Your book needs an index, and you need an indexer
You’ve done the research, and you’ve put in the work of writing the book, finding a publisher, and editing the book. The table of contents is set, you will have to review and approve page proofs soon, and you are likely weary of looking at the manuscript, but it still needs an index.
Does it really need an index? Yes. A May 2026 review in a major newspaper noted, of a book on Shakespeare: “And – this being the publisher’s rather than the author’s fault – the book has been produced, inexplicably, without an index.” Whoever made the decision in this particular case, it’s clear that reviewers and readers notice the quality of, or the lack of, an index in your book. A well-written index picks up the threads of topic that come up repeatedly in your work, and gathers them together to make them findable to your audience, both first-time readers and those who will revisit your work later, to re-read, for research, and perhaps even to quote.
As to why you need a professional indexer: we are skilled at this painstaking task, and can look at your manuscript with fresh eyes to do this task. At the point when even an author who loves their book may be sick of looking at it, indexers create a map of the work, conceptually, in the form of an organized alphabetical listing of the who-what-when-where-why-how. We enable your readers to find that particular page or passage again, or to go right to the part where you said the things they are most interested in. We facilitate connections between author and readers, we’ve trained to do it well, and we can do it far more quickly than most other writers.
Why hire me
I am a member of the American Society for Indexing (ASI), and I am trained in both book indexing and the business of indexing under a past president of the Indexing Society of Canada/Société canadienne d’indexation (ISC/SCI). I index projects across all STEM fields, and I focus on indexing works in computer science, computing technology, psychology, cognitive sciences, information science, research data management, and data science. Works aimed at everyone from general audiences to specialists are welcome.
I work primarily in CINDEX and Microsoft Word/LibreOffice, and I am familiar with InDesign, LaTeX, Affinity Publisher, MarkDown, HTML, and CSS. I have two decades of experience working with a variety of scientists and scholars across STEM and other academic fields, as a librarian, an instructional technologist, and now as an indexer and editor. See my CV or my LinkedIn if you would like to know more about me.
Rates
I charge rates competitive with those of other ASI and ISC members. Quality indexes generally cost $6-11 USD per indexable page, and I can provide a more precise estimate by looking at the manuscript. Embedded indexing, rush work, processing fees for some methods of payment, and other factors will also impact the quote. See the American Society for Indexing FAQ for more answers to commonly asked questions about indexing.
Ready to get started?
When scheduling, please allow 2.5 to 3 weeks to complete the index. You can email me at epigenetastic at gmail dot com with queries about price estimates and scheduling, and please let me know at that time about deadlines and whether the index is to be embedded.