Professional book indexing service

Indexes done right, and done fast.

A professional indexer with 25+ years' experience creates your back-of-book index for you — no software to learn, no AI output to clean up yourself. Send your manuscript and receive a clean, publication-ready index.

Led by an MLIS indexer with 5,500+ indexes since 1999 · Trusted with unpublished manuscripts

Two decades of indexes for leading publishers
MIT Press Princeton University Press Columbia University Press Cornell University Press SAGE Publications Taylor & Francis Elsevier University of Illinois Press

How it works

Three simple steps from manuscript to finished index.

1

Send us your book

Upload your PDF and a few instructions — style, depth, any must-include terms, and your deadline.

2

We create your index

A professional indexer builds and refines your index — using modern tools to work faster, never to replace the judgment a good index needs.

3

You get it back

Delivered in your preferred format — Word, RTF, or embedded — ready to typeset and publish.

Two ways to work with us

Both are done for you by a professional indexer — choose the depth and speed your project needs.

Express Index

Faster and more affordable, for tight deadlines and budgets — still done and checked by a professional.

from $1.50/page
Turnaround: 24–48 hours
  • AI-accelerated, reviewed by a professional
  • A clean, usable index at a lower price
  • Ideal for tight deadlines & self-publishing
  • Done for you — no tools to learn
  • Delivered in your chosen format
Choose Express

Priced by indexable page count; minimum project fees apply. Submit your book and we'll confirm your exact quote before any payment — no surprises.

A seasoned indexer behind every professional index

Clear Indexing is run by a professional book indexer with a Master's in Library & Information Science (MLIS) and more than 5,500 completed indexes since 1999. Over 25 years, we've indexed for many of the world's leading university presses and publishers, across health and medicine, law and political science, history, sociology, business and economics, the arts, psychology, and technical fields.

Software can extract words; it takes a professional to build an index — deciding what matters, how concepts connect, and how a reader will actually look things up. Every index we deliver is created and refined by an experienced indexer, so you hand off a manuscript and get back a finished index, not a draft to fix yourself.

5,500+
Indexes completed
Since 1999
25+ years indexing
MLIS
Master of Library & Info. Science
13+
Subject specialties

Your manuscript stays private

  • Unpublished work is handled in strict confidence and never shared.
  • Processed via Anthropic's Claude API, which does not use your content to train AI models.
  • Project files are deleted after delivery, or on request.
  • Every index is produced with AI assistance and, on the Professional tier, human editing.

Selected work

A representative selection from 270+ recent titles, indexed across a wide range of scholarly and trade subjects.

Health & Medicine Nursing Law & Political Science History Sociology & Social Issues Business & Economics Psychology Arts & Media Literature & Linguistics Education Science & Technology Religion & Philosophy Technical Manuals
These Truths (Vols. 1–2)
Jill Lepore
The European Guilds
Princeton University Press
Making Space for the Dead
Cornell University Press
Preparing Dinosaurs
MIT Press
Dictionary Wars
Princeton University Press
Save Venice Inc.
University of Massachusetts Press

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between the two options?

Both are done for you by a professional — the difference is depth. The Express Index is AI-accelerated with a professional's review: quick and affordable. The Professional Index is built and perfected by hand — merged concepts, subentries, cross-references, and your style applied throughout — the standard for a published book.

How are you different from AI indexing tools?

AI tools hand you a raw draft and leave the reviewing, fixing, and formatting to you. Clear Indexing is a service, not software: an experienced indexer does the work for you and stands behind the result. There's nothing to learn, upload and troubleshoot, or clean up — you simply receive a finished index. Weighing your options? See our guide: How to hire a professional book indexer.

How do you price a project?

By indexable page count. Submit your book through the form and we'll confirm the exact quote before you pay anything, so there are no surprises. For typical rates and what affects them, see our guide: How much does a book index cost?

What formats can you deliver?

Word, RTF, plain text, or an embedded index — just tell us what your typesetter or publisher needs.

Is my unpublished manuscript safe?

Yes. Your file is used solely to create your index, handled in strict confidence, processed through a service that does not train on your content, and deleted after delivery.

What kinds of books do you index?

Scholarly and academic titles, nonfiction, technical manuals, cookbooks, memoirs, and more. Tell us your subject area in the form and we'll confirm fit.

Ready for your index?

Send us your manuscript and instructions. We'll reply with a quote and a delivery date — usually within a few hours.

Start your index