Without a professional index some doors into your book will stay closed
De Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019
(This blog post about the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019, will be published in English, in the March 2020 issue of The Indexer, together with a contribution by Caroline Diepeveen.) Over de Beurs De Frankfurter Buchmesse is een vijfdaags jaarlijks terugkerend evenement, dat in oktober plaatsvindt in het enorme Frankfurter beurscomplex in Frankfurt am Main, Duitsland. Het beursterrein behoort tot de grootste ter wereld, met ongeveer 96.000 m² vrije haloppervlakte. De Boekenbeurs is de grootste beurs in zijn soort, met enkele duizenden exposanten, die uitgevers, contentproviders en technologiebedrijven vertegenwoordigen. Zij komen bij elkaar om te onderhandelen over boeken en mediarechten en licentiekosten. Volgens
8 Steps to Review an Index
Before you start your review keep in mind the purpose of an index: An index is a key to significant treatments of subjects, requiring harmonization of vocabulary and collocation of treatments described differently, especially in multi-author works. It also has to supplement the author’s terminology to accommodate the language in which the reader may formulate questions. (from “Last But Not Least”, a leaflet published by the Society of Indexers) 1. SPELLING As an indexer is only human, checking for typos and other anomalies is the first step you should take. 2. COMPLETENESS Are the major ideas and concepts discussed in your
January Reflections
The last few years I made it a custom in January to look at the past business year, to reflect on what went well, what went wrong and to look ahead to the challenges for the coming year. For the purpose of this yearly review I keep a diary[i] in which I make notes of things I encounter throughout the day. It doesn’t take up too much of my time, a few cryptic remarks per day are enough to remind me a year later how things were progressing. The bare statistics of 2018: Paid work: I indexed 28 books against 32 books in
China Society of Indexers’ Conference
Shanghai was sunlit and comfortably warm when I arrived there mid-October 2018, to attend the Conference of the China Society of Indexers (CSI) at Fudan University, the home base of the society. I did not only come for their indexing conference, but also to attend the Triennial ICRIS meeting, which the CSI was hosting, preceding their own conference. What’ s ICRIS, you may be wondering? It stands for International Committee of Representatives of Indexing Societies. Its aim is to improve the relationship between indexing societies worldwide. Representatives of the member societies or networks[1] meet once every three years to discuss the International Agreement,
8 Reasons for Hiring a Professional Indexer
It’s indisputable that an index is crucial to disseminating the knowledge you have gathered in your latest book, so I won’t explain why your book should have an index. What I want you to consider is engaging a professional indexer who can make you an outstanding index, instead of doing the job yourself or letting one of your students do an inadequate job. EXPERIENCE A professional indexer usually has years of experience indexing books in your field. Most authors, with a very few exceptions, find compiling an index a daunting task. You will have to learn the craft by reading numerous books and
Biography Conference “Different Lives”
Two weeks ago, I had the great pleasure to be able to attend the Biography Conference “Different Lives” at the University of Groningen’s Biography Institute. You can find the programme and photo’s online on the Institute's Facebook page. My reason for attending was my own love for biography and more important, the opportunity to speak with Dutch biographers and aspiring biographers about indexes and why Dutch biographies usually only have names indexes. A year ago, I talked to Jolande Withuis about the lack of a general index in her book about Juliana. From that conversation I gleaned that the absence of a general
Boekje open over registers
(This post is for prospective Dutch clients. It’s an explanation of what and index is, it's added value and how an indexer goes about compiling an index) ‘Niets onder B voor band, niets onder L voor lek, niets onder W voor wiel. Na veel zoekwerk kwam ik de volgende ingang tegen: “Als je een lekke band hebt”.’ Kritiek van een autobezitter op een handleiding met een onbruikbare index. Wat is een register eigenlijk? Een register is een lijst met trefwoorden, meestal geordend op alfabetische volgorde, welke er voor moet zorgen dat gebruikers informatie in een document kunnen (terug)vinden. Er bestaan meerdere soorten
First Post or What to Expect
Now that my new website is a reality it seems like the perfect opportunity to start this blog. The idea is to write informative and interesting posts on a variety of subjects, that should be of interest to authors, publishers, and indexers alike. As I hope to reach out to Dutch readers as well, I will alternate between English and Dutch posts as much as possible. Because a good friend is thinking about starting a career as an indexer and because the NIN (Nederlands Indexers Netwerk) could use a few new members, the blog is especially geared towards aspiring indexers. As most people