Ctrl+F or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hire an Indexer

Precious Topical Findings

The images below are excerpts from the indexes of two recently released (2021) books. The books themselves are well written, researched, and edited. The indexes, however, are full of entries that are less than helpful:

Indexing best practice — according to various books and courses on the subject — states that, on average, listing six locators (aka page numbers/ranges) is ok but effort should be made to split up longer strings of locators. The same principle applies to page spans (e.g., 445-81, 516-36). The idea is to prevent the proverbial search for a needle in a haystack.

Indexing Is a Profession: It’s OK to Hire a Professional

There’s no need for authors to struggle and ultimately come up with a less-than-satisfactory product…especially when so much time and effort has gone into the book itself. Consider it self-care or respecting the document, or both: hiring an indexer can save time, stress, and grief — for the author and the reader.