Starting an Indexing Business Fourth Edition - Enid Zafran, Joan Shapiro

Starting An Indexing Business Fourth Edition
Enid L. Zafran and Joan Shapiro
Information Today
Copyright: 2009
978-1573873703

The amazon.com product description:

This revised edition of the must-have reference for new and aspiring freelance indexers includes advice on these topics and more:
1. Setting up an indexing business
2. How indexers learn their trade and stay up-to-date
3. Finding clients and setting fees
4. Packagers: Who are they and what do they do?
5. Indexing while holding a full-time job
6. Liability issues
The book also includes a sample Letter Agreement setting out terms between an indexer and author, a mini-salary survey with insight into the earnings potential in the field, and a handy business startup checklist.

I debated buying Starting an Indexing Business a few months back, but decided against it at the time, mostly because it came out several years ago, and I wasn't sure how valid the information would be now. After seeing some references to it in the last couple of weeks though, I changed my mind, and ended up reading it while camping last week. On reading the book, I'm glad I did.

Yes, some things are slightly outdated, but there's still plenty of good advice on how to start out finding customers, discussions of liability and insurance (which, by the way, this is the first time I've heard anything about), fee discussions, including a bit of an informal survey of how rates have changed between 2003 and 2008.

Overall, I'd definitely say that Starting an Indexing Business is worth getting if you're a new indexer - especially in the States, which is honestly where the information is focused. Most of it though, is still worth reading even elsewhere, because marketing techniques and ways of finding customers are still going to be useful in other countries, especially here in Canada, where I think a lot of customers are located in the States.

One thing I found about this book is that it fired up my enthusiasm to higher levels, and I can't wait to be really able to get going.