Rates will depend on the density of a given text, but are usually charged on a per indexable page (print) or per entry or per project (web) basis. Please submit a representative chapter or text sample (i.e., non-introductory material) for my review so that I can assess the complexity of your indexing project. I will also want to learn about the audience for your text, in order to write an index that will assist all potential readers.

Feel free to contact me to discuss your indexing needs and to request a quote.

PLEASE NOTE: Unless we are discussing an embedded index, in order for me to begin work on your project it is critical that page layout is complete and that I receive final typeset pages. Text changes cannot occur after I begin writing the index, other than minor proofreading edits that do not cause text reflow and changes in text pagination. If pagination changes after I have started writing the index, renumbering of locators will be necessary and the index fee and deadline must be renegotiated. I charge an hourly fee for checking and renumbering an index, in addition to the previously negotiated page rate or project fee.

Why is this necessary? If pagination changes after I begin writing the index, index locators will not be accurate and the index will be useless. Locators cannot be quickly or automatically updated by simply adding 1 or subtracting 2 from each page number, because when text reflows, there is no way to consistently predict what will happen to the page locators. Some locators get compressed so that what used to be a page span is now a single page, and some single page locators become page spans. The index must be manually updated by going through the index entry by entry and checking through the proofs page by page. This is a very time consuming process. It can take as much or more time to update an index as it takes to write the index in the first place, so it is best to wait until pages are final to begin writing the index.