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I did ultimately make the decision to split the index from "paragraph form"
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Ah, page number order looks okay in paragraph form, but in list form not so much. Interesting the difference that makes.
I certainly agree being an indexer is a different mindset to writer/editor. If I was a pro indexer I wouldn't have had to start the index over and over again after I realised I should have been indexing something halfway through. That said, I made a good job of it in the end. My publisher on that occasion 'persuaded' me by saying I knew the book better than an indexer. I agreed with that, but knew they were only saving themself some money. And that's the case with a lot of publishers, they don't want to employ an indexer if they can get the author to do it, and if they can't someone in-house will just do a rubbish index for it. Once I took the job on, I did it to my satisfaction, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to do another one. A friend of mine indexed the entire run of
Fortean Times, I think it took him two years. Drove him round the bend, but an excellent index. Again, he knew the material, he wasn't a pro indexer.