Hello,

Welcome back to another Q&A on this last Tuesday of the month!

The original query I received referenced a specific project I had mentioned—I think a larger book and index that I had written for an Oxford University Press title—but I don’t know for certain which project. So I am going to rephrase the question. I hope I still manage to answer the original question.

Thank you for the question. As I discussed at the beginning of the month, big books can be a different beast to index. Time is another factor.

To be honest, I feel like a fraud answering this question right now. I am still working on the nuclear reactors book I previously mentioned, slogging through the edits. I hoped to be finished two weeks ago and here I still am. I clearly misjudged the amount of work involved and how much time this index would take.

I have been trying to think what has been different about this index and other large books I have indexed this year. While I have indexed big books before, it seems like I have done more this year than usual. And yet I’m realizing that my sense of timing and pacing is skewed towards regular length monographs and edited collections.

Part of what is throwing me off is the sheer length of the index and the volume of entries. Large books obviously contain a lot more detail, more so if they are densely written. All that detail translates into more entries and, more importantly, more subheadings. I find subheadings, and arrays containing subheadings, take more time to edit. I think there is something to my theory that the amount of work grows exponentially with the length of the book.

Another aspect throwing off my sense of timing is subcontracting. I have worked with subcontractors on some of these large projects. While I have noticed that I am getting through my rough drafts more quickly with a subcontractor taking on part of the work (which is what I want), I’m also still figuring out how much time is actually saved and how much time I still need to budget for editing. I want to continue to subcontract, and I also need to become better at planning and managing subcontracted projects.

Managing my queue of projects is also different with large books. With regular length books, about 200-300 pages each, I assume roughly a week per book and I move through the list. For large projects, I’m probably looking at 2-4 weeks per book, or more. How do I plan for such large blocks of time? How do I fit in shorter books (or, how do I fit in a larger book around pre-existing smaller commitments)? Is it feasible to work on two or more projects at once? Indexing large books seems to requires, at least for me, a different way of working and planning than what I am used to.

Now that I’ve sketched some of my current struggles with timing and large projects, let’s look at a few recent examples. The following are the number of hours I spent indexing three large projects. By large books, I mean anything substantially longer than a regular length monograph, which I consider to be about 90,000 words. If I have to put a number to it, perhaps 150,000 words or longer. That said, complexity and density of material plays a role too, and so a somewhat shorter book, like the ethnography below, can still feel larger than the word count suggests.

• About 35 hours for an ethnography on Palestinians (about 135,000 words)
• About 32 hours for an edited collection on Black Canadian art and literature (about 153,000 words)
• About 76 hours for an Oxford handbook on Baptist studies (about 318,000 words)

All three took more than a day to index, in terms of total number of hours, with the longest, the Oxford handbook, taking me more than three days to complete. But let’s break this down further, because while total number of hours can be a handy gauge, I did not index for three days straight around the clock.

I use Toggl to track my time. Looking at my records, I typically spend 3-5 hours indexing every day, with the average being around four hours. Which doesn’t sound like a whole lot. I’m supposed to be a full-time indexer, right?

Let’s also look at what those 3-5 hours do not capture. That time does not include breaks, such as for lunch, water, etc… It also does not include other business-related tasks, such as responding to emails, bookkeeping, or writing this newsletter. Being a freelancer, there is a certain amount of non-client work that needs to be done to keep this whole operation moving along. So while I should spend the majority of my time on client work (indexing), I also need to spend a certain amount of time each day for other tasks. I also need to give my mind a break periodically. So those 3-5 hours spent indexing are spread throughout the work day.

I also find there is often a limit to how long I can focus on indexing. Indexing requires close attention to detail and decision-making, and my mind is often fatigued by the end of the afternoon. Five hours is usually my limit, depending on the day and material. If I’m pushing to meet a deadline, I’ll try to fit in more, but I find indexing six or more hours a day isn’t really sustainable.

So, comparing that daily work schedule to the total number of hours per project, I can expect the index for the Palestinian ethnography to take me 7-12 days to complete while the Oxford handbook would take me 15-25 days. Splitting the difference, say about 10 and 20 days respectively.

As I mentioned, I worked with subcontractors on the Oxford handbook and the edited collection on Black Canadian art and literature, though not the Palestinian ethnography. That impacted the amount of time needed, probably by at least a couple of days each. For some of these projects, I had other, shorter indexes going on the side, which further stretched out the work.

So that is how much time it has taken me this year to index large books. Your mileage may vary.

Going back to the original question, there is the concern that the publisher does not allow enough time to index large books. That is a valid concern. I’ve noticed that publishers often give their standard three or four weeks for the index, regardless of the length of the book. What is reasonable for a 200 page book is obviously—you would think—unreasonable for a 500 or 700 page book. Publishers often need reminding.

I find it helpful to push back and ask for more time. It helps to ask early, as soon as I’m aware of the length. It also helps to get the author onboard as an advocate with the press. I may not be able to get all the time I want, but I can often get another week or two. So if you think you need more time, definitely ask, and ask early.

If you are not sure how long indexing will take, try indexing a sample and extrapolate from there. Either see how far you get in a half an hour or see how long it takes to index a chapter, for example. It is also a good practice to track your time, so you can see over time how long different types of books take, to get a rough sense for how long similar books may take. If indexing a book longer than you are used to, plan for more time than you think.

If you are not able to negotiate enough time, or if your schedule is simply too full, it is also okay to turn down large projects. I’ve done that too, when the project is too large for the gap in my calendar.

I wish there was a way to magically speed up the indexing process, or to compress large indexes into short timeframes. But I haven’t found it yet. Writing an index is work, and big books mean more work. It is often possible to negotiate more time. It also helps to have a realistic sense of your own schedule and how quickly you can work.

For myself, now that I have more recent data, I’ll be revisiting how I estimate and schedule large projects. See if I can get my sense of timing back on track.

In the meantime, back to editing the nuclear reactors index.

Yours in indexing,

Stephen