|
For Authors: How much is an index in your book worth to you?
- in sales?
- in royalties?
- in reviews?
- in text adoptions?
- in peer approval?
- in personal satisfaction?
- in time and effort?
- as the key to your work?
Only you know how many weeks/months/years you have spent creating your book. Now that it's time for an index, consider that:
- Potential buyers and bookstore browsers will use the index in deciding whether to buy your book.
- Librarians and educators will use the index in deciding whether to select your book.
- Book reviewers
will use the index in deciding whether to recommend your book.
- Your peers
will use the index to judge your book's completeness in your area of expertise.
An index should be much more than an alphabetical list of topics with page numbers. A good index is a road map leading both experts and novices in your field to every pertinent sentence you've written without dead ends or annoying detours.
Creating a good index takes understanding of both the reader and the subject.
It takes objectivity, perspective, a sense of proportion and priority, patience,
speed, technical training, and experience. If you have all these qualities, can apply them under deadline pressure, and would rather index your
current book than start writing your next one, you, the author, are the best
indexer for your book. Otherwise:
Entrust your index to a professional!
|
For Publishers: What is the index worth to your book's bottom line?
- in bookstore sales?
- in text adoptions?
- in reviews?
- in staff time?
- in typesetter charges?
Who is best qualified to better that bottom line?
- the author?
- the computer?
- the professional indexer?
Consider:
- Bookstore buyers and point-of-sale browsers
use the index in making decisions.
- Educators and librarians
use indexes in making adoption and acquisition decisions.
- Reviewers
use indexes as criteria for thumbs-up/thumbs-down judgments.
- Your production staff
needs a fast turnaround on the index to get your book into the marketplace.
- Your typesetter needs an index that is ready to go without delays or hassles.
Promptness, professionalism, and production ease mean profits for you and royalties for your authors.
Entrust your index to a professional!
An index should be much more than an alphabetical list of topics with page numbers attached. A good index is a road map leading any reader to every pertinent sentence in the text, without dead ends or annoying detours.
Creating a good index takes understanding of both the reader and the subject. It takes objectivity, perspective, a sense of proportion and priority, patience, speed, technical training, experience, knowledge of publishing practice, and the ability to apply all of these under deadline pressure. That usually means that the creation of the index should be entrusted to a professional indexer. |
