Cookbooks, handbooks, textbooks, scholarly monographs, catalogues: a good index is still essential across a range of non-fiction books. Indexes help readers find the information that they need and are often the first point of entry to a text – many of us will have browsed the index before committing to buying a book.

Indexes are made by professional indexers, who anticipate the needs of all sorts of readers when choosing the terms that will form part of an index. That’s why an index always wins out over a simple search – the indexer will have weighed the significance of each mention of a term, only including those in the text where there’s useful information to be found. Back-of-the-book indexes remain standard in print books, and eBook technology allows pinpoint indexing to the exact place in a book where a topic is discussed, with a clickable link to take you there.

Who are indexers?

Indexers come from different working backgrounds: there are former librarians, teachers and academics, lawyers and doctors, as well as publishing professionals. They often have considerable expertise in the subjects that they index and can be highly qualified. Some also specialise in particular types of publications, such as biographies, children’s books or journals.

The Society of Indexers (SI)’s membership base reflects this variety of expertise. It is the only autonomous membership body for indexers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Many members combine indexing with editing and/or proofreading as part of a portfolio career. Like proofreaders and editors, they’re nearly always freelancers working in the publishing industry.

Indexing can be an interesting, satisfying and intellectually challenging career – with the bonus of reading for a living.

Working with indexers

Working with a professional indexer will enhance the quality, and sales, of a book. Authors and publishing professionals can find a suitable indexer for their project through the SI Professional Directory. It’s helpful to contact your indexer and place the project well in advance of any deadlines, as they do get booked up. Ideally, you would book your indexer once you start to plan the project schedule, and give two months' notice. However, like most freelancers, indexers can often take on a project at short notice. Before you brief your indexer, make sure you have all the information you need about the project and your publisher’s usual requirements for indexes such as layout, style and length. The costs of indexing vary according to the extent and complexity of the book; the SI’s recommended rates are a good starting point for negotiation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and indexing

Like many professions that work with language, AI is affecting indexing. Automated tools for indexing have existed for some time but have not been able to produce a quality index. They cannot reproduce the human skills of judgement and analysis in context. Generative AI tools work by predicting the most likely next word rather than informed understanding and empathy.

Current AI tools like ChatGPT will, if asked, create an index for a work in the public domain, but the headings inevitably need review and the page numbers are often inventions. AI tools that create summaries of text or extract keywords could be useful during indexing, but an AI tool alone won’t have the human indexer’s insight into readers’ needs. And there are legal issues involved in sharing any book with an AI tool that will incorporate the text into a large language model.

Indexers make good use of technology, however. Indexing software takes a lot of the drudge work out of indexing. Changes to proofs can be dealt with more easily and indexes repurposed for revised editions. Embedded indexing, where the index entries are coded into a Word manuscript, InDesign file or similar, generates an index that is automatically populated with page numbers. This is very useful for texts that will appear in various formats and especially helpful for eBook indexes.

Discover more about indexing

If you are interested in a career in indexing, or honing your skills, the SI website and blog is the best place to start. You’ll find plenty of useful information – including the qualities you need to be an indexer, professional training and workshops, the index commissioning process, the qualities of good and bad indexes, the negotiation of fees, and more.

If you want to learn how indexing works, Indexing for Editors is ideal. This workshop explains the commissioning process, how to evaluate an index and the conventions of indexing.

The Society’s online training course is a self-study programme that leads to professional accreditation, preparing students to work as professional indexers. Assessments, tutorials and support from experienced indexers help students progress through the course modules.

Tanya Izzard is a freelance book indexer and Marketing Director for the Society of Indexers. Follow her on LinkedIn.

23 November 2023

Right at the start, let me come clean. During my career, AI has been a significant source of concern for me. But that’s enough about my Atrocious Indolence.

Today I want to focus instead on the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which suddenly the whole world seems to be talking about. As a professional writer, I have to say, I have mixed feelings about the arrival of this technology on planet Earth.

On the one hand, it’s true that, for writers like me, AI can be helpful. It has the potential to supercharge our way of working, removing a lot of pain from the task, while generally speeding things up.

For example, among many other things, we can use this technology to:

• carry out some rapid, in-depth research, before embarking on any new project

• find alternative angles and approaches that we might previously have overlooked

• arrange for awkward sentences to be fixed or overly long pieces of text to be shortened

• highlight all the clichés associated with a particular subject, so that when we write about that subject, we’ll know which words to avoid

• act as a second pair of eyes, closely scrutinising our writing for errors and inconsistencies which we might otherwise have missed.

Indeed, it’s fair to say, many of the problems we copywriters routinely encounter could be handed over to AI for a near-instant solution. By taking that option, we could become more productive and our written output less prone to human error.

This, in turn, could lead to us offering our clients an even better service, one which would enhance our reputation in the industry. Word could soon spread about the quality of our work. If we’re not careful, we could end up earning a lot more and therefore needing to work a lot less.

In other words, AI could be the rocket fuel that lifts our careers to greater heights, proving it is indeed a transformative technology. What an amazing time to be a copywriter, I hear you say.

But hold on a moment. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

A few threats

Superficially, this technology may seem like our new-found best friend, streamlining our work, potentially boosting our income. But it would be naïve to think that AI doesn’t also pose a few threats.

From a copywriter’s perspective, there are at least three less-than-welcome things it could bring about. It could:

• take much of the fun out of writing

• make us so reliant on the technology that our personal creative abilities start to seem redundant

• kibosh our jobs, as companies realise they can produce their own copy in-house by machine, without needing to hire a professional.

