An Online Index of My Book is Now Available!
One of the biggest problems with the text of my book is that until now it had no index. Now it does. It can be found online at Amazon. Just do a search "inside the book" for any name or subject you want to find.
8 comments:
I just did a search for "Ehrman," that is Bart D. Ehrman, and his name is mentioned 23 times. Then it tells me on which pages to find them all.
Fantastic! I am in the middle of my third reading of your book, taking notes to write a comprehensive review, and so far my biggest complaint has been . . . NO INDEX!
I realize that the lack of index is not your fault, but other Prometheus books have indexes, so why oh why doesn't yours?
Playing with Amazon's search feature is a bit puzzling. After I search for a term, I see a list of page numbers with a couple of lines each. Clicking on one of the page numbers takes me to the scanned page entire, but clicking back in my browser doesn't take me back to the page of search results, but to the book's main page.
Still, better than nothing. Thanks for passing this on.
Ah, thanks for the reminder. Ordered. :-)
I know these decisions are mostly made by the publishers, but it's something I've been wondering about for years.
I'd often hear authors/performers mentioning that they'd wanted to include extra material (at virtually no extra expense) in their books/albums/movies, but that would have made them "too long."
You can only speak to your own situation, but what sort of harebrained reasons could a publisher have for not including an index in a reference-type book?
Did they think I'd rather do without or go online for each of dozens of lookups to perhaps save myself a buck on the purchase price?
Well, to think I was eager to get started once I got my eee-PC :)
Maybe we can still list some important subject-crossing topics, like if one searches for "Calvinism" on Amazon one will not be able to find "Calvinism" in the important couple of paragraphs in which you evaluate "Theological Determinism." (if I recall correctly)
Okay, I'll fess up. At Prometheus Books the authors are responsible for the index. I could do it or pay $3 per page to have it done for me...that's $3 times the number of pages in the book, or about $1200! I think many, if not most publishers make this demand, at least all of them I know. At the time the text wasn't finalized yet. When I received the final pdf I had to send it to the people who agreed to look at it for a blurb, give it a final proof-reading (which meant making some more changes), and I had about two weeks to do this in the midst of work and other things. I actually did attempt this, but if you haven't tried doing this yourself it's painstakingly slow. I decided that rather than spend my time on an index that I would rather spend my time making final revisions on the text.
But Darrin, what you suggest is still worthwhile, although in the paragraphs you refer to I did use the word "Calvinism."
BTW if and when there is a reprint I can make some more changes. How many depends upon the distinstion between a reprint edition and a revised edition. A reprint edition can correct typos and things, and there seem to be many left in the book (THAT is not just my fault!). A revised edition can overhaul the book if desired. I have already asked if I could include an index in a reprint edition. They said no. So until there is a revised edition there will be no index inside the book. But, I'm really hoping that in a couple of years I can have a revised editon. I already know of plenty of places where I can better my arguments. Here's hoping. I depends on sales and other things. One more chance. That's what I want. If you think it's good now, wait for a couple of years after more thought and study. I am learning daily here at DC and from further reading. I'll make it a classic, if I can at that point, one that will endure for years and years. That would be my goal.
Hi John, I was also a bit bummed when I saw there was no index. The book is so big and useful as a reference that it would be nice to be able to quickly find passages in it. So this is good news that one is available now.
That's kind of a shame that Prometheus did that to you. As you know, I've had over a dozen books published and to this day I will never understand why "indexing" is such a touchy topic with publishers. Most of my books have been published with John Wiley and Sons, and they're really good about the indexing. But every time I go with a smaller publisher, my agent has to go back and forth at contract time with them to fight over the indexing. They always want the author to pay for it! That makes no sense. The publisher is the one financing the book, and that includes hiring all the editors, so why don't they index it? I know there are people who do indexing professionally (apparently they consider it an art form), so I don't see why the publishers don't just factor that into the budget. It makes no sense. And realistically, if they're tight for money, it's not a huge job to use the built-in indexing feature of Adobe Indesign to at least generate a basic index that serves the purpose.
So I'm glad to see one is finally available for your book!
Jeff
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