Back of the book indexing

It is the process of considering the intended audience while choosing. Diane brenner, indexing services backofthebook indexing. Its a list of the books themes and topics that most. The faq frequently asked questions has been compiled to provide basic information on indexing as a freelance career, and indicate some resources for further research. Creating effective backofthebook indexes for academic texts. Donna drialo at back of the book indexing colorado springs, colorado area 146 connections. Services cheryl lenser professional indexing and editing. There is a wealth of information on indexing, including books, workshops, webinars and training courses. Can backofthebook indexes be automatically created. This fivestep process is what every indexer does, in one form or another, to write an index that your readers will return to to make full use of your book. So although book indexing is the traditional form of indexing, there are many possibilities now within the field. Indexing your notebook content ultimately, i decided on this more traditional approach for my particular needs. For these types of projects, i normally work from pdfs and provide a word file of the.

However, automatic back of indexing has not been used for amharic books. Machineaided back of the book indexing is a tool which aids in the preparation of the index contained at the back of the book. How to contract with a book indexer word for word book services. If you are picking up a book for the first time, a good index will give you the gist of the book, and perhaps the motivation to buy it. In backofthebook indexing, on the other hand, the unit that an index term points to is totally variable and fluid. That being the case, most nonfiction books should have an index.

We can index almost any topic, but we specialize in. Back of the book indexing i can create subject, name, author, or any combination of index types required for your book. Backofbook indexing may seem to be a matter of picking out a few keywords from the text and shoving them into an index. Purple sage indexing professionally prepares backofthebook indexes that are comprehensive, accurate, and delivered on time for general interest books, scholarly books, and textbooks. J burek indexing services back of the book indexing and. Pdf index generator is a powerful indexing utility for generating the back of your book index and writing it to your book in 4 easy steps. Frequently asked questions american society for indexing. Its not unusual for publishers and editors who have not come from a scholarly background, or who have worked mainly with fiction, to have an incomplete. The main idea behind developing this system is to save the time and.

A good index greatly enhances a books usability and value, yet few writers and editors know how to construct this vital part of a nonfiction publication. It could be a couple of sentences, a paragraph, several paragraphs, or a. Indexing a book does require a certain amount of time, knowledge, and skill. Corporate materials, legal documents, and catalogs need indexes. I can create subject, name, author, or any combination of index types required for your book. To roundup all the pages a certain topic falls on, search for that word or phrase in your microsoft word document. Youve written a fabulous nonfiction book and you want your readers to get the most out of it. Indexing is new york times bestselling author seanan mcguires new urban fantasy where everything you thought you knew about fairy tales gets turned on its head. Textract is used by authors, editors and professional indexers who want highquality backofbook indexes while having to meet deadlines. Back words indexing writes conceptual, userfriendly, backofthebook indexes for publishers and authors as a book goes to print. To make an index you must ask, for every passage in a book, if i were looking for this, what words would describe what i was looking for. An index is a valuable tool that allows readers to quickly access the material in your publication.

Over the past decade, i have created backofthebook indexes for scholarly monographs and edited collections, including for my own books. Includes information on the business of freelance indexing. The indexer may be the author, the editor, or a professional indexer working as a third party. This book was initially released in episodes as a kindle serial. The sublime joy of making a book index without bullshit. A backofthebook indexer with over 20 years of experience, i have indexed hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics see selected titlesand always look forward to working on each title with the goal of creating the most effective and readerfriendly index possible, delivered on time and with careful attention to detail. However, if the indexer isnt familiar with the subject matter and doesnt have a solid understanding of indexing principles, the index will not meet the needs of the reader and the book will not fulfill its true potential. However, one difficulty the software has is finding terms that are not in the document. Its not unusual for publishers and editors who have not come from a scholarly background, or who have worked mainly with fiction, to have an incomplete understanding of what an index is, its purpose, and how it works. How to contract with a book indexer word for word book. Extensive information about the indexing business can be found here a separate associated website.

Semiautomatic indexing for qualityconscious indexers and authors semiautomatic book indexing. In indexing decisions, concepts are recorded as data elements organised into easily accessible forms for retrieval. If you love books and reading, have a fairly analytical mind, would love to be a business owner, and are looking for a career change or a parttime career opportunity, indexing might be just the thing for you. Writing means thinking of an idea and creating content for it. Automatic procedures have been in use for the generation of back of. However, if the indexer isnt familiar with the subject matter and doesnt have a solid understanding of indexing principles, the index will not. In books, indexes are usually placed near the end this is commonly known as bob or backofbook indexing. I do believe that it is possible for anyone to learn. Fivestep process for writing a book index the writing. W w ith textract you create the backofbook index for the printed and ebook editions of your book in three. Back words indexing writes conceptual, userfriendly, back of the book indexes for publishers and authors as a book goes to print. For this, youll need to master book indexing software and industry standards or find a freelancer to index your book.