Taking all this into account – especially that last point – it would seem the arrival of AI is set to cast a worrying shadow over our careers. We copywriters might soon be extinct. We could end up feeling every bit as antiquated as an alchemist, town crier or VHS repair engineer.

However, based on the quality of the AI-generated copy I’ve seen thus far, I think we can relax for a while.

Without doubt, the technology provides an incredible level of detail and responds unbelievably fast. For example, it can blast out a 450-word article in about 11 seconds.

But the text it offers tends to be dry and lacking in character. Businesses using AI copy to sell their services would surely be underwhelmed by its lacklustre, won’t-pass-muster prose.

Upgrades in the pipeline

In view of this weakness, it might seem that we humans have little reason to be concerned. However, these are early days. Who knows what amazing upgrades may be in the pipeline?

Give it a year or two, and the technology may well have caught up or even overtaken us. Bearing all this in mind, how worried should we be? How much of a risk could the technology eventually pose for human copywriters?

Well, to check this out I put my concerns directly to the artificially intelligent chatbot, ChatGPT. It’s fair to say I got a mixed response.

On the one hand, it promised that AI could be helpful to writers like me. On the other, it suggested that. if I wished to survive in this brave new world, I would have to accept changes.

Opportunities for copywriters

Somewhat ominously it wrote, “While the increasing availability of AI in copywriting may pose challenges, it also presents opportunities for copywriters who are willing to adapt . . .”

In the midst of so much uncertainty, one thing is clear. Big changes are heading our way. While we shouldn’t panic, we need to familiarise ourselves with this remarkable new technology as a matter of urgency. In that way we can identify the associated benefits and risks.

Bev Legge is a copywriter and tutor of the PTC’s courses, Copywriting for Publishers and Creative Copywriting for Publishers. He has over 25 years’ experience in writing, editing and training worldwide. Follow him on LinkedIn.

22 December 2023

Petra Green is Head of the PTC and a freelance publishing consultant. Follow her on LinkedIn.

24 October 2023

I recently made the move to literary agenting after working as an editor for over a decade. Both roles have one thing in common – no two days are ever the same. The role of a literary agent is often reactive – you might receive an offer from an editor, or an outstanding submission land in your inbox, or an author calls you to discuss how their pitch is going – all of which take precedence over what you had planned to do. Though an agent’s day-to-day work is ever-changing, there are general processes that remain the same.

Submissions

Literary agents receive a lot of submissions. Usually, I glance over new submissions every morning and flag those that instantly catch my eye. I try to find time each week to read through these, and to move quickly with any that have genuine potential. I set an 8-week response window for each submission and often dedicate one day a month to considering others I was less sure about.

I also do a lot of my own outreach. Someone may have an incredible platform or published an article or short story that piqued my interest, and I’ll contact them to discuss agent representation.

Representation

If I like a submission and it is fiction, I will request the full manuscript, add this to my reading list and try to assign a day to read through it. Non-fiction manuscripts are often not written but if I am interested in the project, I will likely have queries for the author and ask if they have other writing I can read through.

When I have decided that I would like to represent a client, I arrange a meeting with them to get to know them on a personal level, explain the agent–author relationship and provide any editorial feedback on their manuscript. I will make an offer of representation and once (hopefully) accepted, I will build an author page on the company website and announce it across our social-media channels.

As an editorially-focused agent, I like to spend time editing and fine-tuning a manuscript before submitting it. There might be a couple of rounds of further edits. I also work with non-fiction authors to ensure their proposal and sample chapters are as strong as they can be. I will then craft a pitch letter and begin pitching.

Pitching

Before pitching, I compile my wish list of primary and secondary editors and publishers to submit to, based on previous conversations with editors, as well as research and comparable titles. Sometimes a project might fit perfectly with an editor and I will submit exclusively to them.

It is always exciting sending out a pitch and waiting to see how the book will be received. You might have a few editors fighting for a project, or only one editor who falls head over heels for a book. Sometimes it can take months of pitching before you find that perfect home. And sometimes you have to regroup and go back out there with a revised manuscript and pitch.

Negotiating publishing offers is key to being an agent. You want to secure the best deal for your clients but you also want to make sure that your author finds the right publisher. Once I have offers, I share these with my clients before negotiating terms with publishers.

Publishers

After accepting an offer, an agent will go through the publishing contract with a fine toothcomb to make sure it matches the offer and to query any clauses that might be unfavourable to an author. A client is likely to have their queries too. I work with co-agents in foreign territories who submit books on our behalf there as well. Once the deal is secured, I will update everyone with the news (and updating co-agents with news regarding your authors’ books is happening all of the time).

Once the contract is tied up, the publisher side of things takes over. This might involve checking cover art, reading through marketing and publicity plans, chasing payments or helping an author with editorial feedback.

Another big part of being an agent is meeting with editors to learn about what they’re looking to acquire and sharing clients’ projects with them. This is useful for creating an early buzz around a project but it also makes the pitching process much easier if you already have editors in mind.

Authors are at the heart of everything an agent does week in, week out. Agents are there to provide professional and emotional support, manage their careers and brand, fight their corner, sell as many rights as possible and always seek out the best deal. Every day is different but there is always one constant – the happiness and success of your authors.

Andrew James is Founder and Literary Agent at Frog Literary Agency. Follow Andrew on LinkedIn, and Frog on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.