Hello, So you are sitting down to write an index. You scroll to the first page in the PDF, or, if you’ve printed out the proofs, you place the first page on the desk in front of you, and then…what? What is your thought process? How do you decide what entries to extract? How do you read? Reading to index is different than reading to edit, reading to learn, or reading for pleasure. I think of reading to index as a process of disassembly. I try to identify how the author has written and...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hello, Today’s reflection is in response to a question I received through the feedback survey. Thank you very much for your question, and my thanks to everyone who took the time to provide feedback. Your thoughtful responses are very encouraging and have given me good ideas for what to write and focus on. (And if you haven’t yet given feedback or asked a question about something that is puzzling you about indexing, and you would like to do so, the link to the survey is here. It is anonymous...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Hello, No surprise, publishing continues to react and interact with artificial intelligence. A couple of colleagues recently raised AI on a couple of indexing email lists. I get the sense that many indexers are concerned about the potential for AI to replace us, or at least that publishers will believe that AI can replace a human-written, thoughtfully constructed index. I have to admit I also feel uncertain about what the future holds. I wrote about AI and indexing last year, and I think it...
2 months ago • 5 min read
Hello, My book is one year old! Well, close enough to a full year. The official one year mark is July 11, two days from now. I feel like this anniversary has snuck up on me. Sales for Book Indexing: A Step-by-Step Guide have slowed over the last few months, but still plugging away at 5-8 copies per month. I probably could do more to market the book, though I find my attention elsewhere, and at a certain point, I think, you need to let books grow on their own. But I am still very proud for...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hello, I love subheadings. They add so much to an index, breaking down long strings of locators into smaller chunks, highlighting meaning distinctions, and gathering related entries into lists so readers only need to search in one place. As I discuss in my last reflection, subheadings can also reflect the story that the text is telling. Well-written subheadings are clear, specific, and meaningful. But…in indexing there is always a but. Occasionally, a project comes along that proves the...
4 months ago • 5 min read
Hello, What does the process of indexing consist of? Is it primarily a process of extracting terms from the text? I’ve noticed, when talking to readers and editors, that this seems to be how many people conceptualize writing an index. It is less writing and more data mining. I want to suggest an alternative approach. While identifying and picking up key words is important, I don’t think that that is enough. A excellent index should also contain an element of storytelling. I also want to...
4 months ago • 6 min read
Hello, It has been a busy month for me. Still a lot to do this week, including continuing to prepare to present at the Indexing Society of Canada’s virtual conference, which is happening this Thursday to Saturday. I believe you can still register. I will be presenting with Enid Zafran on the current state of embedded indexing. We surveyed a wide range of indexers and I am excited to share what we learned. I still want to write something, though. While not unique to embedded indexing,...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Hello, It is not too often that I have the privilege of indexing an entire series. It is also not every index in which structure plays such a prominent role. I mean, structure—deciding which entries and arrays to create, where to place them within the index, and how they relate to each other—is always important, but for some indexes structure can play a heightened role. I recently indexed the fifth volume in the Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone series, written by Rick McIntyre and published by...
5 months ago • 7 min read
Hello, From my perspective as a relatively younger indexer, it feels like indexing is in the midst of a generational turnover, both in terms of long-time indexers nearing retirement and in regards to software. A lot of programs developed in the 1980s and 1990s are still vital to our work, but what happens when their developers either retire or die? The indexing community has been struggling with this question over the last few years. Dave Ream died unexpectedly in 2017, leaving his programs...
6 months ago • 4 min read