Indexing Your Book

Indexing—that is, creating an alphabetic list of names, terms, facts, topics, concepts, and other indicators of what is in a book that is worth knowing about—is an art, not a science. Although a concordance—merely a list of words— can be created by computer software, an intelligent index cannot. A human being who is familiar with the subject and the particular book must go through every page and painstakingly create the index. There is software to assist in creating an index, but most authors do not own this costly aid.

Although an author may know his or her book better than anyone else, the author may not be the best person to index his or her book.

Because a good index helps sell your book, it may be worthwhile to hire a professional indexer to create your index. And, by the way, indexing is a rare skill. In the United States, there are only one thousand or so indexers who put up with all sorts of obstacles. Suffice it to say that no one should consider applying page numbers to an index when the book is not in a stable layout. Authors, editors, and publishers who are still moving chapters, pages, and text around are trouble.

The main point to remember about indexing is that you cannot finish an index until you have final page numbers.

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