Creating a back of the book indexing

These are sometimes referred respectively to as database. Over the past decade, i have created back ofthe book indexes for scholarly monographs and edited collections, including for my own books. Corporate materials, legal documents, and catalogs need indexes. Im a member of the american society for indexing and i have the qualifications to ensure that your index will be thoughtful, accurate, and wellcrafted. How to make a backofbook index in three easy steps. I need to create an index of key words and their page numbers in the back. Sometimes creating the back of your book index is much easier than you think, and that. Ebook indexing is a brand new field with few practitioners. Because of the technology involved, ebook indexing is not the same as print book indexing. 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. Creating effective backofthebook indexes for academic texts. You can sequentially number pages in booked documents, print selected documents in a book, or export them to pdf.

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. Back of the book indexing and thesaurus creation hedden. I have been sent a draft 6 chapter book prepared in adobe pdf library 11. Creating a book index using a pseudobook intersecting. So although book indexing is the traditional form of indexing, there are many possibilities now within the field. A book file is a collection of documents that can share styles, swatches, master pages, and other items. A back ofthe 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. In fact, the actual work of designing and creating a thesaurus type of controlled vocabulary does have more similarities to backofthebook indexing than it does. Some systems can be adequate for a specific implementation.

Indexing, on the other hand, requires reading, analyzing, and creating a site map to the content. If youre writing a book and need to create an index, this article will tell you. As a technical writer, youll typically have to create indexes for the print books and for online helps you develop. Over the past decade, i have created backofthebook indexes for scholarly monographs and edited collections, including for my own books.

To answer this need, the american society for indexing has focused on educating and creating standards for indexes in ebooks. 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. The main idea behind developing this system is to save the time and. The process of indexing has a close resemblance to the search process. How to create an index for your book in adobe indesign the. To create this, the indexer needs to read the whole book, from cover to. Oct 18, 20 professional indexer and successful selfpublished novelist joanne phillips provides an easytofollow guide to compiling an index for a selfpublished nonfiction book. There are programs that are sometimes called indexing software, but they may in reality be search engines, or concordance builders, or text mining software. Creating an index for a non ction book is the responsibility of the author, but most authors do not actually do it. This book was initially released in episodes as a kindle serial. Providing an index gives your nonfiction book a professional edge, and compiling one is as easy as abc once youve mastered the basic rules.

Getting started in ebook indexing for indexers indexes in ebooks are startlingly unused at this point in ebook development. All episodes are now available for immediate download as a complete book. 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 creating the most effective and readerfriendly index possible, delivered on time and with careful attention to detail. Online searching finds every occurrence of a term or phrase in the search bar. Running through the text to mark entries is not needed.

To roundup all the pages a certain topic falls on, search for that word or phrase in your microsoft word document. Getting started in ebook indexing for indexers digital. I have been writing indexes professionally since 2011, with over two hundred indexes under my belt, and i still get lost in the details for a particularly complex book or index. Preparing book indexes and other kinds of indexes is a viable career option. Standalone or dedicated tools, usually used for backofthebook indexes, allow indexers to work from pagenumbered galleys. If you are not familiar with what an ebook index looks like, please see my post on, how to use an ebook index. Sep 08, 2011 creating professional and accessible scholarly indexes. How to contract with a book indexer word for word book services.

Fivestep process for writing a book index the writing cooperative. Book indexing is a vital job that professional book indexers do on a. Welcome to hiraeth indexing, specializing in copyediting and backofthebook indexing for scholarly and trade texts with a focus on philosophy, black studies, indigenous studies, religion, literature, and environmental studies. The idea of automatic indexing is different from the computerassisted indexing that professional back of the book indexers use. For this, youll need to master book indexing software and industry standards or find a freelancer to index your book. Creating useful indexes has become, for me, a satisfying way to support colleagues and help extend the reach of excellent scholarship. Back of book indexes and table of contents have been the two most important means for accessing specific information in books. A comprehensive look at how to create an index for a book in adobe indesign including settings for 1, 2, and 3level indexes. While the glossary defines specific words found in a book, the index merely tells you where to find them.

