Nicholas (Nick) Chown

Location: Cradley Heath

Membership Grade: Professional Member

Contact Info

General Experience

I am an experienced indexer who enjoys the intellectual exercise that indexing involves. I work on back-of-the-book indexes for texts in a wide range of subject areas including philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, other therapies, autism, and neurodiversity. I have also indexed books in areas such as corporate management, risk management (I am a former corporate risk manager), accounting, insurance, and social sciences and the humanities.

I have a highly professional approach to my work, always meeting submission deadlines. My indexes are compiled with both the requirements of clients and readers at the forefront of my mind at all times. I consider my indexes to be the equivalent of readerly texts in being designed for straightforward consumption by readers whilst reflecting the complexity of the text.

Having always been a voracious reader, I like to work on new books in areas I have not come across previously as this enables me to access books that I would otherwise not get to read; however, as I am an autism/neurodiversity specialist and academic as well as an indexer, my first love is to combine my autism/neurodiversity and indexing specialisms!

In addition to the qualifications listed separately, I would be entitled to accounting and insurance qualifications had I maintained my membership of the relevant professional bodies.

Please note that I do not undertake embedded or tagged indexes (as I feel that the technical aspects of these types of indexing detract from the intellectual exercise that I enjoy so much). I try to avoid indexing STEM subjects.

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Recommendations

Nick Chown produces excellent indexes. He really understands that an index is not simply a list of words that the reader may find useful; it is rather a conceptual guide to the structuring of ideas that the author brought to their work. A good index uses cross referencing and nesting of terms to enable the reader to find the overarching context within which a given idea was explored in the book. Not only does Nick appreciate these subtleties but also, in my experience, he goes beyond the direct task to liaise with the author and ensure that the job is completed to their full satisfaction. I recommend him highly.

Professor Emeritus B. Les Lancaster, Dean at Alef Trust, Hon Research Fellow, Dept of Religions and Theology, University of Manchester.

Writing books can be a stressful experience – I’ve written eight solo ones, and having Dr Chown as the indexer is by far the best aspect of the process. I’ve said to him before that his indexes are the best part of the books; he thinks I’m joking – I’m not. Easily the best recommendation I can make is to have him add to your work.

Dr Luke Beardon, Senior Lecturer in Autism, The Autism Centre, Sheffield Hallam University

Subjects

Related qualifications

Recent indexes include

Special Publication Type