Deborah Patton Indexing
keystroke

919 Mount Elliot Ave. 
Staunton, VA 24401 
540/324-2721 

About

Beginning with a broad liberal arts education that included music theory, the sciences, political science, and art history, I have written over 1000 indexes for books, journals, and abstracts since 1994. Publishers tend to use my services more than once and, at times, work their projects around my schedule.

I know the publishing process and its various standards, style guides, deadlines, and submission formats. Indexer Pilar Wyman and I developed and presented a workshop on Indexing Style Guides to the American Medical Writers Association and to the annual conference of the American Society for Indexing.

Since conventions evolve over time, I stay current by participating in professional workshops and conferences.

The author is the subject expert. I am an indexing expert. Although an author is naturally concerned that the index will contain the subjects covered in the book, the author need not do anything to ensure this. That's the indexer's job. I read the entire book and consider each section of each page to determine what needs to be included. In short, it's unnecessary to supply a list of terms to be included: I will find them.

I subscribe to and have written on various topics for Key Words (Bulletin of the American Society for Indexing). I participate in Internet forums where indexing is discussed by an international group of indexers and to others about how to use the latest software to achieve the results our clients require.

I served the Mid- and South-Atlantic Chapter of the American Society for Indexing (MSA/ASI) as an officer in various capacities. I served as chair of the ASI/H.W. Wilson Award committee to honor excellence in indexing for indexes published in 2005 and served as a judge of that same committee for indexes published in 2004 and 2006. I also served as treasurer of the Gardening/Environmental Studies Special Interest Group of the American Society for Indexing. In recent years I have been the registrar for the ASI Excellence in Indexing Award commitee.