Aug 05, 2009 a reader asked me to do a video on how to make a book index in word. This brief demo shows the basics of creating a backofbook index with textract 6 minutes. Both activities center on creating index terms or entries for. See useful advice about indexing instructions for editor, skip to step 4 after sending instructions up to step 5 to the contributing authors. The type of index we mean here is the classic back of book index that shows page numbers on which topics and subtopics occur within the book. A backofthebook index is a collection of words or phrases, often alphabetically arranged to allow users to locate information in a given book. How to create a key words index in back of pdf book. Creating a testbed for the evaluation of automatically. When ebooks and their associated ereader software were first developed, little attention was paid to the index. Semiautomatic indexing for qualityconscious indexers and authors semiautomatic book indexing. To download the full guide on how to index your book, please visit. If youre creating an index for multiple documents in a book, create or open the document to be used for the index, and make sure that its included in the book. Usually indexing is done by freelancers hired by authors, publishers or an independent.

Mar 05, 2015 manual indexing a skill that lives on. Examples are an index in the back matter of a book and an index that serves as a library catalog. Before you selfpublish your book, you can easily add an index to your back matter. 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. 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. Automatic procedures have been in use for the generation of back of book indexes. A concordance is an alphabetical listing of words in the bookwithout context or crossreferences. How to create an index for your book in adobe indesign. 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. The indexing is completely separate from the published material. In indexing decisions, concepts are recorded as data elements organised into easily accessible forms for retrieval. How to create a key words index in back of pdf book edit pdf. As a part of the back matter, the index is found in the end pages of a book, and it can be a resourceful tool for readers who may be using the book in their research, or for readers who just want to read up on a.

A good index will ultimately make your book more useful, easier to navigate, and will ensure that your readers refer back to your book time and time again. Second, book indexing is a highly subjective work and indexes of different books are always created by different professional indexers who have their own prefer. Introduction a back ofthe book index is a collection of words or phrases, often alphabetically arranged to allow users to locate information in a given book. How to index a selfpublished nonfiction book a beginners.

Back ofthe book index, book index, term informativeness 1. W w ith textract you create the backofbook index for the printed and ebook editions of your book in three steps, using a unique combination of automated and manual indexing. If youre creating an index for a single document, you may want to add a new page at the end of the document. I love to index books, because it requires intense thinking thats like writing in reverse. Book indexing how to make a book index in microsoft word.

How to make a really good book index in word tck publishing. For very complex projects, it is best to hire a professional indexer, but if youre selfpublishing your book on a budget, you can definitely do it yourself. 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. 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. Back of the book indexing and thesaurus creation are similar because back of the book indexing is not just indexing it is also index creation, and the design and creation of an index is not too different from the design and creation of a thesaurus. The indexer inserts the index entries as invisible text in the electronic files. With years of experience creating and updating backofthebook and newsletter indexes for repeat clients, we know what authors, librarians, educators and readers expect from a professional legal index. Of course you can hire an indexer, or you can create the index yourself. Machineaided backofthebook indexing is a tool which aids in the preparation of the index contained at the back of the book. Fivestep process for writing a book index the writing. Can backofthebook indexes be automatically created. Its quite easy from the standpoint of operating the software, but it wont turn you into a professional indexer, which. Today, though, i want to pull back some of the mystery around indexing and give you a fivestep process for writing an excellent index for your book.

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. Just drop a pdf proof version of your book onto textract. Apr 18, 2019 in this video, learn more about the benefits of indexing your project in microsoft word and a stepbystep guide on how to do it. The last word specializes in creating professional backofthebook indexes for publishers, packagers, organizations, and authors. Hiraeth indexing creating professional and accessible.

A backof thebook index is a list of words with corresponding page. Your own index is something you put in the back of the book. 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 ebook. Embedded indexing is the process of creating index entries electronically in a documents files. Writing means thinking of an idea and creating content for it. Databases, online materials, and websites also need indexes, and there is software available for this kind of indexing also. 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. The sublime joy of making a book index without bullshit. Jun 01, 2015 a comprehensive look at how to create an index for a book in adobe indesign including settings for 1, 2, and 3level indexes.