Although indexers are great resources for each other and often help one another, the field is very competitive. The average response rate is 2 or 3 to 100 letters sent, said Mucciarone. And those aren't even necessarily positive responses. The University Press of Florida, the press that serves the public universities of the state's university system, relies on 5 or 6 regular indexers. Mucciarone, a receptionist by day and indexer by night, speculated it takes three to five years before you can index full-time.
Some people start and get discouraged.
If you're able to make a success of it, it'd be a wonderful thing to do.