Ask about production process in detail. Many large publishers rely on third party vendors for production who are implementing many cost saving (to them) measures. Those short cuts affect the result, which may show up in your book and can't be fixed unless there is a second printing.

I was burnt out from non-profit management. I liked words, problem solving, project based work and needed the flexibility of working for myself. I was considering editing, saw indexing was part of the training. Remembered a librarian who told that people specialize in indexing. Sold!

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42. Post the second sentence. "Authors must be prepared to review the index quickly, usually within a day or two of its receipt."

No new pictures - where are you mentally?

Great thread on wine pairings for 🎥 🐟🍿🍫 and trivia about all of that and more

Can't it be my current novel, where I've inherited wealth and I pay someone to run the household?

Index in the Joy of Cooking

There’s an excellent and devastatingly thorough article in the latest @indexers.bsky.social journal by Elizabeth Bartmess and Michele Combs demonstrating that LLMs are worthless for indexing

"Writing with Robots" students presented in their unessays yesterday & here are a just few I was especially excited about & I got permission to share Most unessay projects are accompanied by an "artist’s statement" outlining the argument of the piece—I will try to get to the core of those here+

However the book indexer DID read every word of the indexable part of the book. If you have your own tome coming out soon start looking for you indexer when you submit your final manuscript. Larger books take longer and not all indexers take on large books. #SkyIndex #Academia 📚🎥🏛️

I don't care how short your NF book is or how well you think you organized it, IT NEEDS AN INDEX. #Academia

🎬 Meet a winner: THE SITUATIONSHIP reimagines a 1920s silent film & took third place in the Internet Archive's 2025 Public Domain Day Film Remix Contest. Now it’s your turn—create a 2–3 min short using public domain works from 1930 & earlier. ℹ️ Details 👉 blog.archive.org/2025/12/01/2...

I'm obsessed with this stat: "with more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions and fewer than 130 university presses in the United States and Canada, this vital [publishing] infrastructure is directly supported by less than 3 percent of the institutions it benefits"

I actually have a pair of shorts with his face with this exact quote on them. David Lynch was an ally, and an incredible artist with a beautiful mind. I miss him.

IndexSky, what do we think about #danceindexing? I don't think it's for me, as I can't focus on reading for understanding and dancing simultaneously. However, I am however about to get into some #danceinvoicing

My current indexing project is about the development of photography programs in post-secondary education in the US and a book I indexed earlier on Minor White last year is showing up in the notes. So nice to external proof of this strange yet wonderful career. 📷 🏛️ 📚 #BookIndexer

I want everyone to the think of the poor production teams having to act on increasingly unhinged requests. They didn't ask for this. They don't deserve this. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Lately I've had queries from friends or new acquaintances asking if I'm worried about AI taking my job, because "surely that's just around the corner". Not worried yet. See the statement on AI and Indexing from the American Society for Indexing (ASI). asindexing.org/ai-news/stat...

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

Currently indexing a book about 16mm and have Paul Simon's Kodachrome on endless repeat in my mind. Any other film songs you can send my way? 🎥📽️ #BookIndexer

The Type High Prize mails out to all Print Club members that’ve been in the Club for a whole year (starting in September) to celebrate Type High Day (9/18). These ornaments were designed by me and cast by @bowerbox.com. Super grateful to all the PC members that keep the studio going!

If you can, publish with a university press! They're non-profit, they often struggle because their goal is not to make money but produce knowledge, and they're run by the kindest, most hard-working people. UP editors are artisans--your book will 100% be in good hands.

If you are reviewing a book and you have thoughts on the index (good or bad or lack thereof) please include them in your review. Indexing is invisible so reminders of their existence helps to keep them from the chopping block of budget cuts. #BookSky #NonFiction #AcademicSky

“The Experience of Being Online,” 1884, Kobayashi Kiyochika. (Actual title: “One Person, Six Expressions.”)

