Indexing

Denise is a trained indexer, having completed the courses held by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers.

Indexers are the (largely-uncredited) people who work behind the scenes to create the indexes at the back of non-fiction books, cookbooks, journals, magazines, annual reports, and other publications. There is quite a skill to writing a good index.

What's the point, you ask? Well, a good index allows the reader to quickly and accurately locate the information they're after in the text, and is an invaluable part of any non-fiction work.

Writing the index for a publication usually happens near the end of a project, around the time when proofreading is done, and just before going to press, as the page numbers need to have been set. At Sutherland Studios we work to your print deadline, and produce a high quality index for your publication to your specifications. We have an extensive indexing reference library, and use CINDEX indexing software.

Back-of-Book Indexes

Back of book indexes are, as the name suggests, the indexes that you find in the back of non-fiction books. They give readers a good way "in" to the content of the book, and are a vital part of any high quality non-fiction publication. While many authors find themselves lumbered with the task of creating or paying for the index for their own book, it's actually a task best done by an indexer, and not the author. The author is generally too close to the work to really have a reader's perspective on the work, and without the knowledge of how to structure a comprehensive index (which is quite a difficult task), they can end up with ill-formed indexes. This is one of those situations where it really does save time and angst to bring in a trained professional, who can help your book be as good as it can be!

As Denise is an author, technical editor, and a graphic designer, she has a unique understanding of all sides of the writing and publishing process, and will work closely with you and your editor to create your index.

Her speciality subjects include : science, medicine, health, arts, computers, biography, education, gardening, cookbooks, craft books and annual reports.

Website Indexes

Surely a site map and some navigation buttons are all you need to get around a website? Well, maybe for a small website, but larger websites with a lot of information and content can really benefit from a website index. A site map is a listing of the pages in a site, but doesn't give quick access to the detailled content of your site. Adding a website index to your site gives a great deal more functionality for your users, and enables them to find what they're looking for quickly and easily.

As an example of the difference between a site map and an index, have a look at our site map, and our A-Z site index.

Denise has been writing HTML and creating websites since 1995, and has no trouble with creating the anchors, tags, and encoding necessary when writing a website index. She is used to working with FTP, site managers, and raw HTML code.

Site Indexes by Denise

• Russell Kightley Media
• Mahikari Exposed
• Sutherland Studios

If you have any indexing needs, please check out

Denise's listing on ANZSI, and contact her for an obligation-free quotation.