Indexing a Book: The Pros and Cons

A surprisingly interesting discussion of whether it is necessary to create an
index for a book one writes/edits, as well as the advantages and disadvantages
of creating the index oneself, hiring someone else to do it, or creating it with
software, and how creating an index can be a "feminist act."  This discussion
took place on WMST-L in February 2009.  For additional WMST-L discussions
available on the Web, see the WMST-L File Collection.

My question is, is it necessary for an edited book to have an index?
I've seen some academic WST books that are indexed and some not - the
ones that aren't are often edited books.  I know that some presses
expect authors to either do the indexing themselves or pay (quite a
lot) to have it done, and I'm wondering what standard practice in WST
is (and does this differ by discipline?).

Thanks,
Jessica

Jessica Nathanson
Director, Women's Resource Center
Augsburg College
Minneapolis, MN
nathanso  AT  augsburg.edu
      

This is a question dear to my heart, having just dealt with the plummeting
of the australian dollar exchange rate against US dollar that increased what
I paid for indexing by about 50%.  I had made the decision to go with the
US-based publisher¦s indexer rather than a local one because it would be
less trouble for me, because the US-based indexer was familiar with the
publisher's requirements, and at the time I made the decision, it worked out
at roughly the same cost.

I live to regret that decision!

but it does seem that where indexes happen the cost, as the cost of
obtaining rights for illustrations where applicable, is universally passed
on to the author or editor.  and my experience in australia is that
universities mostly do not fund indexing costs for authors (the dean of my
faculty having pointed out to me that it would quickly bankrupt the faculty
to do so), so unless one has a pre-existing research grant for something
else from which one can draw funds, one is forking out yet again to
subsidise one's job.

The other problem was that the indexer in question, although rigorous in the
breadth and depth of the index, made a plethora of mistakes with French and
transliterated Arabic names (even though these were ostensibly simple
copy-and-pastes from the largely correct copy-edited MS).  Regrettably,
despite my careful (I thought) proofreading, some of the mistakes remained
and I now have correct spellings in main texts and incorrect, in a minority
of cases, in the index.  Of course, one cannot expect indexers to be
polyglots but one can reasonably expect them to be able to copy-type, and be
fluent in reading the unusual letterings used in copyedit text to replace
diacritical marks.

So I may very well go with a local indexer next time.

but these technical problems aside, to the substantive question of whether
indexes are a good idea:  YES YES YES YES YES!!

Even as author I find indexes indispensable in locating specific references
I want to cite (not only in crossreferences in other work but also in media
interviews and book presentations for example).

As a reader of the work of others, they are absolutely indispensable.  With
the quantity of material we have to get through these days in order to
ensure we have researched our topics well, we have to become proficient at
skimming and scanning, and indexes are of immense value in this regard.  I
notice this particularly when I to and fro between material written in
english and in french.  in french, it is mostly only proper nouns that are
indexed in cases where there is an index at all, which is better than
nothing but not great.

but yes, indexes do seem to be less usual in edited collections, which is a
great shame.  this may be to do with the process for charging for indexes.
editors may baulk at paying and how does one organise it logistically for
individual authors?

I'd be delighted if this could be changed but at least one has fewer pages
to flick through when seeking sthg specific from an edited collection.

bronwyn

*****************************************************************
Dr Bronwyn Winter 
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Matters
Program Director, International and Comparative Literary Studies
Faculty of Arts 

Senior Lecturer
Dept of French Studies
School of Languages and Cultures
University of Sydney
NSW  2006  Australia
Email: bronwyn.winter  AT  usyd.edu.au

There are 18 copies of Dale and Lynn Spender's book Scribbling Sisters
(with an intro by their mother) available on amazon.com.
There are 26 copies at Alibris.com.  I don't know how many of these
are being sold on both sites.
 
The book, which is a collection of letters exchanged by the two
sisters, includes Dale's thoughts on and struggles with indexing one
of her most important books -- and anyone famliar with Dale's
wonderful books knows that her "most important books" number at least
a dozen.
 
But in Scribbling Sisters she writes to her sister about the ways in
which her ideas about indexing matures as she works on this index for,
I think, Women of Ideas (ANd what men have done to them).  She comes
to realize that an index is a political and philosophical project.  No
one can really do it "right" for you because only you know which
concepts are most important in your book -- whether it is a single
author book or an anthology.  Along with names etc. that are typically
indexed, the major concepts need to be indexed.  If it is an
anthology, the index is a way for the editor to make clear her (sic)
over-all vision of what the book is about, what the connections
between the essays are, and what readers should take away.  My fvorite
example of what she talks about is the concept "Completist."
 
