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I know you try to index as many new cookbooks as you can, many even before the release date. I have purchased several recently that are new releases but were not indexed and don't appear that they will be. I was just wondering, for new releases, how is the decision made what to index and what not to index?

Thank you.

Hi Marci -- I can respond from a purely logistical perspective. Sometimes, the decision about which new and forthcoming titles to index comes down to whether we can obtain books from publishers on PDF (including pre-release/advance versions) or in hard copy. Obviously, PDF's are easier for us to work from, as they can be assigned to any of our pro indexing team regardless of where they're located -- our pro indexers live in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Once a new title is published, our indexers have to be able to find a copy in their library systems, often a long wait for popular books. If there are specific new titles you're wondering about, send me a list ([email protected]) and I'll be happy to check on their status.

Originally Posted by: Deborah

Hi Marci -- I can respond from a purely logistical perspective. Sometimes, the decision about which new and forthcoming titles to index comes down to whether we can obtain books from publishers on PDF (including pre-release/advance versions) or in hard copy. Obviously, PDF's are easier for us to work from, as they can be assigned to any of our pro indexing team regardless of where they're located -- our pro indexers live in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Once a new title is published, our indexers have to be able to find a copy in their library systems, often a long wait for popular books. If there are specific new titles you're wondering about, send me a list ([email protected]) and I'll be happy to check on their status.

Thank you. Here is a list of some of the newer ones I've added that were published in the last 1 1/2 years that I was surprised weren't indexed.

Delish: Insane Sweets

The Bacon Bible

Christmas: Feasts and Treats (Donna Hay)

From Crook to Cook - Platinum Recipes from The Boss Dogg's Kitchen (Snoop Dogg)

Delish: Eat Like Every Day's the Weekend

The Family Table: Recipes and Moments from a Nomadic Life

Originally Posted by: whitewoods

I was just wondering ... if you're talking about new releases not yet indexed, how did you come to the conclusion that they "don't appear that they will be"? I guess most of the new books that I've purchased I'm usually expectant that they will be indexed, and I haven't been disappointed yet. The one thing I do find a little odd about the decision-making regarding what to index is when I often see new titles on very few bookshelves that have been indexed. I realize that if it's a newly published title that number may go up dramatically in a short time, but like sometimes I see an professionally indexed book that was published over a year ago and still is only on less than 20 bookshelves, and it seems odd that a more popular title wasn't indexed instead. But maybe Deborah's response already answers this question.

Yes, I thought that because at this point there are newer titles getting indexed. Then if they are going by how many requests it gets, because it's a newer title, it might never get enough requests. I have older books that are on 100-200 or more bookshelves that aren't indexed. Maybe I'm incorrect in assuming, but it doesn't seem possible that everything new that comes out can be indexed, so it appeared that some just get passed up.

As Deborah says, a major part of the decision about which new books to index is dependent on how helpful the publisher is. Publishers who supply us with copies of books we want to index (PDF or print copies) will have their book indexes up on publication day and are more likely to get less mainstream cookbooks indexed. Publishers who do not supply us with books will have their books indexed later (as Deborah explained, it takes a while to get popular books from the library). It is rather hard to understand why a publisher would not want ALL their cookbooks indexed. Jenny works very hard to get every important cookbook in advance but she is reliant on the publicists responding.

MarciK - you list the books you own that you are surprised are not yet indexed. I can guarantee you that if every other member listed their books that they would like to see indexed, each list would be different. We do understand that all members would like all their books to be indexed but you all own different books. It costs us on average 5 years of a member's fees to index each book so it is never going to be possible to index every new book published. I can give you specific answers for the books you listed:

Delish: Insane Sweets - none of the Delish books have been very popular with members, with the exception of Delish: Eat Like Every Day's the Weekend which should be indexed soon. 

The Bacon Bible - only 18 members have bought this book since it was published in April.

Christmas: Feasts and Treats (Donna Hay) - we do index most of Donna Hay's cookbooks. This one hasn't proved as popular as her other Christmas book but it is likely we will index this one at some point.

From Crook to Cook - this book was published more than a year ago but is on only 36 Bookshelves.

The Family Table: Recipes and Moments from a Nomadic Life - this book was published more than 18 months ago but is only 18 Bookshelves.

Don't forget that member indexing is available for any of these books you are very keen to get into your recipe searches!

Ok, well Deborah asked which books I was wondering about, so excuse me for responding.

Also, the question comes because of others that are indexed while new such as: Anatolia: Adventures in Turkish Eating (on 4 bookshelves) Vegan Bible (5 bookshelves) Deborah already addressed this reason however.

Please be assured that we are always trying to provide the best service for the most number of members. Anatolia is actually on 167 Bookshelves - one edition is on 4 but when combined with the other three it is well over our indexing threshold. The edition on 4 Bookshelves was only published today so it is not really surprising that one is only owned by 4 members. 

The Vegan Bible is from an independent publisher, Grub Street, that we are working with on other books so we are indexing most of their new output, hoping to introduce their wonderful books to more EYB members.

Hi again Marci -- You might not have noticed this but the 2019 edition of Anatolia that was just indexed and is only on 4 Bookshelves is a revised edition of the 2015 first edition, already indexed on EYB and on 149 Bookshelves. In this case, we were able to save time and money by copying the existing 2015 Anatolia index over to the new edition and then assigning it to an indexer (from the publisher-supplied advance PDF) to update and reflect the new edition's content. So sometimes when you see a newly indexed title go up that doesn't appear to be very popular yet, it's a similar situation of creatively maximizing our limited indexing resources.