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).