In this Ask the Indexers blog post, our panel of indexers reflects on client feedback. What is the best piece of feedback they’ve ever had, positive or negative? And did it change how they approached their work?
Nic Nicholas, Fellow
“The index is splendid. Nic’s work is of such a high standard that she has put the rest of the book to shame. I went through the text twice for corrections but I cannot compete with Nic. All her corrections are valid and her use of italics is masterful and correct.”
This was from an author (ex-teacher) who had spent twenty years researching the subject. I am always delighted to receive such feedback – I still get nervous about author feedback.
My only negative feedback involved a similarly ‘obsessive’ author but his attitude was appalling – both to myself and all at the publishing house. It was for a plant book of 500pp (30pp index) – I had been consistent and the editor felt that it was absolutely fine. The author disagreed with everyone and said that it wasn’t detailed enough and I hadn’t included all the academics etc etc. Nor had I included all the books ‘mentioned’. He also wanted an entry for himself – this was definitely not necessary.
I can usually back up why I have done something if an author disagrees with any entry and the majority are quite happy once I have explained it to them. Experience does breed confidence.
Sue Penny, Advanced Professional Member
It’s a bit unnerving to see fulsome praise for the wonderful indexer in the Acknowledgements of the pdf you’ve just received to start work on; lovely to get a thank you from a pleased customer who’s looked in detail at your index, and feels that you’ve understood their work and done it justice.
My worst experience was on work I’d received through a packager. Several months after I’d submitted (and been paid for) the index I received copious notes from the author on all the things she felt I’d got wrong. The packager was ready to pay me for additional work, so I checked the index, responded to each of her complaints, and was relieved to be able to justify each decision I’d made. Under the circumstances. the packager’s comment was the best feedback I could have received: “ I hate this author with a passion.” Such a relief!
Some of the queries I’ve received from authors have made me realise how little people understand the detail of how an index works. It’s satisfying to be able to explain why you have included or excluded a term. On more than one occasion the author has wanted me to include people who aren’t actually mentioned in the book.
Christopher Phipps, Advanced Professional Member
From an author: “I have now read through the Index – I feel Christopher Phipps knows more about my book than I do!”. It reinforced my feeling that, by using the index structure to offer an alternative narrative to the text, a good index can be so much more than a finding aid and can bring to light new connections for even those who know the material best.
Helen Taylor, Advanced Professional Member
My favourite is “this index is an excellent piece of work”, from the editor of a biography index I had spent months working on. It was such a relief that she liked what I’d done! I also had a comment praising the layout of the index (this was a different job), saying that the typesetter didn’t have to tweak it at all, so thank you CINDEX!
I have also had feedback from clients asking why I have missed out particular things. Mostly there was a reason, such as it was a passing mention, but sometimes they had spotted things I had missed, so I now make a conscious effort to slow down when I am indexing pages dense with information, it’s all too easy to rush.
Rob Gibson, Advanced Professional Member
Two spring to mind. The first: “This index looks impressive and exceptionally detailed.” And the second: “I think you have absolutely caught the spirit of the book!!” They seem to me to capture the two sides of the indexing process.
Helen Bilton, Advanced Professional Member
The most negative feedback I’ve ever had was reading a scathing review by a much respected academic of an index in The Indexer. Not even in the ‘Indexes Reviewed’ section but in the main body of the journal, separated out by a little box. And realising with horror that it was one of mine.
It had been a huge project, early days in my indexing career and I did a lot of reviewing to see where the fault lay. And I realised that whilst most of the fault was indeed mine – the review was absolutely not wrong in some of the issues they pointed out that I should have addressed, the job had also had a very challenging brief which was changed several times during the course of the job. Classic case of far too little space given, a multi-author work with inconsistent editorial control over different chapters, the names were impossible to reconcile over different chapters because of different formats etc etc. So what I learned was to own those issues that were my mistakes, correct them where possible and take forward new knowledge for next time. And at the same time to understand that sometimes, things that look like ‘errors’ to outsiders are a product of the conditions in which the work was produced and sometimes represent the best possible compromise in challenging circumstances.
Michelle Brumby, Advanced Professional Member
Encouragingly, the only negative feedback that I have received so far has been where clients have misunderstood indexing conventions (for example, I once had a complaint that the index was ‘full of typos’ which turned out to be locators in bold/italic type, duly explained in the introductory note that the client hadn’t noticed/bothered to read). Now I make sure that I highlight any such features, obvious or otherwise, when I send the index off to the client to pre-empt such misunderstandings.
Positive feedback from authors themselves always warms the cockles and bolsters my confidence going into the next job. I’m reassured that what I’m doing is appreciated and valued, particularly by someone with such an intimate connection to the text. I miss that when I work with project managers.
Rohan Bolton, Fellow
“That looks marvellous. I can only admire the mind that is able to put that together – masterful work on cross referencing peace process, binationalism, the Quarter, Tony Blair etc. We can always add another 8 pages if needed.”
It is comments like these that have encouraged me to continue to make as much effort as I can into analysing the text and paying attention to detail. It is always worth asking if there might be extra pages available for the index.
This post is part of our Ask the Indexers series. The previous post asked What aspects of indexing as a career turned out to be very different from your expectations?