I urge you to index your book and to do it yourself.  There are books
about indexing that can help you make the job easier.  Ms. Mentor
knows what those books are.  I don't remember their titles.
 
Susan Koppelman, huddis  AT  msn.com, www.SusanKoppelman.com

Susan Koppelman The Short Stories of Fannie Hurst "The Strange History
of Suzanne laFleshe" and other stories of Women and Fatness "Women in
the Trees:" U.S. Women's Short Stories about Battering and Resistance,
1839-1994 Between Mothers and Daughters: Stories Across a Generation
http://www.feministpress.org
 

hello again all

in response to the following:

-------------------------
On 14/2/09 12:22 , "Susan Koppelman" <huddis  AT  MSN.COM> wrote:

 I urge you to index your book and to do it yourself.  There are books
 about indexing that can help you make the job easier.  Ms. Mentor
 knows what those books are.  I don't remember their titles.
--------------------------

has anyone actually ever tried to do this?  indexing is quite a skill and
takes a very, very long time.  if it is something you are not used to doing,
it will take over your life. perhaps dale spender has that sort of time (or
is a wonderfully efficient indexer), but I certainly do not.

there exist professionals who do this for a living, and different indexers
will specialise in different areas.  many of them have research backgrounds
themselves.

in the current state of higher education and research, at least in australia
and many other countries with which I am familiar, I know of no academic who
has either the time or the skills to make indexing her own books a viable
proposition.  not without great cost to herself in terms of overwork in any
case.

it's also a bit like translating your own work, when you're too close to it,
it's harder to do systematically and efficiently.  I am a professionally
accredited translator and interpreter but find it incredibly difficult to
translate my own work, whether from english to french or french to english
(I've done both) - because you don't structure your thinking in the same way
in a different language.

while not of the same order of complexity, I would argue that indexing
requires a different type of thinking to writing the book in the first
place, and just because one is a good writer and thinker, this doesn't make
one a good indexer.  and most certainly not an efficient one.

bronwyn


*****************************************************************
Dr Bronwyn Winter 
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Matters
Program Director, International and Comparative Literary Studies
Faculty of Arts 

Senior Lecturer
Dept of French Studies
School of Languages and Cultures
University of Sydney
NSW  2006  Australia
Email: bronwyn.winter  AT  usyd.edu.au

Indexes were required by the publisher of my two books, and I did the
indexing myself.  It is tedious and time-consuming but certainly
do-able.  Each took me about a week in the summer. If you can find the
time, I, too, recommend doing it yourself, as an indexer is costly and
not always as accurate as the author would be.  Best, Jeana DelRosso
 
 
Dr. Jeana DelRosso
Chair, Department of English
Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies
College of Notre Dame of Maryland
4701 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD  21210
jdelrosso  AT  ndm.edu
 

I did some indexing on PESACH FOR THE REST OF US.  Even the limited amount I
did took days.  It was a question of doing it myself or paying exorbitantly
for someone else to do it.    I had no choice but I can't say I enjoyed it.
But i understood it was necessary for people to use the book efficiently.

marge piercy 

Hello!  I've made several types of index for books I authored and books I
edited.  They take a long time but, in my opinion, are worth the effort.
For this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation, Anzaldua
and I chose to go with a name-only index, and I was fortunate to have the
assistance of two highly-trusted research assistants.  I did my own index
for other books I've written (Women Reading, Women Writing and Teaching
Transformation) and books I've edited (Anzaldua's Entrevistas and
EntreMundos/AmongWorlds: New Perspectives on Gloria Anzaldua), although in a
few cases I've been fortunate to have assistance with the initial step of
putting the terms on the index cards.

I believe that a thorough index can be a way of constructing knowledge and,
as such, it  can be an important tool for readers and for authors/editors.
A careful index can bring together ideas that readers might miss. (For
instance, when indexing Anzaldua's books, I can reference passages where she
alludes to, but does not mention by name, some of her key theories like
nepantleras, spiritual activism, and so on.)

A good index is a lot of work but well worth an author's or editor's effort;
it can also be rather fun!


AnaLouise Keating, Ph.D.
Professor of Women's Studies
Texas Woman's University
PO Box 425557
Denton, TX 76204

"[O]nce you have discerned the meaning of a label, it may seem to define you
for others, but it does not have the power to define you to yourself."
--James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket

Hello. Bronwyn Winter asks:
> has anyone actually ever tried to do this?  indexing is quite a skill and
> takes a very, very long time.  if it is something you are not used to
> doing, it will take over your life.
   