Typo of the day: European-Count of Human Rights #BookIndexing

Resonance (UC Press) is looking for humanities research across the following topics: Sound in Political Crisis, Sound and Social Justice, Experiments in Sound, Sound Archives and Preservation, and we're convening a permanent series that'll examine "Film and Cinema Sound" in 2026. Please circulate!

You ‘run the gamut’ and ‘run the gauntlet.’ You don’t ‘run the gambit.’ gamut = entire range or series gauntlet = severe trial Gambit = Alpha-level mutant who can convert potential energy to kinetic energy

In 1974, Constantine Manos spent nine months taking thousands of photos of people and neighborhoods across Boston. The photographs will be the focus of a forthcoming exhibition at the Boston Athenaeum, and the curator are asking for help IDing the images.

Frustrated by being referred to as a mere "caricature" artist, William Hogarth produced this 1743 print to explain the difference between characters and caricatures — which he saw as radically different — and aligning his style firmly with the former: publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...

I have authors who will ask why someone or something isn't in the index. And it turns out that I considered it a passing mention. I always ask myself what will the reader learn about "person/concept being considered" if they go to this page? Great 🧵on what indexers consider when deciding in or out?

Indexing about how homophobia was a barrier to collecting and archiving queer history during the Holocaust. 🏳️‍🌈🗃️🏛️

I’m not a part of this org, but as an art historian, the suggestion that you would use GenAI to make fake images to ‘illustrate’ your work is infuriating. Real artworks exist. You can just ask one of your art history colleagues.

A great thing about physical books is that they seldom stop working

Considering changing the name of my website and account to Fugitive Books Intercepted. (From the letterhead of Washington, DC rare book sellers Duff and Gilfond.)

Now You See It...Now You DON'T! Master magician Ricky Jay was a big fan of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which recently (and briefly) caught on fire! In honor of Ricky and the ephemerality of all good things, here I am showing off the Newberry's 18th c. Blow Book like Ricky once taught me. 1/2

Need an indexer for your book in the humanities? I've just two August projects slip into September! #AcademicSky 🎥🗃️🪡🏛️ #lit #FeministSky

Don't let "Why Don't Celebrity memoirs Have Indexes Anymore?" fool you. There is no investigation aimed at answering this question. This is an opinion piece lamenting the lack of indexes in biographies of late.

"I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done." Steven Wright #NationalWritingDay

When I told a friend from grad school I was becoming an indexer the look on her face was sheer horror. Then I remembered she'd helped her girlfriend index her dissertation She'd used Word with manual sorting and formatting. Yeah I have software to speed things up, but to the speed of 3-4 hours!

Who is coming to Vancouver for ISC/SCI's conference? @indexerscanada.bsky.social I had a coffee catch-up with @apeaceinns.bsky.social yesterday and I'm excited to be attending a conference without a travel related migraine!

When I'm indexing and come across name spelled differently, I will send an email noting the differences. A recent author kept replying thank-you but wouldn't tell me the correct version! I had to explain that I need to know so the index is correct!

This is what the FBI's fingerprint files looked like in 1942: FBI was adding 400,000 file cards a month to its archives, and was receiving 110,000 requests for “name checks” per month. By 1944 the agency contained some 23 million card records, as well as 10 million fingerprint records.

This is what professional indexers do, we give you time to do the things you are paid to do.

New paper for the journals "Scholars divided as indexer's routine terminology/typo query sets off Otlet kerfluffle"

I routinely send an email to my clients with a query asking if two things/people/titles are or are not the same. I thought it was a simple query, but heard back today from the editor of the compilation that I've set off a lot of discussion.

I have an indexing joke. See infinite loop. #BookIndexer #AcademicSky

#academicsky #booksky New book and DH project with tons of digitized archival materials www.getty.edu/publications...

I'm indexing a multi authored book about information history, not the history of information. Wrapping up Otlet's Mundaneum before heading into facial AI systems. #BookIndexer #GLAM #AcademicSky

Meeting at the Golden Gate (game was in San Francisco!), by Giotto, 1303-06 - The Smokers, by Adriaen Brouwer, 1636