About.

Matthew MacLellan is a back-of-the-book indexer in Canada, near the ocean. He writes indexes for scholarly publishing, art publishing, trade nonfiction, and cookbooks, with particular depth in art history, critical theory, queer and gender studies, and religious studies.

A good index thinks in the world of the author and advocates for the reader. It enters the book’s conceptual system—its terms, its distinctions, its way of cutting up its subject—and builds a structure that lets readers find their way through it. The author’s thought and the reader’s search are rarely in the same shape. Translating between them is the work.

His indexes have been published by Cornell University Press, De Gruyter, Duke University Press, McGill-Queen’s University Press, MIT Press, Oxford University Press, Penguin Random House Canada, Stanford University Press, the University of Chicago Press, the University of Toronto Press, and the University Press of Kentucky, among others. A full list of indexed titles is available on the Work page.

I work mostly independently. Some authors send a preliminary list of terms they’d like considered. I’d rather read fresh from the proofs, but if you’ve already made a list, I’ll look it over and pull what’s useful.

I work from page proofs, follow press and CMOS guidelines, and send you a draft of the index about a week before it’s due at the publisher, so you have time to review and request revisions. (Sometimes timelines don’t allow for that: I’ll let you know up front if they don’t.) I handle revisions with you before the final index file gets sent to the press.

You know your subject; I know indexing. Most of my author conversations happen on the draft: marginal notes, Track Changes, email back-and-forth. If you’d prefer a Zoom call, I’m happy to have one; I don’t require it.

My core indexing training was a one-on-one mentorship with Kari Kells, longtime indexer, teacher, and co-author of Inside Indexing: The Decision-Making Process. I’ve also trained through the Indexing Society of Canada’s mentorship program under Christine Jacobs (John Abbott College) and the University of Chicago Editing Program’s introductory copyediting course, along with many American Society for Indexing webinars, including extended offerings on art book indexing and culinary indexing.

I served for two years on the TIDE (The Inclusion, Diversity and Equity) committee of the Indexing Society of Canada, and was a runner-up for the ISC/SCI TIDE Diversity in Canadian Publishing Bursary.

Cookbooks are where this work began for me. Good cookbook indexing isn’t mechanical. It asks which ingredients carry cultural weight, which techniques organize a cuisine, whether a dish’s name is best rendered in its original language or translated. I bring years of cookbook reading and the cultural literacy to make those decisions with care.

Before indexing, I worked in UX and information architecture. My background is also in visual culture and contemporary art history, with attention to moving image, experimental practices, and how images become arguments. An index is information architecture for a book, built around how readers look for meaning. Both sensibilities continue to shape how I work.

Indexes are prepared in CINDEX. Manuscripts are accepted as PDFs, Word documents, or final page proofs; indexes are delivered in RTF, Word, or any format the press requires.

Typical turnaround for a 300-page monograph is three to four weeks from receipt of final proofs, though tighter schedules can sometimes be accommodated without rush fees. For cookbooks and illustrated books, timing depends on structure and is quoted per project. Rates are quoted per project on request.

For indexing inquiries, please email matthew@matthewmaclellan.com.

When writing, it helps to include: the book’s title and subject, approximate page count, whether page proofs are final or forthcoming, your target delivery date, and the publisher.