I just indexed my book that came out in August with Duke UP.  Most academics
I know here in the US do their own indexes.  The only ones I personally know
who don't do their own are those who are (very) famous and can force the
press to do it or those who have large grants and can pay to have it done.
I've come to understand it as a normal, albeit tedious, part of the
publishing process here.

Input I gathered from colleagues over the past years suggested that they
usually spent approximately what publishers generally recommend:  about one
week's worth of work time.  This is indeed about what it took me to do a
fairly extensive index.

> I would argue that indexing
> requires a different type of thinking to writing the book in the first
> place, and just because one is a good writer and thinker, this doesn't
> make one a good indexer.  and most certainly not an efficient one.

I do agree with this thought wholeheartedly.  But I also believe that the
index does provide an overview to the work and all the complexity of its
themes and approaches.  For this reason, I also tend to agree with the
publishers and editors I've spoken with who've all told me that indexes tend
to be much better when done by the author.  This will of course vary in
extent depending on the type of book being indexed (theory, survey of
literature, emprirical research, etc.).

Kirsten Kraus

I indexed one book and that was it for me. From then on, I negotiated with
publishers and they hired a professional. For the most part, they will split
or absorb the cost. Whatever the cost to the writer usually can be charged
to royalties (we're talking academic books, so the bucks are not big).

-- 
Ellen G. Friedman
Professor, Women's and Gender Studies and English
The College of New Jersey PO Box 7718, Ewing, NJ 08628-0718

Although author-prepared indexes can probably get at implied concepts and
relationships better than can the work of a professional indexer, this isn't
as likely an  option with an anthology, which was the original question.  I
suspect that  in cases where edited books aren't indexed it is because the
editor has been unable or unwilling to do it, and the publisher won't pay
for it. Something that would help, in cases where an editor knows upfront
that the book won't be indexed, is to require contributors to provide
outlines of their essays so that headings can be included in the essays --
and perhaps an enriched table of contents, including the sub-topics for each
essay, can be negotiated with the publisher. At least the main ideas, if not
all the people, places, and subsidiary concepts would be listed in an
organized way. (This is more an idea of mine than a reality, except for
textbooks, but why not try?) And the essays themselves might turn out
better...

Something else to consider is that in this day and age, books are available
in electronic form from most publishers, and academic libraries are getting
more and more into acquiring them that way. Is an index still important when
readers can search through the fulltext?  Yes, probably, for the individual
book buyers of print books and for expressing relationships among topics --
but to the extent that the concern is for scholarly access to the contents,
it is good to keep in mind that the bulk of the material may soon be
accessible to academic users through keyword searches anyway, in the same
way journal articles are now.

Phyllis Holman Weisbard
 
****************************************************
Phyllis Holman Weisbard, Women's Studies Librarian
University of Wisconsin System
430 Memorial Library, 728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
pweisbard  AT  library.wisc.edu
http://womenst.library.wisc.edu/
**************************************************** 

Indexing is a snap with the right word processing software.  I used Nota
Bene, and indexed as I wrote, just as you do footnotes as you write.
Indexing an item is actually easier than footnoting, and it's much easier
when it's fresh in your mind.  You work up your categories at the beginning,
add new ones as you go along, and change things around in the middle if you
want.    Printing off the index at the end took me maybe an hour.

OK, so Nota Bene is expensive, but how much does indexing cost?  It's an
elegant program, and works on Macs with Boot Camp.

-- 
Dr. Sharon Collingwood
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/collingwood7/

Department of Women's Studies
Ohio State University
286 University Hall
230 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1311

Second Life:  Ellie Brewster
Visit Minerva Isle in Second Life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Minerva/10/10/29/
Visit Minerva Isle on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1115820642

This may possibly be less professional than some people would like and
possibly not as easy as Nota Bene (which I haven't used), but WORD has an
indexing function, and I think WordPerfect does too.

Judith

http://www.judithlaura.com

At 02:35 PM 2/14/2009, you wrote:
> This may possibly be less professional than some people would like and
> possibly not as easy as Nota Bene (which I haven't used), but WORD has an
> indexing function, and I think WordPerfect does too.
> 
> Judith

I tried the Word function and did not think it worked well enough.  It
missed too much.

marge 

I think indexing is the final way an author (or editor) shapes a book, and
that makes it an intellectual challenge. I've made the indices for nearly
ten of my books. Publishers rarely pay for having the index made, and a
professional indexer never does as thorough a job as the author/editor, so a
very thorough proofreading and even checking has to be done anyway.

