Sep 19, · Turning your PhD into a book is a mark of success in many disciplines, especially the humanities. Many people pursue this goal immediately upon finishing their PhD as part of an overall academic career strategy. I didn't have to, because I already had a job and I wanted to start building a research reputation in Estimated Reading Time: 8 mins Between either end of that publishing spectrum there is an array of options to consider when it comes to disseminating PhD research: Converting the entire PhD thesis into a book requires that your thesis covers a topic of interest to a large enough Using parts of a PhD thesis in a book requires Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins May 07, · If you believe that your PhD thesis has the potential to be a book that would interest readers beyond the circle of your close family and friends, then it’s time to turn it into a publishable manuscript. Here are some ideas you may consider: Decide what type of audience you want to
How to turn your PhD into a book – The Thesis Whisperer
Turning your Phd thesis into a book into a book is a mark of success in many disciplines, especially the humanities. Many people pursue this goal immediately upon finishing their PhD as part of an overall academic career strategy. I feel like a bit of a fraud because I am sort of writing about something I have never done… However, Thong, the husband of one of my PhD students, Nguyen pointed out that I have been involved with five published books, with two more in the pipeline.
You can thank Thong for convincing me I am experienced enough to give you a useful outline of the academic publishing process, so here we go.
As it turned out, I knew much more than I thought. I encourage you to write in with more questions. I know many established academics read the blog and I hope some of you will write in with further advice in the comments! First of all, just because doing a book is prestigious CV addition, do you really need to write one? Doing a book is a HUGE time commitment, even if you start with a copy-edited dissertation manuscript.
If you want to get your research out there for people to use, it might make more sense to write a series of blog posts, do a self-published ebook, a documentary film or exhibition. Or just leave the manuscript in your university library where it can be downloaded for free. PhD dissertations are the most downloaded type of document in many university research repositories so … do nothing. Your work will still have the potential to reach people who are interested, phd thesis into a book.
Some disciplines, like history, produce research with commercial potential. A mass market publication has less academic snob value, but trust me: having a book that actually sells enough to give you a hefty royalty cheque is super satisfying! Locating an academic publisher is actually a lot simpler than most people think: just look at the spines of the books on yourself and do some Googling.
Have a look on the website for instructions to authors about how to get in touch — and just… do it. Generally the person selling books will either have a role as a scout, or be able to call in the person who is there for that purpose, phd thesis into a book. Once they seem willing to talk, phd thesis into a book, ask what kind of works they are interested in publishing.
If their general interest seems to align with the work you have in mind, try out a short I mean two sentence pitch for your book idea and ask if it sounds interesting. Last year I did this at a conference and got a business card, which I then followed up with an email, very successfully.
Smart publishers are always on the look out for new work, so you might find they approach you. Anyone who promises to publish your PhD without changes is highly suspect. While some advisors will still tell you not to put your dissertation in the insitution repository, some publishers use this as a place to identify potential books and will approach you. Or, you could start a blog — if you manage to generate enough of a readership to be noticed, they will find you, trust me, phd thesis into a book.
Book publishing, especially academic publishing, is a marginal business. Even boutique academic publishing outfits, phd thesis into a book, who employ three people, are not charities. Publishers are interested in one thing above all others: selling books.
Your mileage may vary, but I always prefer to get phd thesis into a book publisher invested in the idea before I go to the trouble of writing a whole proposal. You might get a few knock backs before someone is interested. Write a cover letter to your contact, or the email listed on the site for this purpose, with a short pitch for the book, clearly signalling the intended audience and why you are the best person to write it.
If you have already published papers or, better still, blog posts, you can include some circulation numbers to demonstrate people might buy it. For example, here is a short excerpt from the pitch letter I recently wrote to a small, but well known academic publisher:. We cannot keep up with the requests for talks about our research and there is particularly intense interest from the community in the methods. I think now would be an ideal time to get something to market and your methods series format is perfect, phd thesis into a book.
My approach here was to leverage the existing interest in our research work to demonstrate there was already a market. I now need to convince the publisher that I am the one to get it to market. Having a successful blog is a huge advantage here, but this is a co-authored book. As I understand it, this happens often enough for publishers to be understandably skittish.
The best way to prove you can write together is… to already have written together. So I followed with this paragraph to soothe their fears:. Hanna could bring her 15 years of experience as a computer scientist working. Will works in science communications and, in addition to being a good writer, is used to working across disciplinary boundaries…. This letter got me an almost immediate request to submit a full proposal, phd thesis into a book.
What questions are in your mind? Or do you have any experience of the publishing process you would like to share? Love to hear from you in the comments. How to make an index for your book or dissertation. Love the Thesis whisperer and want it to continue?
I was quite surprised to hear that my superivosr suggested to the 4th year PhD guy in our lab, that instead of publishing his results from his PhD on a scientific paper he might do that as a chapter in a book.
But this suggestion came up because our PI was not satisfied with his results… I believe that this comes into contradiction with all the above mentioned, which by the way I totally agree with.
Zafar Iqbal Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, Mobile No.
Thank you for your excellent post. As you said, turning your PhD to a book is a huge time investment. Chapter 3 of the book specifically guides you on how to do this. I just completed my PhD in Leadership with some excellent ideas and wanted to turn it into a book.
How to present the methodology and data analysis techniques in a way that would appeal to non-academics? September 19, September 19, Image by Sharon McCutheon on Unsplash. Share this: Print More Phd thesis into a book Facebook Twitter Pocket Reddit LinkedIn Tumblr Telegram WhatsApp. Like this: Like Loading Finishing a PhD … and starting a Masters degree? Dealing with administrative grief.
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Pingback: How to turn your PhD into a book — part two - Top Essay Writing. Pingback: How to turn your PhD into a book — part three — Getting things done. Pingback: How to turn your PhD into a book — part two — Getting things done. Pingback: Who needs an editor? The Thesis Whisperer.
Please let me know the following: Is it free for authors and no hidden charges? How can I collect the royalties of my thesis? How much percent royalty do you pay to authors?
Thanks a lot. Looking forward to your attention. Regards, Dr. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Send to Email Address Your Name Your Email Address Cancel Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
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Turning Your Dissertation into a Book or Monograph
, time: 3:53Eight Tips for Turning Your PhD Thesis into a Book – Sydney University Press
Sep 19, · Turning your PhD into a book is a mark of success in many disciplines, especially the humanities. Many people pursue this goal immediately upon finishing their PhD as part of an overall academic career strategy. I didn't have to, because I already had a job and I wanted to start building a research reputation in Estimated Reading Time: 8 mins May 07, · If you believe that your PhD thesis has the potential to be a book that would interest readers beyond the circle of your close family and friends, then it’s time to turn it into a publishable manuscript. Here are some ideas you may consider: Decide what type of audience you want to For PhD conversions, we need to see how you have revised the thesis to become a book: please provide 2 or 3 sample chapters. Sometimes a publisher may want to see the full thesis. Structure the proposal according to the publishers’ guidelines: usually on the publishers’ website and it’s always worth checking as they do vary
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