From indexwest@mindspring.com Wed May 6 08:33:28 1998 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id IAA63842 for ; Wed, 6 May 1998 08:33:28 -0700 Received: from camel8.mindspring.com (camel8.mindspring.com [207.69.200.58]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id IAA16374 for ; Wed, 6 May 1998 08:33:08 -0700 Received: from LOCALNAME (pool-207-205-175-139.snfr.grid.net [207.205.175.139]) by camel8.mindspring.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id LAA12800 for ; Wed, 6 May 1998 11:33:22 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.3.16.19980506083124.3fc7dd2c@mindspring.com> X-Sender: indexwest@mindspring.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.3 (16) Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 08:31:24 To: index-nw@u.washington.edu From: "Kari J. Bero" Subject: Re: newbie In-Reply-To: <354D3A5E.7BE2@prodigy.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Shelly, my experience is much like Carolyn's and I hear it is typical. It took about 6 months after my first round of cold-query notes to land my first paying client. Then about another 6-9 months for the second. I made about $5000 the first year, $10,000 the second, $15,000 in the third.... So, it does take a while. Now, I know folks who dove in and who immediately began making a comfortable living - when you know the right folks or target the right publishers, you can get going much faster. When you think of starting an indexing career like you'd think of starting any new professional career, it's actually a better deal. You don't have to invest time or huge amounts of money (thousands of dollars) in grad school (or for some careers you'd only need a Bachelor's I guess). By the time you are making a living as an indexer, other folks switching careers are still in school and are still racking up quite a bit of money in loans (that they'll work to pay off for years and years after they _have_ begun working in the new career). Oh, and your expenses are tax deductible. If you get your business license before you sign up for a class, the fees are tax deductible (as are the licensing fees). Remember, your business doesn't actually have to make money for two years (or is it three). If you get just one indexing project in the first year, you can deduct all your expenses. Wish I could deduct my student loans from the income I make as library faculty! However, this is almost a mute point since most folks who end up sticking with indexing seem to know that they'd be unhappy doing anything else after they've found indexing. You try indexing, wonder where it's been all your life, and spend every moment building or expanding your client base. While every moment working on another career is like pulling teeth now, and you hear yourself thinking "I could be at home in my slippers, drinking a warm cup of tea, with the cat on my lap, listening to _my_ music, and indexing". 8-) But most of us endure a part-time job or career to supplement the slowly building indexing business. I'd say invest the money in a course to try indexing. If it is right for you, you won't have these hesitations - you'll have one of two reactions: (1) you'll know you won't do anything else because you are a natural indexer, or (2) you'll hate it and you'll move on to another career option. Hope this rambling helps. 8-) -Kari -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Kari J. Bero Bero-West Indexing Services indexwest@mindspring.com www.mindspring.com/~indexwest/ 3722 Beach Drive SW, Suite 101 Seattle, WA 98116-3000 206-937-3673 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- At 08:47 PM 5/3/98 -0700, you wrote: >I hope I know what I'm doing here. I'd like to put a question out to >indexers in the NW. I think indexing work would be perfect for me and my >family, but I'm afraid to spend the money on a course, only to find out >it's nearly impossible to get work as a brand new indexer. Could anyone >give me the straight skinny on breaking into the business? Thank you. > >Shelly Pavlacky > .