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Sue Goodman Portrait

Recent months have seen me provide indexes for Cambridge University Press, Manchester University, Unicorn Publishing, Routledge, Thames and Hudson, I.B. Taurus, Palgrave Macmillan, Quarto, Quid, Icon Books and others. I have a varied knowledge and experience from a background of full-time teaching and tutoring. This, together with other interests, means that I am especially capable of indexing books on;

  • Child development
  • Study guides and text books
  • Children's books
  • Natural history
  • Earth science
  • Environmental issues
  • Cookery, food science and nutrition
  • Handicrafts - especially knitting and dress-making
  • Cornwall
  • Anything on drama


An effective index is much more than just a collection of terms or nouns listed in a book. I always place myself in the position of the reader and ask two questions

  1. What is the reader likely to look for?
  2. If there is an entry in the index, will they be directed to something useful?

I aim to produce indexes that are truly user-friendly, taking into account all the themes and concepts, both explicit and implied and ensure these are readily accessible.

I can supply a traditional back of the book or an embedded index (Rich Text rtf, MS Word, Adobe InDesign, XML, idml.)

In addition to the Society of Indexers Code of Professional Conduct, I have high professional standards and understand the need for accuracy, reliability and delivery within agreed deadlines.

I have received this kind appreciation of my work from the authors Karen Dean and Sam Hunphrey
"The index was awesome. A gorgeous and fascinating exploration of the language content."