The Text and Academic Authors Association (I’m a proud member) is hosting a call-in podcast about textbook indexing on Wednesday, August 25th, at 11 a.m. EDT, 8 a.m. PDT.
Here are the details:
You might take that alphabetized list of words and page numbers for granted, but there’s turmoil inside the textbook indexing world. First there’s the ongoing challenge of people not understanding what indexing is about, a world where production editors are always just out of college, authors are forced to pay, and jobs are going to countries where English isn’t a first language. The rise of e-books has reintroduced a significant problem that first appeared in the early 1990s: wholly inferior tools. E-book indexes do not work, literally. How does this affect writing? Join us for a lively discussion with Seth Maislin, Managing Partner at Potomac Indexing, LLC (http://www.potomacindexing.com), about how we find things…or not.
Of particular concern is the difficulty of creating a good index for an e-book, and e-books are a major trend right now in the college textbook publishing world.
Check out the Text and Academic Authors podcast page for past episodes and what’s coming in the future.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Rather than an index, won’t most e-textbooks be searchable?
Yes, e-books are in general searchable for any word or term you want. I asked the same question in a LinkedIn discussion about this topic, and Seth Maislin, the guy featured in the podcast, set me straight.
Searches can of course turn up just what you need, but they’ll also turn up every reference in the book, including those that aren’t useful. A professional indexer goes through a book and makes specific decisions on what’s best.