Why employ a professional?
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"The structure of an index is by design; it is not happenstance."
(Nancy Mulvany) |
Why indeed?
If your heating broke down, would you fix it yourself without the requisite skills to undertake a thorough and safe job?
If you needed an extension would you not employ a professional builder, with reputation, skill and proven ability to give you the best possible building?
If an index is as important as we have discussed (see What is an index and Is an index necessary) then surely the only way to do it justice is to employ a professional who has trained for the work, has the subject knowledge and expertise to breakdown your beautiful prose into single concepts that can be mapped and gathered for the reader to use.
The author of a book knows their subject and their publication inside out. They are the experts in what they have committed to print. So why should an author not index their own work?
Who is an index for? It is for the reader, the person who is approaching the publication raw, without the inside knowledge, but with the wish to learn it, and find it over and over again. The job of the indexer is to be in the mind of the reader, to approach the text from a very different angle to the author. With the subject expertise that they possess, they can do this, can assess the readership level, what concepts can be grouped, give access to the text from alternative points of entry, using synonyms and cross references, to build that map of the publication.
A professional is always worth their weight in gold, no matter what the field. The investment will pay dividends, in terms of time and reputation. Indexed books sell, and cutting the cost of the index may well prove to be false economy. Readers, and reviewers alike, look more favourably on texts with high quality indexes.
Take the plunge, speak to a professional.
If your heating broke down, would you fix it yourself without the requisite skills to undertake a thorough and safe job?
If you needed an extension would you not employ a professional builder, with reputation, skill and proven ability to give you the best possible building?
If an index is as important as we have discussed (see What is an index and Is an index necessary) then surely the only way to do it justice is to employ a professional who has trained for the work, has the subject knowledge and expertise to breakdown your beautiful prose into single concepts that can be mapped and gathered for the reader to use.
The author of a book knows their subject and their publication inside out. They are the experts in what they have committed to print. So why should an author not index their own work?
Who is an index for? It is for the reader, the person who is approaching the publication raw, without the inside knowledge, but with the wish to learn it, and find it over and over again. The job of the indexer is to be in the mind of the reader, to approach the text from a very different angle to the author. With the subject expertise that they possess, they can do this, can assess the readership level, what concepts can be grouped, give access to the text from alternative points of entry, using synonyms and cross references, to build that map of the publication.
A professional is always worth their weight in gold, no matter what the field. The investment will pay dividends, in terms of time and reputation. Indexed books sell, and cutting the cost of the index may well prove to be false economy. Readers, and reviewers alike, look more favourably on texts with high quality indexes.
Take the plunge, speak to a professional.
"Hire a professional indexer. The author of a text is the worst person for the job. You simply know the material too well (or, if you don’t, why in the world did you write the book?) to create a useful index. A professional indexer will read and understand your text, and will create an index that opens it up to a wider range of possible readers than you ever could. It’s what they do." (from
'Working with Long Documents in Adobe InDesign CS3')
'Working with Long Documents in Adobe InDesign CS3')