Purple sage indexing professionally prepares back of the book indexes that are comprehensive, accurate, and delivered on time for general interest books, scholarly books, and textbooks. A backofthebook indexer with over 20 years of experience, i have indexed hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics see selected titles and always look forward to working on each title with the goal of. Why dont we just use searches to find what we want in books or ebooks. The closest work of rich literature to backofthebook indexing is the keyphrase extraction, which has been ex tensively studied in di erent application contexts such as academical and digital library resources 6, 18, 8, web pages 12, 25, 15, 19 and social media documents 11, 26, 20. In a traditional nonfiction or academic book, the index includes words, concepts, names of people, places, and events that are relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. Surprisingly, very little attention has been drawn to book indexing by taking advantage of keyword extraction techniques except 4, which explored the automatic backof.

They complement the table of contents by enabling access to information by specific subject, whereas contents listings enable access through broad divisions of the text arranged in the order they occur. To make an index you must ask, for every passage in a book, if i were looking for this, what words would describe what i. Backofthebook indexes are designed to help the reader find information quickly and easily. If you love books and reading, have a fairly analytical mind, would love to be a business owner, and are looking for a career. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. In addition, there are different qualitylevels of indexing. Fiction authors are lucky that they only have to create a table of contents, but nonfiction authors also have to create a robust index to help readers navigate their book. Backofbook indexing will give your audience access to all your hardearned knowledge, by creating an intuitive portal to the information theyre looking for. With years of experience creating and updating back of the book and newsletter indexes for repeat clients, we know what authors, librarians, educators and readers expect from a professional legal index. Millis indexing services provides quality backofthebook indexing and copyediting at competitive rates for publications in many different fields. Indexing for ebooks means creating a traditional backofthebookstyle index familiar to all readers, where locators traditionally page numbers, are hyperlinked to their referenced passages within the. Purple sage indexing a backofthebook indexing service. Machineaided backofthebook indexing is a tool which aids in the preparation of the index contained at the back of the book.

Over the past decade, i have created back of the book indexes for scholarly monographs and edited collections, including for my own books. Also known as backofthebookindex, indexing is found at the end of the book and mostly sorted in alphabetical order. Automatic procedures have been in use for the generation of back of book indexes. You will value textracts navigation, editing and formatting functions that provide full control. The business also has its own url twinoaksindexing. Back of the book indexes are designed to help the reader find information quickly and easily.

If after reading parts 1 and 2 of this series youve decided that a computer isnt competent to index your book and that hiring a. The process of indexing has a close resemblance to the search process. No index in a book means the reader has to find anything they remember by leafing through the whole book. Your own index is something you put in the back of the book or the front if you prefer. Its a list of the books themes and topics that most resonate with you, and the pages which have the best quotes and ideas around those topics. In a traditional nonfiction or academic book, the index includes words, concepts, names of people, places. An index is a valuable tool that allows readers to quickly. Quality of an index has a direct relationship with both the sales of a book and its usefulness to its readers. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading indexing. Surprisingly, very little attention has been drawn to book indexing by taking advantage of keyword extraction techniques except 4, which explored the automatic back of the book index generation problem as a keyword extraction problem using supervised learning. W w ith textract you create the back of book index for the printed and ebook editions of your book in three steps, using a unique combination of automated and manual indexing. All episodes are now available for immediate download as a complete book. A back of the book indexer with over 20 years of experience, i have indexed hundreds of books on a wide variety of topics see selected titles and always look forward to working on each title with the goal of creating the most effective and readerfriendly index possible, delivered on time and with careful attention to detail.

Back of book indexes and table of contents have been the two most important means for accessing specific information in books. It is the process of considering the intended audience while choosing terms and headings that will collatehighlight the topics within the book. As for the relationship between back of the book indexing and creating controlled vocabularies, that may not seem as obvious. Databases, online materials, and websites also need indexes, and there is software available for this kind of indexing also. The main role of the index in a book is to identify the concept of the paper and guide the reader to information by gathering scattered relationships or references and to locate keywords and concepts. With years of experience creating and updating backofthebook and newsletter indexes for repeat clients, we know what authors, librarians.

Twin oaks indexing is a collective of individuals trained to create a clean and thorough backofbook index within your budget, time, and space limitations. Also known as back of the book index, indexing is found at the end of the book and mostly sorted in alphabetical order. Back of book indexing may seem to be a matter of picking out a few keywords from the text and shoving them into an index. The main role of the index in a book is to identify the concept of the paper and. Donna drialo ownerindexer back of the book indexing. In a traditional back of the book index, the headings will include names of people, places, events, and concepts selected by the indexer as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. I love to index books, because it requires intense thinking thats like writing in reverse. Mar 05, 2015 in back of the book indexing, on the other hand, the unit that an index term points to is totally variable and fluid. Before you selfpublish your book, you can easily add an index to your back matter. For these types of projects, i normally work from pdfs and provide a word file of the finished indexes.