Words by Haught

12/06/2022

Misty has come to our house to stay. I can't get a good shot of her face as she never holds still.

09/01/2022

The cat melted.

08/26/2021

I'm not good at keeping things posted here. But I'm alive, active and mostly recovered from the surgery! Talk to me if you have a project and are looking for a bid!

09/01/2018

Today is the last day for An Essential World History! I love my job!

11/08/2017

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”
― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

10/19/2017

Books on finding a new job after a mid-career layoff and an English textbook this week. Next week is N**i Germany and cancer research. I love my job!

09/16/2017

I'm stuck home this weekend. Hubby is at work. Might as well index! I'm working on a book called Understanding Food. Lots of great information about calories, nutritional values, chemistry of food and more. I mean, who doesn't love food?

06/23/2017

Dancing nekkid in the street! (OK, my living room and I'm wearing jeans, my inlaws are here!) My new webpage is finally up. I've entered this century! Check it out at wordsbyhaught.com and let me know how it looks!

01/24/2017

So I'm in that weird place where I have a couple of books that have "slipped" deadline. I don't want to add a new book to my calendar because you know I'll end up overbooked. In the meantime, I have too much time on my hands and no excuse not to market.

10/21/2016

So a couple of weeks ago I received a file called "Death at the Little Bighorn for Indexer". Today I receive a file called "How Churchill Saved Civilation for Indexer". I'm starting to feel rather important! LOL

09/12/2016

This week: old issues of Sun Magazine for the online indexing project; a Guide to Marketing for photographers and Pamunkey Neighborhood. I love the variety of my work!

08/14/2016

I'm working on a book called Bulletins from Dallas. It's a good read. But it makes me feel very old. I remember watching Kennedy's shooting and death on TV that day, Nov. 22, 1963. Sigh. I was 6 and didn't really understand it all at the time.

05/18/2016

Dianna:

Congratulations! We are excited and proud to announce, "Organics: It's All About the Money!" by Hiram M. Drache has received Honorable Mention in the 2016 Eric Hoffer Book Awards.

This link will take you to the home page: http://www.hofferaward.com/

This link will take you to the reference award winners: http://www.hofferaward.com/Eric-Hoffer-Award-winners.html…

We will be doing a full news release; just waiting for the official copy to come from Hoffer Award people to include it the attached draft.

Again, this is “breaking news” as of Noon EST today and you needed to know…since you’re the mastermind behind the index!

Thank you for your part in helping us obtain this honor.

Al Krysan

Eric Hoffer Book Award - for the Small, Academic & Independent Press

03/20/2016

It's amazing how many freelancers in publishing are kept by cats.

12/01/2015

Last week's book was on the Bay of Pigs. This week I'm working on a book on reality show tv contracts. The Sun magazine online indexing project is still going strong. What an amazing and varied life I lead!

10/05/2015

Office cat and I are having an argument. I think finishing the index on The History of War in Pakistan is important. He thinks it's important to lay on my arm.

09/12/2015

Next week will be about organic farming, Creole language in Portugal and business management of hospitals. I live a fun and varied life!

02/06/2015

This week is all about Girls with Autism and King Tut and Lord Carnarvon. I have the best job in the world.

01/21/2015

I'm working on a book that deals with sand tray therapy and kids. My
favorite entry ever: Iceburg metaphor, and Frozen children, xx

01/21/2015

Day 3: I dump the index and start over. It's frustrating but sometimes it's better to admit it's crap and dump it than to try to fix it.

Once I dumped the structure I was trying to force the index into and let the book determine the structure, the pages begin to flow. I'll end today on schedule and with a better index. Win-win!

01/12/2015

With much trepidation, and after studying my business goals and practices, I decided to give myself a raise this year and charge .25 more per page for new clients and projects but holding to the old pricing for projects already in the works. I'm also tightening up on when I'm charging rush fees. I haven't raised my price in over 10 years, but groceries have gone up considerably in that time.

The overall trend has been for indexes prices to drop, with the entrance of Indian indexers on the market who can afford to charge less for the same work. I worried that I might lose a client or a project from the raise or the ground would open up and swallow me or something.

So far, no one has seemed to notice, except me, when I invoice.

01/07/2015

It's been a strange 2 weeks of waiting. Both of the books that were supposed to be in my hands by now have gone past the due date. I have another one that was due in Nov. that isn't here yet. This is a thing that happens sometimes for many different reasons and one learns to go with the flow. But it's odd that I'm dealing with three hanging projects and no income. :(

10/10/2014

My books for the weekend: one on neuroscience and the other on the economics of the Inland Empire (an area of Southern CA). I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I get paid to read! And truthfully, I love writing indexes.
The loom is warped and bookmark 121 is half done. And the puppy now knows "shake". I feel accomplished.

