Notes on work and practice.

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

A good index advocates for the reader from inside the author’s world. It enters the book’s conceptual system—its terms, its distinctions, its way of approaching its subject—and builds a structure that lets readers find their way through it.

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 selected 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.

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 and experimental practices. An index is information architecture for a book, built around how readers look for meaning.

Cookbook indexing is its own specialty. A cookbook index has to anticipate how cooks actually search (by ingredient, by technique, by what’s in the fridge, by memory). It also asks for cultural knowledge: that semolina is central to southern Italian cooking, that chilies define Sichuan, Hunan, and Guizhou cuisines, that fatback, salt pork, and streak o’ lean are often interchangeable in Appalachian kitchens.

Indexes are prepared in Cindex. I work from PDFs of 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. I can sometimes do tighter schedules without a rush fee. For cookbooks and illustrated books, timing depends on structure and is quoted per project. Rates are quoted per project on request.