Index Submitted!

Just over a month ago, the page proofs for Magnetic Woman arrived. It was time for me to do an initial proofread (had any errors crept in during copyediting, or not been caught by the copyeditor?) and decide whether to pay the press for indexing, hire an indexer, or do the index myself.

I decided to do the index myself.

Why? Well, several reasons. First of all, it would save me money, and art books cost the author money for images and copyright clearance. My copyright clearance fees will soon need to be paid--Toyen and some of the other artists reproduced in the book are still under copyright. But also, I know my book well and I appreciate a thorough index. I'm one of those researchers who expects every mention of an obscure historical figure to show up in the index of a book so that I can glean whatever tiny tidbit of information about that person that might be offered there. Not every index is equally thorough, just as not every copyedit is equally thorough. As a former copyeditor and proofreader, I know that a publisher can say "Do a light copyedit" or "Do a heavy copyedit" on a book, and while some books only need a light copyedit, other books get light not because the author was meticulous with the English language but because fixing the author's clunky prose would be expensive and the book's audience will put up with clunky prose because they need the information. Likewise, a really thorough index takes more time and costs more (if you are paying an indexer, that is).

I am capable of being obsessive about thoroughness and getting things right. Not as obsessive as another member of my family can be (this member of the family is thanked in the book), because at a certain point I do say "The perfect is the enemy of the good" and quit. I knew that this somewhat obsessive tendency, along with my experience as a proofreader, would enable me to do a pretty competent job of indexing despite never having previously indexed a book. But I knew it would not be a quick job.

And so here I am a month later, having finally turned in my index. I've always appreciated what indexers do, but now my appreciation is magnified! The amount the press would have charged me to pay someone else to do the job would have been not all that much above minimum wage had the indexer taken the same amount of time I did. Now, it is true that a professional indexer would have worked more quickly because, well, they are used to indexing and don't have to think twice about everything. But still, I'd say that the pay to index a scholarly book is not great, given that the task requires skill and concentration.

Am I sorry I did the index myself rather than shelling out the money for someone else to do it? No--it's summer, I was able to make time for the job, and with my particular personality type I kind of enjoyed the work so long as I didn't have to do it all day. I'd say I averaged about four hours a day; at a certain point each day I got brain-dead and couldn't concentrate. On a few days that happened after two hours and on a few days that happened after six hours.

Because indexing isn't just a matter of noting every page a name or idea is mentioned on. Note that idea. Ideas come in many forms, and there are a lot of choices to be made in terms of how to index them effectively. My book deals a lot with collage and photomontage, for instance. Naturally this topic has its own entry. But there was also the question of how thoroughly to include subentries for this under the entry for Toyen (and other artists whose collages were discussed), and under the entry for the Devětsil group, which made what they called picture poems. Index entries aren't supposed to be duplicative--but readers might only look in one place for what they want to find, and while good cross-references are necessary, you can't cross-reference constantly. So you have to decide where to be a bit duplicative and where to avoid it like the plague.

I'm glad I did my own index, I'm glad it's now turned in, and if this stage of production had occurred during the school year, I would have paid someone else to do the job because I would not have had the time to spare.