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5 Reasons to Hire a Professional Indexer
Finally, you can see the finish line. You’ve spent months if not years writing your book, sent it through multiple rounds of editing, from the developmental to copyediting, and now it’s in the final stage of proofreading before being sent to the printer. All that’s left is to review the proofs and append that index.…
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The Superheroes of Indexing and Editing
23 April 2024 Back in February I mentioned some of the dad jokes in funerary services books, such as undead Wolverine’s alter-ego Cadaverine. Today I am continuing to fill out my indexing and editing superhero team with a new mini-team: the Logistikons. Doesn’t that sound like a team of heroes from an 1980s Saturday-morning cartoon… Read…
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Conference Review: Berlin 2022
Review of the Continental Connections international indexing conference held in Berlin, Germany, in October 2022, from the perspective of one there in person.
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TIL: Medieval Names
11 April 2024 As a medievalist and as someone who’s written an article about medieval names, I thought myself pretty well versed in the various ways people referred to each other throughout the European Middle Ages, whether in Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or pagan communities. I was wrong. You know how people have the habit of… Read…
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Of Mice and Indexers
3 April 2024 For the past month+, I’ve had limited use of my right (dominant) arm. This has led to my purchase of a programmable mouse. In truth, it’s a gaming mouse, but I have repurposed it for productivity. When I first got it, I reached out to the editing and indexing communities, asking how… Read…
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Devil Muppets
26 March 2024 Somewhere, long ago, I encountered the theory that delusions are culturally constructed and coded. No one had a Napoleon complex before Bonaparte; no one thought they were Jesus before Christianity had permeated their society; ancient Greek conspiracy-theorists were not convinced that the Truth about little grey men was Out There. That our… Read…
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Business Contracts, or Why Email Isn’t Enough
19 March 2024 Every so often, a new indexer (or editor, or proofreader) asks whether they need to have a contract with their clients. I always answer yes. One of two questions follow: Why aren’t the email exchanges enough? What should go in the contract? In this blog post, I lay out why I find… Read…
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TIL: Sex Changes for Fish
12 March 2024 The other week, the Guardian had a story about the first photographically documented instance of humpback whale sex–and it just happened to be between two males. It brought to mind this nugget I learned about grouper (the fish): there are sex-change operations for them. This is apparently a thing. Unfortunately, the book… Read…
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The Importance of a Sense of Humour
27 February 2024 Indexing textbooks for funerary professionals comes with its own peculiar set of challenges (especially when dealing with the before photos), but it’s helpful when the authors have a sense of humour. To wit, Supercilium (eyebrows). As mentioned, cilia means “lashes” or “eyebrows,” and of course “super” implies they were bitten by a… Read…
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Indexing Reflections: Battleship Names
20 February 2024 I am not one to traditionally wax poetic about war (especially right now). Even less likely am I to get dewy eyed at the mere description of battleships. And yet here I sit, indexing a military history book, and finding myself needing to remember that what’s before me is not poetry. Sure,… Read…
Categories
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- Popular Culture
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- Today I Learned
Tags
Berlin Computers Contracts Cross-References Devil dictionaries Early Modern Period Funerary Services Germany Hiring History Humour Indexing Societies Metatopic Mice Middle Ages Military History Muppets Names Professional Development standards Superheroes Working with Injuries