Book Indexing For Authors

Book Indexing For Authors PDF

Author: Katherine Verne

Publisher:

Published: 2020-07-19

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 9781719953047

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An index could be the thing your book is missing. Take a look in a library or bookstore and you will find few nonfiction books that don't have indexes. That's because publishers know how important the presence of an index is to readers - and therefore how vital it is for sales. Indies often don't realize this - and miss out on potential sales and potential good reviews. A book index is like a guidepost or map for your readers. It tells them what to expect from your book, where to find topics that interest them, and - importantly - what isn't in the book. This means that it reduces the chances of poor reviews and increases the chances of positive reviews. An index helps usability, which makes it more useful to readers.If you are an author thinking of creating your own index, you're in good company. There is quite a precedent for author-indexes (especially in the world of academia, where subjects are so specialist that it's hard to find a professional indexer with relevant experience). This book will guide you through the process and show you how to do it yourself in Microsoft Word. (Sorry, no Mac instructions.) This book is for you if... You need easy-to-understand instructions on how to create your own index for a non-fiction book using Microsoft Word; Your [traditional] publisher is insisting on an index and expecting you to pay for it; You don't have a big budget; You aren't a computer or publishing expert; You don't want to spend weeks (or months) learning how to index. This book is not for you if... You need an in-depth, theory-based book. Many people like the jump-right-in, workbook approach. You are looking for something to help you become a professional indexer, or to win indexing awards. Most professional training courses and organizations often recommend Nancy C. Mulwary's Indexing Books. Also check out the American Society of Indexers (ASI) - www.asindexing.org - and other professional and standards organizations in other countries. You can find courses on indexing in local colleges, as well as online. If you do buy this [print] book, you will have the opportunity of joining the forthcoming online course based on it - free of charge. You will be able to ask questions, receive help, and see in real-time what the creation of an index involves.

Indexing Books, Second Edition

Indexing Books, Second Edition PDF

Author: Nancy C. Mulvany

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-11-15

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0226550176

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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.

Beyond Book Indexing

Beyond Book Indexing PDF

Author: Diane Brenner

Publisher: Information Today, Inc.

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 9781573870818

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How to get started in web indexing, embedded indexing, and other computer-based media.

The Subversive Copy Editor

The Subversive Copy Editor PDF

Author: Carol Fisher Saller

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2009-08-01

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 0226734102

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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.

Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age

Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age PDF

Author: Dennis Duncan

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2022-02-15

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1324002557

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A New York Times Editors' Choice Book and a New Yorker Best Book of 2022 So Far Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Literary Hub and Goodreads A playful history of the humble index and its outsized effect on our reading lives. Most of us give little thought to the back of the book—it’s just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history, hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In the pages of the index, we might find Butchers, to be avoided, or Cows that sh-te Fire, or even catch Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne. Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of thirteenth-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the twenty-first, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. We follow it through German print shops and Enlightenment coffee houses, novelists’ living rooms and university laboratories, encountering emperors and popes, philosophers and prime ministers, poets, librarians and—of course—indexers along the way. Revealing its vast role in our evolving literary and intellectual culture, Duncan shows that, for all our anxieties about the Age of Search, we are all index-rakers at heart—and we have been for eight hundred years.

Managing Gigabytes

Managing Gigabytes PDF

Author: Ian H. Witten

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann

Published: 1999-05-03

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 9781558605701

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"This book is the Bible for anyone who needs to manage large data collections. It's required reading for our search gurus at Infoseek. The authors have done an outstanding job of incorporating and describing the most significant new research in information retrieval over the past five years into this second edition." Steve Kirsch, Cofounder, Infoseek Corporation "The new edition of Witten, Moffat, and Bell not only has newer and better text search algorithms but much material on image analysis and joint image/text processing. If you care about search engines, you need this book: it is the only one with full details of how they work. The book is both detailed and enjoyable; the authors have combined elegant writing with top-grade programming." Michael Lesk, National Science Foundation "The coverage of compression, file organizations, and indexing techniques for full text and document management systems is unsurpassed. Students, researchers, and practitioners will all benefit from reading this book." Bruce Croft, Director, Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval at the University of Massachusetts In this fully updated second edition of the highly acclaimed Managing Gigabytes, authors Witten, Moffat, and Bell continue to provide unparalleled coverage of state-of-the-art techniques for compressing and indexing data. Whatever your field, if you work with large quantities of information, this book is essential reading--an authoritative theoretical resource and a practical guide to meeting the toughest storage and access challenges. It covers the latest developments in compression and indexing and their application on the Web and in digital libraries. It also details dozens of powerful techniques supported by mg, the authors' own system for compressing, storing, and retrieving text, images, and textual images. mg's source code is freely available on the Web.

Marketing Your Indexing Services

Marketing Your Indexing Services PDF

Author: Anne Leach

Publisher: Information Today, Inc.

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 76

ISBN-13: 9781573870542

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This is a collection of articles from ASI's newsletter, "Key Words, with additional chapters by Anne Leach. It includes strategies for beginning indexers and new business owners, as well as established professionals. An excellent addition to any freelancer's library.