Most of the time we don’t think about authors having to bear any of the costs of publication—but even among reputable academic presses, there will be expenses borne by the author, not the publisher.
This is the first in a series of posts offering a quick overview of what costs you might encounter.
Let’s talk indexing!
Good academic presses want your book to have an index—yes; even books that are designed to be used in courses—because indexes make books more useful and a more useful tool will be more widely coveted by academic libraries. So plan for an index because whether or not you compile it, there’s a solid chance your publisher will add it.
Save money: DIY
You can volunteer for indexing duty. Ask your editor whether the press has guidelines they can share to help make this task easier (many do!).
I’ve also heard tell of people roping their graduate assistants into compiling the index. Use caution here. You might scar a young academic for life. You might also end up with an index that isn’t as useful as it could be because, well, you know that material inside out, but your GA may not.
And if you’d rather receive a thousand paper cuts from a freshman-comp paper than tackle the index, even indirectly? Well now, that’s when you can ask your editor to hire an indexer on your behalf.
Spend money: Let your publisher handle it
The advantage here is publishers hire expert indexers. These experts usually whip out indexes quickly and they have the temperament to do the job with exacting precision. I can honestly say that only in one case have I seen an author-compiled index that beat the pants off any professional index. It was filled with cross-references and sub-listings so you could find exactly what you were looking for. It was truly a thing of beauty. Moreso because it was so rare. [insert sigh of contentment here.] But I digress.
Another advantage is that the publisher will handle delivering all the necessary files to the indexer, and gathering them back in. There’s something to be said about not having to project manage this process!
For your professional indexing, expect to pay in the neighborhood of $3 per indexable book page. (Translation: that’s $3 per typeset page of actual text, not tables or illustrations.) A 200-page book with no illustrations and few tables could cost between $500 and $700 to index.
Usually you won’t see the bill for this until the book is already at press, so you will have time to save your ducats.
What to negotiate
It is doubtful that you’ll talk your editor out of an index altogether (see above).
You might be able to convince her to pay for indexing as an advance against royalties, but be forewarned: this will require a lot of convincing on your part, and your editor will resist, hard, unless you two have already published a few successful books together.
Something to consider…
If you’ve decided indexing isn’t for you and you’re paying off student loans the size of a small country’s national debt, therefore cash to pay for indexing is most definitely not in your budget…
Investigate whether your school offers faculty research or development grants. Often, these funds can be distributed to cover the costs of indexing, so it is worth a look.
Your turn
Have you done your own index? Was it a nice way to wrap up the project, or a pain in your tuchas? If you hired someone…did you or your publisher handle the details?
Next in the series:
- Royalties: Whodathunkit?
- Wrapping up your book: Jackets and cover art
- Author copies: How many, how much
- Permissions: Who pays?
- Getting the word out: Publicity and PR
Stay tuned!
I use a lot of reference books in my job. Based on 15+ years of using computer reference books I automatically assume the table of contents is mostly worthless and head straight to the index. The index determines whether or not I’ll even consider buying a book.
Yeah, I’ve spent a *lot* of time working with authors on a table of contents to ensure it gives a sense of the motion of a book… but I find that an index can make or break a book for me, too.
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