I’ll help you write your own index!
Your non-fiction book needs an index. It’s a map to your book so that readers can figure out if it is going to cover what they need, or so they can find the important or interesting information they remember reading about. Without it, your book will be much less useful to readers, which is the main reason you wrote the book!
But, a great index is expensive. You should expect to pay $4-8 per indexable typeset page if you are hiring a professional indexer to index your book. That’s $1000-2000 for a typical 250 page book. Indexers are highly educated and skilled technical professionals, and that’s simply what it costs for them to make a living using their skills.
If your budget is limited, or you are new to the publishing process and didn’t set aside that amount for the index, there is another option. You can try to index it on your own. If you do have the time and mental energy leftover for that, it could be an interesting and rewarding process!
Here’s where I can help. I’ve been a professional indexer for six years, and I love teaching and working with people one-on-one. And just recently, the most commonly used indexing software, Cindex, became open-source, meaning you can download it for free. I personally couldn’t imagine indexing without Cindex. I would cry if I had to. I would choose another profession actually. So this is truly great news if you want to try indexing yourself. And I’d love to help you do it, in either of two ways.
A) Fixed Budget Teaching and Coaching Support Package @ $500 flat fee
1 hour Intro to Indexing and Cindex video call
Up to you whether you want to research and try these things first on your own, and use this hour for clarification, or whether you want me to guide you through at the very beginning. It just depends on the way you learn best. Just let me know which you are choosing.
Review your index 30 pages in and video call
You index 30 pages, and then try to edit/clean it up as best you can into a final index and send it to me for review. Then I will give you written and verbal feedback for up to one hour on a video call to make sure you are on the right track for the rest of the book/index.
Rough draft index review video call
I will read over your rough draft (after you’ve gone through your whole book). On one last one hour video call, we will discuss strategies for editing your index into a final draft
With our second and third calls, please book two days ahead via email so I can make sure to block out time to review your work, plan for our meeting and hold it in my schedule. Please send me your document for review at least 24 hours before our meeting.
B) Unlimited Support @ $90/hr
Access my help with 24 hrs notice, no matter where in the process you are, as much or as little as you need, and I’ll simply track my hours and bill you for the time.