Indexing Time: The Mental Challenge

I’ve noticed that book indexing can be a challenging mental task, and it’s easy to underestimate how much productive time one can spend on it. We usually schedule a couple of weeks to get an indexing project done, but a lot of that is just juggling multiple deadlines. So, how long does it really take to build an index, and how much time can one spend in the mental task of indexing before burning out?

I agree with a number of my colleagues that the actual mental task of reading and organizing the document’s narrative into a usable index is often very demanding, and I tend to hit burnout after about a six-hour stretch. So, a typical scholarly book index (which has been most of my work over the years) of, say 250 pages at about eight pages per hour, would take about one workweek at six hours a day.

But, you can begin to see why indexing rates are mostly higher than proofreading and copyediting rates.

Probably a decent minority of indexers do copyediting and proofreading (probably not develomental editing), and vice versa. I’m first an indexer and then later became a copyeditor and proofreader. Varying the mental tasks involved in a given day can help extend that valuable billable time. I find that although I feel mentally limited by the indexing task, I can extend my work hours by taking on other book production-related tasks like these.

Freelance book indexers and other publishing freelancers, though, have to take into account that in addition to actual billable time on a project, we also have to spend time managing our businesses (accounting, marketing, project management, etc.). The usual freelancer’s whine. But we like the freedom, limited though it is, of working in our own space and at our own pace as long as we meet our deadlines. And we can say no to a project also, which is harder to do as an employee.

Other indexers do this, but I do not like to work more than one indexing project at a time; my brain then loses efficiency in trying to deal with shifting between two or more subject areas and narratives. That said, the actual type of content matters. Scholarly books are notoriously mentally taxing, whereas an easy business-advice or other how-to book that’s well-organized may be a breeze.

As with all indexing tasks, so much depends on the text being addressed. As I often point out to new indexers, every book index is a custom job. 🙂