I learned a couple of very important things recently, things any new writer should be aware.

• Indexing is difficult and tedious work.
• Freelance indexers exist.
• There is an entire society of them.

A friend of mine led me to this information after I received indexing instructions from the publisher of my upcoming book. I was feeling a little anxious about doing an index, oh, did I say, “a little anxious,” I meant knees-knocking panic-attack. I would be working on this index, mind you, during the holidays as well as my part of the copy-editing process.

So, my friend says, “is the publisher getting you an indexer?” I replied with an articulate and profound, “WHAAAAAAAA?”

I spent a few minutes on the Internet and discovered that indexers are a thing and that one could save my life. I found the American Society for Indexing and used their Indexer Locator and then limited the search by indexer specialty, in this case Library & Information Science. I found an indexer who has her MLIS and she’s a comics fan, and she agreed to index my book!

Her services will prove invaluable, since she has offered a reasonable rate per indexable page and this job will take her roughly 45 hours to complete (meaning it would have taken me significantly longer). If you decide to get into writing and publishing, don’t make my mistake; have an indexer be part of your early negotiations with your publisher or be prepared to hire one yourself. I’m just fortunate that I found one of such quality and enthusiasm so quickly.

I hope you enjoy reading the index thoroughly in the back of my book in March!