Higher Loyalty, A (Comey)

I just had to take a look at A Higher Loyalty’s index. A politically important and newsworthy book like Comey’s makes my imagination go wild. Who indexed it? What was that process like? I kinda even want the indexer’s autograph. I did the same thing when Hillary’s book came out. I’m a nerd like that.…

Academic Writing: and Fake News

I’d like to take a little bit of time to talk about fake news. As a former mass communications major, I have always respected and trusted the gateway of information. Throughout my adult life I have scoured newspapers, watched newscasts, and generally paid attention to what is happening in our world. With the advent of…

Indexing, process of

I love working with authors. They all have a dream of this book they’ve been obsessing over for years. They’ve lost sleep, tired their friends and family with specific topic conversations, some have quit jobs or put careers on hold. By the time they get to me, they are buttoning everything up and can see…

Heroes, indexers as

I love my clients. I really do. Partly, of course, because they are my clients and allow me to have the job I love, but also because they are often amazing people. Roughly half my clients are authors, and the other half work for publishing companies. Authors tend to be  passionate and enthusiastic about their…

Indexer, on becoming

“So. What do you do?” When that socially-required question is asked by someone I’ve just met, I already know how the rest of the conversation will go: “I’m an indexer. I write back-of-book indexes.” “Really? I didn’t know that was a real thing.” “Yep.” “How did you get into that?”   Party pleasantries aside, how…