06/27/2014

I had planned to go camping with some friends this weekend and do fiber stuff. It would have been fun. But this morning a client contacted me and offered me large amounts of money to write a book index for him. Basically, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse! I'm thrilled and flattered to know that he thinks so highly of my work!

The bottom line is, I can be bought and I'm not feeling like it's a totally bad thing.

06/07/2014

I love it when the author sends me a portfolio copy of the book with a thank you note and with my name in the credits. I think it's a really classy way of showing that they really do like my work and appreciate what I've done for their book.
And, seeing my name in print just never gets old.

05/17/2014

Ugh. Request from potential client for resume, listing of books indexed and samples of indexes. I realized that I hadn't updated in 6 months and found myself updating my resume before I'd properly fortified with tea. I'm not awake enough before noon to be a thinking human being, I'm just up and moving around and doing stuff. (Doing stuff includes answering email and using the stove to make tea. That should worry someone.)

On the up side, I'm getting enough interest in my marking materials to have clients inquiring about my work history. This is the second nibble in 3 days. I must be doing something right.

05/14/2014

I am working this week on a book on Women Healers from around the world and another on S*x, Love and DNA, discussing mind and body connection and how our DNA affects our moods in our everyday lives, including how we respond to treatment of illnesses. There's a nice balanced synchronicity there!

I excited by both books! It's a good week. And a long weekend.

04/10/2014

This week's books are on the jazz musician Sun Ra and companion planting. I love it when the work is so interesting. I've been listening to jazz while working to get in the groove of the material!

Now, if I could be over my head cold and have free time to get out and garden while the sun shines!

03/22/2014

That moment when, after several frustrating attempts remove it, you realize that the period that you are trying to edit out is actually a bit of dust on your screen. :(

03/12/2014

I'm very excited about my new clients: Veterans for Compassionate Care! Thank you.

02/05/2014

I'm thinking about making my new marketing campaign go something like this: Here's a picture of my rabbit. His name is Thumper. Please send me work so I can continue to buy him carrots and rabbit chow.

01/15/2014

First world problems: my TARDIS usb hub started misreading flash drives and I had to get a new one. Since I use the usb hub primarily to store files for work, does this mean it's tax deductable?

12/11/2013

My husband calls indexing an occult science because there are so many rules and exceptions. (The rules are more like guidelines, you know.) I expect that when I talk to him about things like controlled taxonomies and subheadings and the like, what he hears is the teacher's voice on Charlie Brown cartoons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFPXQkZE6hA

Just a funny use of the Trumpet with a mute.....Charlie Brown classic talking with the teachers

11/29/2013

I wish someone would give me a book to work on this weekend. Otherwise, I may be inclined to shop. LOL Generally, Nov. and Dec. are my slow months and I'd be happy to forego a rush fee in order to get an extra job showing up in my email for next week.

11/06/2013

Because a couple of people have asked: although the terms copyediting and proofreading tend to be used interchangeably, they really are different processes. Proofreading is reading against a proof copy. A proof copy is a final typeset product ready to go to the printer. In the old days proofreading was done on a paper copy of the book. Now all the proofreading I've done has been on a pdf. The proofreader reads the proof against the author's manuscript to make sure the two copies match up (pages aren't out of order) and to catch typos.

Copyediting is done in earlier stages of the book. The copyeditor checks a doc file in Word for mistakes and makes corrections, usually tracking changes, on the doc before the manuscript is converted to proof form. Copyediting can be as light as just checking for misspellings and typos or can be more involved with suggested word changes, and grammar checks as well as misspellings and typos. Editing is a different skill and there are several different levels of editing. (But that's a different post.)

Generally, when I proofread, I try to get a second reader, one of us reading the manuscript and the other the proof but I can proof using two screens. When I'm copyediting, I run the doc first through spell check on Word, and, if I'm doing a deeper copyedit, through PerfectIt (a Word Add-on program), making notes on the side (on a piece of paper) of things I want to recheck. Then I begin "eyeballing it" - that is reading for things the programs miss. Most material gets read twice.

If these sound like skills you want to develop, I suggest you start with the Editorial Freelancers Association: http://www.the-efa.org/

PS Facebook thinks copyedit as one word is wrong, but it's correct although the spellings copy edit and copy-edit are also correct. This is why you need to learn the rules and not depend on grammar and spell checks.

10/07/2013

Smart, funny, hard working bob indexer looking for trade editor with style. Lets make beautiful words together!