As far as I can tell, the only way to get a really good, analytical (vs.
just proper nouns) index is for the author to do it.  Who else understands
what's important?  I've also generally index parts of discussions that
related to major entries, even if a particular word did not appear in, say,
the page in question. E.g., the word "education" doesn't need to appear for
a discussion to be about education.  A professional indexer is not likely to
do such things. Again, only the author usually realizes what belongs with
what, and thus can lead the reader through related discussions.

A book with a thorough analytical index is a wonderful thing, and hence I've
found it worth the effort -- after all, as tedious as it is, it's nothing
compared to what it took to write the book (or even to edit a book of essays
by various authors). I do see edited collections without indices, and that's
regrettable, I think.

My experience is that to make a very thorough index by hand, using slips of
paper, takes two weeks of full-time work from beginning to end (for about a
boo kof approx. 300 printed pages).  A computer program can help with proper
names etc., but not with concepts and even less with subheads.  It's
absolutely pointless to have an index with, say,  20 page numbers after an
entry. Anything that prominent requires subheads.

DP 

I cannot speak for all publishers but  a lot do not accept indexes done with
indexing programs and esp not Word.

great to hear that some publishers absorb indexing costs.  this is not my
experience.

great, also, that some of you have a spare week (and leftover energy) to do
your own indexes.  academic workloads in the US must be lower than in
australia.  I am sure it is an enriching experience when you get into it but
sadly, I don't have time for that sort of enrichment. (my occasional
contributions to WMST-L are on borrowed time as it is!)

finally, it's great that the timing of indexing falls in summer for you and
you are prepared to spend even more of your break working than most of us
already do.  

but the timing of copyediting, indexing and galley proofs for an autumn
(sorry, fall) release by a US or UK publisher falls in the middle of the
academic year in australia.  it is a busy busy time.

re funds: my index was paid for out of some extra money my head of school
agreed to put in my meagre research account, and a new research fund decided
by the dean to give associate deans a little research money for the academic
governance /admin work we do. but even without the research fund I would
almost certainly have paid for it and claimed it against my tax because I do
not have the time.  I just do not.

re edited collections, the subheads is a good idea but makes for an awfully
long TOC.  perhaps, given articles are not anywhere near as long as books,
contributors can prepare their own index items (or have them prepared)
according to an agreed format and editors can assemble.  I could find time
to index one article.  but not a 400 p book.

bronwyn

*****************************************************************
Dr Bronwyn Winter 
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Matters
Program Director, International and Comparative Literary Studies
Faculty of Arts 

Senior Lecturer
Dept of French Studies
School of Languages and Cultures
University of Sydney
NSW  2006  Australia
Email: bronwyn.winter  AT  usyd.edu.au

>  A computer program can help with proper names etc., but not with concepts
> and even less with subheads.  It's absolutely pointless to have an index
> with, say,  20 page numbers after an entry. Anything that prominent
> requires subheads. 

Nota Bene does subheads.  You set up your categories, then every time you
want a word included in the index, you just hit a key and mark it.  The
hardest work is at the beginning, because you have to think about what your
index will look like.  But you can always change it later, without losing
your tags.

-- 
Dr. Sharon Collingwood
http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/collingwood7/

Department of Women's Studies
Ohio State University
286 University Hall
230 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1311

Second Life:  Ellie Brewster
Visit Minerva Isle in Second Life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Minerva/10/10/29/
Visit Minerva Isle on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1115820642

Thanks to all who have responded.  It is very helpful to hear pretty
well unanimously that indexing is necessary, and also to hear what
others have done to make it happen, given the time and financial
costs.  (I'm glad to know about Nota Bene, especially.)

Jessica

Jessica Nathanson
Director, Women's Resource Center
Augsburg College
Minneapolis, MN
nathanso  AT  augsburg.edu

Speaking as a reader, and getting back to the original question, i think
without question a scholarly book needs an index, even if it's just of
names, places,. There has to be a way for readers to find info again without
leafing through the whole book, and an index also helps tells people if the
book will be relevant to their own work . A scholarly book without an index
just doesn't look as if it takes itself seriously.
  I'm very used to reading books with imperfect indexes --  not every
mention will show up, some names are missing entirely. this discussion has
helped me understand the challenge. But even a rudimentary index is better
than none.

Katha Pollitt
kpollitt  AT  thenation.com

I chose to do the index for my wifebeating book (1998) using a word or
wordperfect indexing at the time.  It was tedious, but I did not have
funds to pay the publisher to do it and it was very important for me
to have an index. I did it while proofreading the book--a chapter or
two a day, using search to find additional entries as I found them.
The only problem was that the publisher made a more detailed table of
contents than had been agreed upon and that threw off the preface and
introduction entries which were in small roman numerals. Aside from
that it was a "fun" experience and I felt very professional doing it!
However, to my regret, in my collection of essays, Unlocking the
Garden I do not have an index, only a bibliography. If you want
control over the index you should do it yourself--unless you have the
funds to pay your publisher or take it against the pittance of what
they call royalties today.

