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» bingley - Is this generally true?

Hi, Dawney.

I bought Larry Bonura's The Art of Indexing on your recommendation. I noticed from the examples he gave in chapter 20 Managing The Index, that he estimates US$3 - US$5 per page, but then says for a 200-page manual the total would be US$400 - US$800. For a 220-page manual he estimates an experienced indexer would need 30 - 44 hours.

Now, at $3 - $5 per page, I make that $600 - $1000 for 200 pages, but if we accept his figure of US$400 - US$800 and then add 10% to bring it up to 220 pages, the experienced indexer's fee would range from US$10 to US$ 30 per hour, and probably half that for a beginner.

Is that correct, or have I missed something? US$10 per hour doesn't sound very much for an educated professional.

-- posted by bingley

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» Indexlady - Re: Is this generally true?

In response to Is this generally true? posted by bingley:

Hi there,

Please forgive me for not responding sooner--for some reason, I JUST saw your message!

TRUE: for back-of-the-book indexes, yes, most publishers pay between $3 to $5 per indexable book page. (Some pay more for specialty niches, and some pay less.)

VERY FALSE: It takes an experienced indexer 33-40 hours to index EVERY 200-page book in EVERY niche.

If you have read my articles on Speed, you will see how many variables impact speed. Also, check out the poll on how many pages indexers schedule each week.

However, from Bonura's example, you should see the need to really examine all those things that impact speed and find ways to increase your own.

Many experienced indexers do at least 10 pages per hour. This is an average which is calculated at the end of the project (how many total hours did you work on the index compared to how many pages).

If you index outside of your knowledge, if you work in certain niches, if you don't know your software very well (even though you might THINK you do), and so on (check the articles on speed), then it will slow you down.

Some books require far more entries or analysis than others. That's where subject niche comes in.

My first index was paid $3 per page. However, because I didn't know the indexing process as well as I do know (although I knew how to index--there's a BIG difference!), it took me so much time that I only made 50 cents an hour.

As I got faster, my "hourly rate" greatly improved.

That's why those articles on speed are so critical.

It's not a matter of head knowledge. It's a matter of speed.

One BIG thing that slows new indexers down is term selection. Bonura's book is the BEST for helping in that regard. There's a flowchart on term selection in there that no other book has. That will help speed up your process immensely. If you have to ponder for 5 minutes on each term in the index, you will be slow.

In addition, note that Bonura's book was written in 1994. This was long before indexers had the resources we have today. Today, we have dedicated indexing software that sings and dances. We have help online for questions and immediate answers, and more, that back then may not have been available.

And, yes, once again, we have those articles on speed that I wrote. Until then, many indexers had no idea how to really improve their speed. They might have thought of a couple of ways (learn software or something), but not many ever thought of all those various ways.

So, I think many indexers are much, much faster now--especially the experienced ones!

It's good to plan on the first few indexes taking much longer than anticipated--due to learning process. But experienced indexers, especially those that put in that many hours in a week (fulltimers) index much faster than 200 pages, on average.

-- posted by Indexlady

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