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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: EPUB is Essential

Sunday, December 4th, 2022

The American Society for Indexing held its 2022 Virtual Conference, “The Future of Indexing: A Mix of Art and Technology,” on Friday, April 29, 2022 and Saturday, April 30, 2022. Four sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.

The final session on Saturday, EPUB is Essential–It’s for more than just trade books, featured keynote speakers, Bill Kasdorf and Caroline Desrosiers, CEO and Founder of Scribely. Kasdorf discussed EPUB, which has become virtually the universal format for providing trade and scholarly books as ebooks. The latest version is EPUB3.

A fundamental reason for this shift is that EPUB 3 has become the standard format for accessibility. It follows the same standards for accessibility that web technologies have, which are designed to enable content to be accessible to people with visual, physical, or cognitive disabilities like blindness, low vision, and dyslexia. Properly structured and coded EPUBs are “born accessible,” which are better for everybody.

Proper EPUBs have page break markers in the HTML to mark where each page in the print book begins and which provide the page numbers. The metadata has a required property for identifying the exact print edition to which the page break markers correspond. Publishers just need to link the locators in the index to those page break markers, which should become a standard requirement.

EPUBs often lack image descriptions, and alt text, if present, is rarely done properly. The description isn’t just what an image is a picture of; it needs to convey to a print disabled user what the image conveys to a sighted user. Indexers would be ideal writers of image descriptions, because it requires analyzing and understanding the content, and then expressing it at a granular level. Desrosiers discussed the principles of writing good alt text and extended descriptions, with concrete examples.

This concludes the blog series on the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:accessiblity, eBooks, EPUB, EPUB 3, images, indexing
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: Upcycling Last Edition’s Index

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2022

In the third session on Saturday, Using a Classic to Create a Contemporary Masterpiece, Maria Sullivan presented on how to upcycle the last edition’s index to create the index for a new edition. Indexers are often asked to create an index for a subsequent edition of a publication. The client asks to base the index for the new edition on the index for the previous edition. Indexers often think that starting from scratch will yield better results. Sullivan, however, said that reusing a well-constructed index to an older edition offers significant benefits, such as data entry efficiency and format consistency across a series of publications.

Ideal candidates for index recycling include structured publications with consistent formats, such as textbooks, law books, manuals and handbooks, reference books, encyclopedias, and loose-leaf services. The common characteristic of these publications is that much of the terminology remains unchanged, so that the headings and cross-references of the prior index can be reused by importing the prior index as a plain text or XML file into indexing software.

Criteria to consider in deciding whether to recycle the previous index include the extent of page reflow, whether the new index requires minor additions with scattered changes or a general index update, or whether terms should be combined for a cumulative index. The first step in recycling is a thorough vetting of the previous index to see how well it is structured. The old index should be dissected to identify changes in pagination and relocation of material, and to determine the extent of the new material. She keeps separate files for each part, section, and chapter, and compares old to new, then decides how much of the index to reuse. She recommends frequent backups of the index file at every stage while updating.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the last Saturday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:book indexing, indexing, recycling, upcycling, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: Indexing Children’s Books

Monday, October 3rd, 2022

In the second session on Saturday, Indexing Children’s Books: The Future is Now!, presenter Connie Binder explored the art of indexing children’s books. She described the different age levels of children’s books and the depth of index required for each. She pointed out that indexes in children’s books serve as much to educate young readers about indexes as they do to help them locate specific information.

Focusing on the indexing process and best practices, she discussed publisher guidelines, which determine the size and depth of the index and what is indexed. Indexers can save time by determining the average number of entries per page given the maximum index size. She discussed the use (or not) of cross-references, double posting, and subentries, as well as over/underindexing.

She also covered the business aspects of indexing children’s books, getting jobs, keeping overhead low, and ensuring job security by creating lifelong index users.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the third Saturday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:book indexing, children's books, indexing, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: Indexing the Metatopic

Sunday, September 4th, 2022

In the first session on Saturday, Indexing the Metatopic–Bridging the Gap Across the Pond, presenter Melanie Gee discussed contradictory practices in the US and the UK of indexing the metatopic: always index the metatopic comprehensively, or never index the metatopic (or if you must, only sparsely). In her presentation, she referred to the stereotype of tea drinkers, UK, who never index the metatopic, and the coffee drinkers, US, who always index the metatopic. Based on a survey she conducted with about sixty respondents, she found that practices in both the US and UK are actually quite similar.

She explained that the metatopic is the overarching, main topic of the book. She said that identifying the metatopic will help you understand the structure and argument of the book. Every entry in the book is structurally related to the metatopic.

A majority of survey respondents answered that they indexed the metatopic for the last three books they indexed, with slightly more on the US side. The most common response from UK indexers about not indexing the metatopic was concern about the metatopic being too broad and not wanting to index the whole book at the entry. US indexers were mostly more concerned about the lack of general information about the metatopic and including only specific, chapter-level topics.

