Apply: Freelance academic book indexer

• Type: This is a part-time, remote, independent contractor role. You can work from any location.
• Frequency: Per-project basis, most of our indexers work on 1–2 indexes per month
• Reports to: Dr. Cathy Hannabach (Founder & CEO) + project managers on individual projects
• Pay: USD $4.75 per indexable page
• Application deadline: Rolling
• Work begins: As soon as possible

We are looking for social justice-oriented indexers with a minimum of 1 year professional experience indexing academic books in the interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences (see our portfolio for specific fields).

Ideas on Fire indexers are responsible for crafting interdisciplinary and thorough back-of-the-book indexes that allow diverse groups of readers to navigate our authors’ books, build on those books to create their own scholarship, and ultimately build better worlds.

As a social justice-oriented company, we know that citations are inherently political. Who and what is included in an index not only affects tenure and promotion but also reflects whose ideas and lives are thought to matter—thus, Ideas on Fire indexes highlight the full range of thinkers, artists, concepts, and histories cited in each book.

• You’ll work from publisher-issued page proofs to write back-of-the-book indexes with entries, subentries, and cross references that include the full range of names, key concepts/terms, methodologies, and themes cited in each book.
• You’ll use Cindex or SKY to build, format, and check your indexes and then export all index drafts to Microsoft Word where you’ll receive IoF edits and feedback using Track Changes.
• You’ll revise your drafts based on IoF edits and feedback to ensure the index is complete, thorough, and speaks to the interdisciplinary audiences of each book.
• You’ll ensure all your index drafts fulfill the project brief provided to you at the beginning of each project.

• You have at least 1 year professional experience indexing academic books in the interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences.
• You love getting detailed feedback on your index drafts and process, and you love improving your work based on that feedback.
• You have fantastic US English written communication skills.
• You are deeply familiar with the Chicago Manual of Style.
• You have your own computer, Cindex or SKY, Microsoft Word, Adobe Reader or Apple Preview, and a reliable high-speed internet connection.
• You regularly pursue professional indexing development/training to improve your skills, keep up on industry changes in language and best practices, and learn new techniques and tools.

Our CEO Cathy Hannabach books all client projects.

Once the project is confirmed and onboarded, the project manager pitches the project to the IoF indexer whose expertise and availability are the best fit for the manuscript.

This pitch contains the manuscript title and topic, manuscript type (monograph, edited collection, etc.), approximate indexable page count, pay, and schedule.

If the indexer is interested in and available for the project, they accept and get set up for that project in our project management system. If the indexer is not interested or available, the project manager pitches it to another indexer.

Our pitches are tailored to the indexer being pitched and match our indexers’ unique preferences and expertise. Unlike some other agencies, we don’t simultaneously pitch to multiple indexers, we don’t pit indexers against one another, and we never want indexers to feel pressured to be glued to a job board out of fear of missing an opportunity (we think that’s a pretty crappy system, actually, and one that has no respect for work/life balance).

Most of our indexers tend to work on 1–2 indexes per month, depending on their expertise, preferences, and availability.