Factors in the High Quality of My Indexes

Four factors are responsible for the high quality of my indexes:

• I read the entire book and understand its concepts before beginning to index it. I think of myself as the author’s most sympathetic reader.
  
  
• I know what readers look for in indexes because, in my work as a part-time reference librarian, I have observed how they use them.
  
  
• I make the book’s main arguments and themes accessible to readers.
  
  
• I am a punctilious editor and proofreader.
  
  

I am utterly reliable about meeting publishers’ deadlines and formatting requirements, keeping up with the latest indexing practices, and helping to proofread the text. Along with the completed, professional index, I routinely submit a list of all the typos, inconsistencies, and queries found while working with the page proofs. For the price of the index, authors and publishers also get another pair of proofreading eyes.