She then discussed different types of metatopics, such as simple, multiple, multifaceted, nebulous, and clustered metatopics, and reviewed methods for handling them in the index.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the second Saturday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:book indexing, indexing, metatopic, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: Improving Your Index Editing Process

Thursday, August 4th, 2022

In the fourth session on Friday, Fred Leise presented Laying the Ground for the Future: Improving Your Index Editing Process. This presentation covered the steps in a simple yet exhaustive index editing process that cuts down on hours of unnecessary work.

Fred shared some of the ways he works when building an index to make editing more efficient. Fred indexes in heading/subheading pairs to provide context to an entry during the creation of an index. Markers such as ## or XXX, which he uses during entry selection, help him address issues without losing time.

Fred makes a half dozen or so passes through an index in the editing process. He reduces that by batching tasks where logical.

Here is Fred’s recommended editing sequence:

Review and adjust marked items.
Normalize entries. Look for entries with five or fewer locators. Collapse subheadings and move to main heading.
Adjust the index length.
Review all main headings. The next pass is to read and edit main headings one by one.
Review all subheadings. During this pass, check for parallel structure, clarity and conciseness, and grammatical and mechanical consistency. He checks for a clear relationship to the main heading and may combine similar subheadings.
Review all cross references. Verify all targets and that the format is the same.
Review locators. Look for both long strings of undifferentiated locators–adding appropriate subheadings–and headings with unruly locators. He checks that no locators go beyond the final page of the text and looks for overlapping pages and ranges. Check for formatting of special designations and that locators have been correctly conflated.
Complete a general edit. Verify alphabetization style (letter by letter or word by word), check spelling, and check that index format and style elements match the publisher’s style sheet.
Do a final read through. Read every single word.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the first Saturday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:book indexing, editing, indexing, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: Marketing for the Successful Solo Practice

Sunday, July 3rd, 2022

In the third session on Friday, Marketing for the Successful Solo Practice, marketing guru John Coe discussed how solo practitioners can find, sell, and grow their business using savvy targeted marketing. He focused on four elements in successful marketing campaigns:

How to identify the correct person–the most important element
What to offer to interest and gain new clients
Why communicating by blending email, mail, and phone is best
How to write copy that engages and sells

He also covered methods for building relationships and loyalty. He distributed a white paper with his tips to attendees.

The first step is to define the prospective target company and individuals. For indexers that would be the following:

Production editors
Academic editors
Packagers
Authors

He suggests setting up a database of contact information, which you could load in an Excel file unless you have a CRM or marketing automation system. Good sources for identifying possible targets include the following:

LinkedIn
NextMark
Literary Marketplace
Publishers Global (a directory of publishing houses)
Association of University Presses

The three most common methods of targeted marketing are email, postal mail, and phone calls. He suggests mixing these–for example, send an initial email and follow up with a phone call a few days later. He said that postal mail can be surprisingly powerful, since a person actually holds and interacts with a letter.

He said it is important not to give up, since the average response rate to mailings is only 2.9 percent, and on average it takes fourteen emails to someone who doesn’t know the sender before they respond.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the fourth Friday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:book indexing, indexing, marketing, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: The Art of Indexing in the Age of Automation

Saturday, June 4th, 2022

In the second session on Friday, keynote speaker Joshua Tallent presented Where Do You Fit? The Art of Indexing in the Age of Automation. He discussed how the publishing industry is changing, the challenges that indexers continue to face, and the opportunities that are likely to present themselves in the future.

He focused on the history of the publishing process and gave his thoughts on process and workflow. He touched on print on demand and discussed eBooks, saying that changes are on the horizon, particularly with accessibility. He said that eBooks haven’t evolved that much in the last nine years. Footnotes in eBooks now pop up, and indexes in eBooks have page number linking. He said that print books, which are very durable and effective, are not going away. Back-of-the-book indexes are the most effective way to find content in nonfiction books. We can continue making them relevant.

Indexes can be adapted with changes in technology and created with more efficient processes. He suggested that audiobooks need a way to index content. Publishers need keywords for book discovery and book sales in a metadata creation process. More than 30 keywords signify higher average sales. Indexers have the unique skills to provide these list of keywords, he said.

“Being able to adapt is more important than being able to predict,” he said.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the third Friday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:audiobooks, book indexing, eBooks, indexing, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2022 Virtual Conference: Index, A History of the

Sunday, May 8th, 2022

In the first session on Friday, Paula Clarke Bain discussed the index she wrote for Dennis Duncan’s book, Index, A History of the, which was published in the United States by W.W. Norton in February 2022. The book was first released in the United Kingdom in September 2021. It contains two indexes: an automated one by computer program and a professional index by Bain.

