5 Tips to Prepare Your New Book for Better Indexing
Posted by
Ann Yager on Thu, Aug 25, 2011 @ 06:37 AM
An important part of any successful non-fiction book editing is proper indexing. Following are five ways to make indexing easier.
A proper index is a necessity for any non-fiction book. As a writer, you will want people to read your book through. Still, most non-fiction books are used for reference. This means that people go to the book searching for specific information. The faster and easier they can find that information, the happier they will be and the more likely they will recommend the book to others.
Indexing can be a time consuming part of book editing but here are some tips to make it easier on you and your professional indexer.
1. Leave Time for Indexing
Remember, it does take time to create a great index. For shorter trade books, it may only take a week for the index. For more complex scholarly books, it can take 3 - 5 weeks or more. Don't wait till the last minute and have to compromise the quality of your index.
2. Know Your Format
There are several ways to arrange your pages and index. The main rule, though, is consistency and ease of use. If you identify ahead of time the format you want for your headings and subheadings as well as for your index, it's easier on you as a writer to remain consistent during the entire writing process. You can spend more time polishing phrases and checking for typos during book editing instead of double checking the font.
3. Make Sure The Book Is Finished
There is really no way to make an accurate index until the book is completely finished and the pages are all properly laid out and numbered. Adding or taking away even a few paragraphs during book editing can shift information to a different page which will make any previous index useless. So, have the book laid out and numbered exactly as it will appear in print before even glancing at the indexing part of the book editing process.
4. Identify Your Target Audience
As mentioned earlier, you want your index to make your book easy to search and useful. However, different audiences will be looking for different things. For instance, if your target audience is composed of historians, they will want to be able to easily find names and wars. On the other hand, if you wrote a medical text for physicians, they will be more interested in finding a listing by symptom or diagnosis rather than the who discovered the disease and when. If you didn't decide on your target audience while you were writing, book editing is a good time to think carefully about who this book is targeted towards.
5. Provide Enough Space
Make sure you have enough room at the end of your book for a complete index. Making an excellent and easy to use index is useless if it has to be cut down to fit to a certain page count for the book. A professional indexer should be able to give you an estimate of how much space a good index will need.
Book authors are often surprised to learn that their editors and publishers expect more than just a great book. Publishers often ask authors to create an index or find a book indexer. If you've never created an index before, it can really be time consuming.
The key to success is not only the book writing process itself, but paying attention to the index as well.
Image credit: ktylerconk