hiring a grad student to do the work might not produce a great index, as it is definitely an art form. I really enjoyed seeing the book from this different perspective and actually discovered a couple of things about the book and its argument that I hadn’t known before. I know a good professional indexer and have enjoyed talking with her about the process in general, and I bought and read Nancy Mulvaney’s very good book on indexing, which was fascinating and also very helpful.
If you decide to do your own index, you can do it in two weeks, but try to clear the decks first!
bookishone - November 17, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I just realized that my comment, above, about grad students may come across as unnecessarily snarky. What I’m trying to say is that it’s a demanding job that demands either an experienced familiarity with that particular kind of analysis or an impassioned determination to make the book and its argument the best it can be. If you’re hiring a grad student (or department secretary, or whomever) at a significantly cut rate, you’re getting neither, though it’s doubtless great experience for the grad student and probably a welcome addition to his/her paltry stipend.
11159766 - November 18, 2010 at 4:55 pm
I have indexed some of my books, but eventually turned to using professional indexers, and I would not go back to doing it myself. Most university presses can recommend reliable indexers to their authors, and in my experience this process works very well.
wfwbooks - November 18, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Magistrahf -
There are a few avenues to indexing. The ASI site details the distance learning opportunities that currently exist and they are fine, and affordable options. Additionally, you can try to find an indexer and arrange for a mentoring relationship, and of course, you can attempt to teach yourself. I would suggest the aforementioned Indexing Books by Nancy Mulvany as a great place to start. Contact me at dan@wfwbooks.com if you (or anyone) wants to chat about indexing.
tee_bee - November 18, 2010 at 9:44 pm
I indexed my first book. I will never, ever do that again. I’d rather poke my eyes with red hot knitting needles. I love really good indexes in good books–which is why I let the publisher pay an indexer, and take it out of royalties. After all, my time is worth far more than the meager royalties I am forgoing.
bhornyak - November 19, 2010 at 8:59 am
Thank you, Kathleen, for writing and posting this. I’ve added a link to your blog from my web site.
I’ve been an indexer for 15 years, and love hearing feedback from the professors whose books I’ve indexed such as, “At one point I had thought about doing the index myself–what a mistake THAT would have been! I could not have come close to the detail, cross-referencing, and accuracy you have provided.”
Professional indexers add extra value to books by knowing the conventions of indexing and style guidelines of the presses we work with regularly. We network, attend continuing education sessions on the craft, and revel discussing in what others would deem to be minutiae. The belief that “indexers are born, not made” is frequently reinforced as we see that not everyone who tries to enter the profession catches on to it, and that there are still some very bad indexes out there!
Thanks again for bringing attention to the contributions of the indexing profession.
bookindexer - November 23, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Thank you, Kathleen for writing and posting this. I’ve sent it along to many of my editors who struggle with ways to convince their authors of the benefit of hiring a professional.
Ironman28 wrote “…I approached the indexing of my own work as a final opportunity for creative reinterpretation of the book’s contents, more akin to an exercise in interface design and remix.”
As a professional book indexer I see the index differently, and I hope I am not misinterpreting this post. I see the index as a way back into the text without reinterpreting the book’s content. Instead I write the index to so readers can be sure the information they look for is actually on the page.
In some ways I believe the author can be too close to the text, too much the expert, and as a result can’t consider the beginning reader in providing access. In my opinion this is one of the biggest contributions a professional can provide.
ironman28 - December 1, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I realize now that I should have done a bit more to inoculate my characterization of indexing as a creative reinterpretation of a text against being perceived as naive or irresponsible. For me, indexing is *clearly* an extension of the fundamental information architecture of a book, similar to chapter breaks, sub-heads, tables of contents, image captioning and the ordering of a book’s contents, none of which is routinely turned over to professionals or software programs to be completed objectively. I would make a similar argument for the importance of typography and page design in a printed text, but that’s another discussion, and indeed we *do* routinely (and with mixed results) turn this part of the publishing process over to professionals. The index, however, is arguably the heart of a book’s information architecture and we know that the categories and presuppositions of knowledge systems are at least coextensive with, if not co-constitutive of, any scholarly endeavor. *If* an author is inclined to do so, thinking seriously about the index as a creative interface offers an important way of directly addressing the fantasy that readers (particularly in a digital age) follow a linear trajectory through a text from start to finish. I am not against professional indexing, which doubtless results in a more faithful rendering of a work’s contents and is probably appropriate for most books, it’s just that for me, this would constitute a lost opportunity to reinforce certain paths and associations in the text that I hope will be productive for readers.
I should say that much of my work for the past decade has been devoted to thinking about the potentials of scholarly interface, information design and what good can come of encouraging humanities scholars to explore the creative (not just practical) potentials of electronic publication. The Vectors Journal that I co-edit with Tara McPherson has been doing this with some success through collaboration between scholars and designers for the past few years and we have now moved on to developing a platform called Scalar that encourages an even deeper reconsideration of scholarly publication and electronic argumentation. Both of these projects invite scholars to rethink their work in terms of database structures and the combinatoric possibilities they enable. The relational and/or semantic structures of databases open extremely productive avenues of possibility for some scholars and some works of scholarship, though clearly not all. Given my immersion in database-driven scholarship, interface design and cultures of remix, it was impossible for me to approach indexing as anything other than a welcome bridge between traditional text publication and the electronic publishing platforms that now I largely prefer. ProfHacker’s position at the intersection of technology and higher education makes it an ideal platform for exploring these issues and I thank Kathleen and all the contributors to this thread for sparking such a stimulating discussion!