A warning in advance – this is longer than my usual posts and the reason is, I get a LOT of questions about indexing. Hopefully this addresses most of them.
Any time I tell people I am an indexer, eyebrows are raised and/or knitted, questions are asked and heads are shaken. It is an unknown job to most people. To those who do know about it – such as the man I sat next to on my way to Rome a few year back – we can approach the status of myth (“I knew indexers were out there. I’ve just never seen one. I though you all were like unicorns.“)
Nope, we are real. We are not many in number but we are out there. And as a public service, I thought I’d answer some of the questions I frequently get about indexing.
An Indexer? What’s that?
That’s the person who creates the index in the back of books. You know, that usually alphabetical list of entries somewhere near the bibliography or end notes. If eyebrows are still knit at this point, I clarify “non-fiction books” to see if that helps. Sometimes it does. Other times (“You mean you have to read those books? God, that sounds tedious.“), I despair of humanity.
Someone does that? Isn’t it done by computer?
No it isn’t done by computer. It is done on a computer. Or with index cards – yes, that’s why they are called that – if you are feeling VERY old fashioned and have all day. A computer can give you a list of what page(s) where various words appear (which is not an index but a concordance) but since computers see as opposed to read, computers can’t index concepts.
Why do computers struggle with concepts when indexing?
Let’s say you were indexing an autobiography about – oh, I don’t know – Bill Clinton (yes, yes, I did). Now, if you only wanted a list of pages where his daughter Chelsea is mentioned, that would be easy enough to generate automatically. The computer would just search for terms you specify like her name or the word ‘daughter,’ etc. Boom, there is your page list.
But what if you want an entry about some aspect of the father-daughter relationship between Bill and Chelsea. The computer can’t actually pick out the pages where Bill shows signs of empty nest syndrome because Chelsea is at university and not at home.
Or maybe you want to highlight where someone can find out about Bill’s childhood ambitions. Well, the computer might be able to find the pages mentioning the Plaza Hotel. But can it tell you that some of those pages are relevant to the entry, ‘Clinton, William Jefferson, childhood ambitions of’ ? Not if the words ‘childhood ambition’ never appear on those pages. And it’s somewhere around page 173 or so – young Bill dreams of being a doorman at the Plaza. I know, but it makes sense in context.
It might get some concepts like these depending on the search terms you give it but there are times when a concept is being addressed tangentially or indirectly, by implication that the computer won’t understand. So if you want to ensure that the index is as complete and effective as possible, the book must be read and indexed by a human.
OK, so it’s a human and not a machine. So how does the indexer go about – you know – actually indexing?
Indexers are an independent breed and everyone has their own specific way of working but broadly speaking, this is what happens.
- The indexer works from page proofs for the book (fairly finalized layouts of the actual pages as they will appear including page numbers). This means the indexing is among the last stages of book production.
- The indexer reads the page proofs, marking items for inclusion and entering (see, the computer does have a role after all) the headers and sub-headers (with page locators) into whatever indexing software they favor. Please don’t start me on indexing with MS Word. We’ll be here all day.
- The result is a rough index that will be edited for structure and consistency, then formatted to meet the project specifications. The indexer then proofreads the index and, finding everything in order, submits it to the client.
Is an index really necessary?
I suppose that I ought to say “it depends on the type of books” and strictly speaking that’s true but listen, if you were going on a road trip – someplace you’d never been before or taking a route you’d never taken, would you go without asking directions, taking a map or GPS? No, so why would you wade in to particular books – again, we’re talking about non-fiction here – without an index. Histories, cookbooks, textbooks, reference books, current events, manuals, etc. Indexes are not luxury items in books like this (as I have said before). They are vital to the usability (and re-usability) of such books.
One of the first things a potential buyer (an individual or buyer for a bookstore or library) does when deciding between this book and that is to look at the index. Titles without any index are often dismissed as not being nearly as valuable to them as one that includes this vital navigational tool. The absence of an index, or inclusion of a bad one, has been the focus of scathing comments by book reviewers and readers.
And a note to publishers: yes, I know. I know we don’t live in a world where readership is expanding (anyone planning to use to Kindle argument here should take a deep breath and hold it because that is another discussion). I know the only way to make more money in publishing it to spend less and that paper is expensive. I know that by eliminating that additional signature of paper, you can ensure the price point of the book is a whole level lower but you’re also ensuring that the book’s usefulness is a whole level lower as well.
So who are these indexers?
The index might be taken on wholly – logistics, cost and effort – by the publisher but responsibility (read: cost) for the index often falls to the author even if the publisher handles the logistics of getting it done. That said, authors aren’t generally the ones who do the actual indexing and an indexer is hired by the publisher, and the fee is deducted from the money due the author.
I’ll wait while you digest the relative unfairness of that. I digested it years ago, so I understand you may need a moment.
Isn’t the author the obvious person to index the book? Why incur additional costs by using an indexer?
There are, of course, advantages and disadvantages to being the person closest to the work in question. Yes, there is a cost saving aspect to the author-created index.
The author also has a deep understanding of their subject area, the vocabulary of their fields, and the audience they are writing for. They are, after all that time writing it, the person closest to the text itself and that can be a plus when trying to remember what pages or chapter contain that last mention of a topic.
On the down side, that closeness over an extended period of time can result in burn-out. You may feel you never want to see those pages ever again (at least until they are bound and ready for signing).
Another issue worth examining is the difference between being the author and being a reader. They are two very different creatures and each has a different relationship to the book in front of them. The index is a tool for the reader and should be written from the point of view of someone who is looking for ways into the text. The author-created index is often written the other way around―from the inside out.
This is perfectly natural considering the time and effort that went into the text. But it’s not right for readers, who are coming to the text and working their way in or – in the case of revisiting the text = coming to it with different purposes at different times.
None of that is to say the author can’t do a perfectly decent or even outstanding job as an indexer. It’s just some of the reasons that they very often aren’t the ones doing the indexing.
So now you know.
I could go on and on about indexing – and I will most likely to do so in the future. But I thought a few explanations were in order since the number of eyebrows raised and knitted of late had grown exponentially. More information on indexing in general, on my indexing experience and the process of indexing can be found on Modern Parlance. And if you are interested in finding out more about indexing, get in touch. Indexers don’t bite. You’ll be fine