At lastan indexing guide for editors, authors, and designers who need to create, edit, format, or evaluate indexes and work with professional indexers. Three experienced indexer-authors explain the various types of indexes, the characteristics of good indexes, and common formatting considerations. They share dozens of practical tips and over 100 examples of good and bad indexing practices. Publishing professionals will not only learn how to edit an index, but how to hire freelance indexers and maintain successful editor/author/indexer relationships. While geared to the needs of publishing professionals who are not indexers, the book will serve indexers as a guide to navigating the publishing process and explaining indexing processes to their clients.
Since 1994, Nancy Mulvany's Indexing Books has been the gold standard for thousands of professional indexers, editors, and authors. This long-awaited second edition, expanded and completely updated, will be equally revered. Like its predecessor, this edition of Indexing Books offers comprehensive, reliable treatment of indexing principles and practices relevant to authors and indexers alike. In addition to practical advice, the book presents a big-picture perspective on the nature and purpose of indexes and their role in published works. New to this edition are discussions of "information overload" and the role of the index, open-system versus closed-system indexing, electronic submission and display of indexes, and trends in software development, among other topics. Mulvany is equally comfortable focusing on the nuts and bolts of indexing—how to determine what is indexable, how to decide the depth of an index, and how to work with publisher instructions—and broadly surveying important sources of indexing guidelines such as The Chicago Manual of Style, Sun Microsystems, Oxford University Press, NISO TR03, and ISO 999. Authors will appreciate Mulvany's in-depth consideration of the costs and benefits of preparing one's own index versus hiring a professional, while professional indexers will value Mulvany's insights into computer-aided indexing. Helpful appendixes include resources for indexers, a worksheet for general index specifications, and a bibliography of sources to consult for further information on a range of topics. Indexing Books is both a practical guide and a manifesto about the vital role of the human-crafted index in the Information Age. As the standard indexing reference, it belongs on the shelves of everyone involved in writing and publishing nonfiction books.
Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the "rights" and "wrongs" of prose styling: "This author is giving me a fit." "I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times." "My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face." In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller casts aside this adversarial view and suggests new strategies for keeping the peace. Emphasizing habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, she shows copy editors how to build an environment of trust and cooperation. One chapter takes on the difficult author; another speaks to writers themselves. Throughout, the focus is on serving the reader, even if it means breaking "rules" along the way. Saller’s own foibles and misadventures provide ample material: "I mess up all the time," she confesses. "It’s how I know things." Writers, Saller acknowledges, are only half the challenge, as copy editors can also make trouble for themselves. (Does any other book have an index entry that says "terrorists. See copy editors"?) The book includes helpful sections on e-mail etiquette, work-flow management, prioritizing, and organizing computer files. One chapter even addresses the special concerns of freelance editors. Saller’s emphasis on negotiation and flexibility will surprise many copy editors who have absorbed, along with the dos and don’ts of their stylebooks, an attitude that their way is the right way. In encouraging copy editors to banish their ignorance and disorganization, insecurities and compulsions, the Chicago Q&A presents itself as a kind of alter ego to the comparatively staid Manual of Style. In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller continues her mission with audacity and good humor.
Indexing: A Practical Guide for Technical Writers is a nuts-and-bolts guide to indexing. It explains in plain language and by example exactly how to index any type of print or online publication quickly, easily, and effectively. The sequential indexing method presented in the book has been battle-tested in high pressure publishing organizations in a variety of high-tech industries over the space of a decade. Because it is based on real-world success, this indexing method is bulletproof. Users of this guide will succeed as an indexer. Unlike other books on the subject, this book is focused on readers, not the subject itself. The book speaks directly to highly practical and often anti-academic technical writers who demand usability, reusability, and reliability. It is geared to people with ""Keep It Simple, Stupid"" signs on their cubicle walls. Proven end-user documentation techniques are employed to present proven indexing methods to readers who themselves develop end-user documentation for a living. They have zero tolerance for academic white papers on indexing. So, the book delivers the hard facts.
Bell examines the history of the index and the depiction of the indexer (from diffident drudge to frankly insane) in both fact and fiction. A fascinating look at a previously little-considered element of the book.
This fiction-editing guide shows authors and editors how to recognize shown and told prose, and avoid unnecessary exposition. Louise Harnby, a fiction editor, writer and course developer, teaches you how to identify stylistic problems and craft solutions that weave showing and telling together, and understand why there's no place for 'don't tell' in strong writing. Topics include: Shown and told prose in different scenarios; the relevance of viewpoint; when exposition serves story and deepens character; and tools that help writers add texture.
Called by many France's foremost philosopher, Gilles Deleuze is one of the leading thinkers in the Western World. His acclaimed works and celebrated collaborations with Félix Guattari have established him as a seminal figure in the fields of literary criticism and philosophy. The long-awaited publication of What Is Philosophy? in English marks the culmination of Deleuze's career. Deleuze and Guattari differentiate between philosophy, science, and the arts, seeing as means of confronting chaos, and challenge the common view that philosophy is an extension of logic. The authors also discuss the similarities and distinctions between creative and philosophical writing. Fresh anecdotes from the history of philosophy illuminate the book, along with engaging discussions of composers, painters, writers, and architects. A milestone in Deleuze's collaboration with Guattari, What Is Philosophy? brings a new perspective to Deleuze's studies of cinema, painting, and music, while setting a brilliant capstone upon his work.
"The name "Margie Towery" is synonymous with index quality, and in this guide the master indexer distills more than two decades of experience for the benefit of her fellow indexers. Towery defines and explores the characteristics of quality indexes: audiences and accessibility, metatopics and index structure, accuracy, comprehensiveness, conciseness, consistency, clarity, reflexivity, readability, and common sense. Writing in an engaging and accessible style, she shares her own struggles in indexing and offers strategies for overcoming challenges such as bias and language, indexing blocks, and working with authors. Her digressions into research on reading and decision-making provide a wider context for thinking about quality, while her suggestions and checklist for evaluating indexes round out this essential volume for professional indexers at every skill level."--Page 4 de la couverture.
A Guide for the Freelance Indexer has been many years in the making when you take into account that April Michelle Davis, prior to teaching the "Introduction to Indexing" course through the Editorial Freelancers Association, earned a master's of professional studies degree in publishing from George Washington University as well as certificates in editing, book publishing, and professional editing. She also completed the "Basic Indexing" course at the USDA Graduate School and "Indexing: Theory and Application" at the University of California, Berkeley. A member of the American Society for Indexing, she is chair-elect for the Mid-South Atlantic chapter of ASI. This is an important book for anyone embarking on an indexing career, or considering such a move. But editors and writers should not pass by this opportunity to discover a wealth of valuable information pertinent to their own work.