In her presentation, Bain discussed the following:

book, writing of
author-indexer relations
indexing process of
indexes: automated, computer
indexer, personality of
index wit
syndrome, imposter
reception, responses, reviews

In the indexing process, she said that the metaness was creating an index to a book about indexes. She had to have an awareness of audiences, whether they had index knowledge or not. There was a dual nature of the text, scholarly and trade, serious and silly. She includes a letter-by-letter and word-by-word sorting example in the book from its own index.

She includes the indexer’s personality in the index. She shows humor, snark and wit. She had to balance neutrality versus subjectivity. She includes an introductory note and interjections [by PCB].

Some examples of index wit in the index include this entry:

cross-references
- broken see if you can find it
- circular see circular cross-references
- hanging, 248 see also orphan
- serial see bootless errand; comic indexes; crying

If a reader looks up “orphan,” she won’t find anything, as it doesn’t have a target. The references for “serial” go on and on and eventually lead to “tears.”

In an example of crosswordiness, Bain included an acrostic entry for her last name. The subheadings under the main entry for her name spell out her name. She takes a hit at automated indexes with a bit of snark, with an entry under “bad indexes” that has a long string of undifferentiated locators, then adds, see also automated indexing.

She added an example of word golf, word play used by Lewis Carroll, of the phrase “heads and tails” which has become her favorite part of the index. Originating with a start word, one letter is changed in a see cross-reference each time to get to an end word. These see cross-references are scattered throughout the index and go around in a circle.

She also discussed impostor syndrome, specifically anxieties, peer reviews, time pressure, and pandemic publishing. She further reviewed issues and errors. She pointed out the problems with the US version, in which a list of figures were moved for the computer index, giving the wrong locators in that index.

Reception, responses, and reviews to the book and its index were overwhelmingly favorable, she said.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the second Friday session of the ASI 2022 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:book indexing, Dennis Duncan, history of indexing, indexing, Paula Clarke Bain, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2021 Virtual Conference: Inside the Accidental Indexer

Wednesday, October 6th, 2021

The American Society for Indexing held its 2021 Virtual Conference, “Get Your Indexing Shot in the Arm,” on Friday, April 30, 2021 and Saturday, May 1, 2021. Three sessions were held virtually on Zoom each day.

In the third session on Saturday, Inside the Accidental Indexer, Nan Badgett discussed the professional, business, and lifestyle issues affecting indexers. Her presentation was an extension of her book, The Accidental Indexer. She said that even if we found ourselves as indexers “accidentally,” as she did, we need to be decidedly deliberate about moving forward to be successful.

She first described marketing strategies, emphasizing the need to determine one’s strengths and how to make oneself stand out. She gave the exercise of creating an elevator speech, writing down “who you are, what you do, and your skills and accomplishments” in a nutshell. Next she suggested creating a list of potential clients and being proactive in contacting them periodically, and deliberately, with emails and holiday cards. A marketing plan encompasses a compelling and unique personal brand: a business name, business cards, a logo, and/or a website.

Time management tips included advice on setting a schedule, tools to keep track of time, and ways to avoid distractions. She also recognized that burnout and anxiety can come from the pressures of meeting deadlines and can adversely affect one’s health. She recommended setting boundaries, eating well, taking breaks, getting exercise, and exploring interests outside of work.

This concludes the blog series on the ASI 2021 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:American Society for Indexing, marketing, The Accidental Indexer, time management, Virtual Conference
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ASI 2021 Virtual Conference: Embedded Indexing–Tackling the Enigma

Tuesday, September 7th, 2021

In the second session on Saturday, Embedded Indexing: Tackling the Enigma, Devon Thomas and Heather Pendley discussed how embedded indexing differs from back-of-the-book in terms of both book production and indexing processes. They gave examples of several kinds of embedded indexes and an overview of the tools used to create them.

The main differences are as follows:

The files you get are not in final format. Sometimes, there are multiple files (one for each chapter) or normalized files.
The files often need to be checked out and checked back in using a version control system.
When embedding tags, you are working within the system used to produce the book, such as Word, InDesign, or XML-coded text files.
The native system often has limitations on the appearance or structure of the index.
After embedding index tags, you need to use the native system to generate a formatted version of the index.
When editing your index, you should locate the index tags in the source files and edit them one by one. Word and InDesign let you jump to the index tag from the generated index. With text files, you need to open all of the source files in your editor and do a global search.

The presenters emphasized the importance of charging more for embedded indexes, allowing more time to create embedded indexes, and exploring available tools to speed and ease the process.

In the next blog posting I will discuss the third Saturday session of the ASI 2021 Virtual Conference. For more information about the services provided by the author of this blog, see the Stellar Searches LLC website, http://www.stellarsearches.com.

Tags:American Society for Indexing, embedded indexing, Virtual Conference
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