Naomi Graetz 
Ben Gurion University of the Negev 
graetz  AT  bgu.ac.il 
----------------------------------- 
Author of 
The Rabbi's Wife Plays at Murder (Shiluv Press, 2004) 
Orders: graetz  AT  bgu.ac.il 
Unlocking the Garden: A Feminist Jewish Look at the Bible, Midrash and God (Gorgias Press, 2005) 
Online orders: www.gorgiaspress.com 
S/He Created Them: Feminist Retellings of Biblical Tales (Gorgias Press, 2003) 
Online orders: www.gorgiaspress.com 
Silence is Deadly:Judaism Confronts Wifebeating (Jason Aronson, 1998) 
Online Orders   http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/

My biggest beef with indices is when they send you to the wrong page and you
sit there saying, 341, could that be 314?  or 413?  and it's none of those.
I think that happens far less when writers index for themselves. i have no
choice but to do that, but I try to tell myself as I do the tedious work how
often i need the indices in books i am using and how much more time i would
waste looking for what I am researching if the book lacked a good index..

marge piercy 

I couldn't agree more with Marge Piercy and others who have noted how
valuable a good index is.  Moreover, except for my first book, an
anthology, indexed by a wonderful graduate student who went on to
great fame in philosophy and feminist theory, I did index my books and
found it not particularly onerous.  In fact, I was glad I was doing it
and could insure that some related discussions were indexed together
in a way that would be useful to researchers.

Linda A. Bell
wsilab  AT  langate.gsu.edu 

I have to add a note, simply because the posting from Linda Bell reports
that she has not founnd indexing particularly onerous. I must say she is the
first person I have ever encountered who says that.

It is also important (often to folks who are deciding whether to buy the
book, or to order it for teaching purposes, and then for many users of it).
I have bought books without indices but I strongly prefer not to and have
sometimes deeply regretted it. Reasons for this have been well captured by
other postings.

One reason it is hard to do well is the same reason that using software to
create or to substitute for an index (if the book is available
electronically) - is because the indexer must make intellectual decisions
about the subject(s) of each section (paragraph? sentence?). So I would
agree with those who have found creating an index for a book an informative
experience.

From my limited experience (only one edited collection among my indices), an
anthology is easier to index well than is a textbook.

Laura Kramer

My decision to do my own index was as a result of a thoroughly
unsatisfactory and unprofessional job done by the person hired by the
press which published my book. The topic was sensitive -- bisexuality
-- but the index was bizarre, focussing on minor issues and ignoring
all the major ones. I was landed with doing the index over a few manic
days and nights because of deadlines. I'm sure my efforts were less
than perfect, but they were a major improvement on the efforts of the
"professional." So for anybody who has a book on a topic which arouses
strong emotions, my advice is: do the index yourself, read up how to
do it ahead of time, and make notes as you go, as many contributors to
this discussion have suggested.

Cheryl Stobie
Please find our Email Disclaimer here: http://www.ukzn.ac.za/disclaimer/

I appreciate this conversation and have one perhaps helpful addition:

Laura Kramer wrote: "One reason [indexing] is hard to do well is the
same reason that using software to create or to substitute for an
index (if the book is available electronically) - is because the
indexer must make intellectual decisions about the subject(s) of each
section (paragraph? sentence?). So I would agree with those who have
found creating an index for a book an informative experience."

Indexing can be a feminist act.  Indexers have the opportunity to
shape how we encounter a text, and the inclusion/exclusion of items
from an index can tell you a lot.  This UK blogger captures a bit of
what I mean:
http://magistraetmater.blog.co.uk/2007/04/29/feminist_indexing~2178503/

Julie
________________________________________________
Julie K. Daniels
English Department
Women and Gender Studies Program
Century College
3300 Century Ave. N.
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
julie.daniels  AT  century.edu

Microsoft Word has an indexing feature under the heading "References".  This
might make indexing easier.

As a reference librarian, and as a researcher, I certainly do appreciate
having an index.

Sincerely,

Rita A. Marinko, Assoc. Prof.
Bibliographer:  Psychology/Sociology/Women's Studies/Sexual Diversity
Studies/Career Resources
Iowa State University
152 Parks Library
Ames, IA  50011
rmarinko  AT  iastate.edu

At 05:51 PM 2/17/2009, you wrote:
> Microsoft Word has an indexing feature under the heading "References".
> This might make indexing easier.

It's an ineffective feature.

marge piercy